NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10411, 8 April 1897, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Ovalau left for the Islands. Barque Charles G. Rice arrived from New York direct. The expenses for the Rangitikei Licensing election amounted to nearly £100. Hunterville people are moving in the matter of erecting a cottage hospital There were in the lock-up last evening two persons on charges of drunkenness. An Invercargill man claims to have perfected a machine for dressing flax, and intends to apply for the Government bonus. A senior constable named Hammond has been committed for trial at Sydney for assaulting an unfortunate Domain ''dosser." The Wellington Harbour Board contemplate extending:the reclamation 97 feet wide from the J shed to the foot of Johnston-street for reclamation purposes. A small boy named Garbett, while playing with some other boys at Wellington, was accidentally thrown against a fence and had his forehead cut open. In Ashburton in one instance the claims for old age pensions have been sent in by father, mother, father brother, and two sons of the first named, who are all over the prescribed age. During the month of February the New Zealand . Farmers' Dairy Onion received 241,002 gallons of milk. The amount advanced to suppliers against that quantity was £2788 8s 6d. The Government pomologist, Mr. J. C. Blackmore, who is at present in the South, inclines to the opinion that a disease which has made its appearance in one Southland vinery is phylloxera. At Otaki a boy of 13, William Bird, had to go to gaol for 24 hours the other day, as his father would nut pay a fine of 5s and £2 Is costs inflicted on the boy for giving a girl friend a black eye. Yesterday Constable Murray brought a Maori prisoner named Te Mod down by train from Waikato, who has been sentenced to two months' imprisonment for theft- of powder and shot at Galatea from another native. The Waitaki County Council asks the opinions of other Councils as to the advisability of taxing all bicycles on county roads. The fee for the right to wheel along a county road is to be fixed at £1 per annum. The Pahiatua Herald reports that the prices realised for three shipments of butter, 1116 boxes in all, sent to England by Mr. F. W. B. Greville, ranged from 95s to 103s per cwt., and the account sales show a clear profit of £374. The Government dairy expert, has just visited the Pemberton district, and is very favourably impressed with the prospects for the dairy industry in that part of the Bangitikei. It is proposed to establish a dairy company there. While some cases containing jars of sulphuric acid were being shipped on board the Waihi, for Foxton, at Wellington, one of the jars broke, and the liquid pouring out, caused the case to smoulder. A large volume of smoke was emitted, but a number of bucketsful of salt water quickly prevented any serious damage being done. An Egmont settler who arrived in Hawera late at night with a mob of cattle for sale, and was unable to find a paddock, put them into the public pound, which he found open. The next morning he found the poundkeeper there before him, and he had to pay 40s before he could get his cattle. The S.M. is to decide who is to spend the money. A most brilliant meteor was observed in Wellington on Saturday night, between 11 and 12. It brightened up the whole firmament, and left a long stream of light in its trail; then, exploding with a loud report, scattered a mere profusion of sparks, in mid air. The sight was singularly beautiful, and so dazzling as to cause a momentary feeling of awe to thrill the onlookers. The Rev. R. Waddell, writing on deer stalking in New Zealand, says There are thousands of square miles on the West Coast of the South Island admirably fitted for deer walks, and practically for little else. What this may mean to the colony may be conjectured, when it is known that of the thousands of stags shot every year in Scotland, every one costs the sportsman about £50. a well-known local post office official (says the New Zealand Times) over-zealous in the execution of bis duty, remained on board the Gothic long after the gangway had been let down, and only discovered that be was on the way to England when the steamer was a little distance away from the wharf. The gentleman, however, did not appear to be perturbed, and he was subsequently enabled to disembark by means of the pilot's boat. On Saturday morning a shipwright named William Wilson, while engaged in cutting away the bulwarks of the ship Alameda, at Wellington, was struck heavily on the chest and knocked down by a portion of the bulwarks falling. He received serious injuries and was taken to the hospital, where it was ascertained that the injured man had become paralysed from his waißt downwards and is in a serious condition. A man named John Knox Purvis, who was formerly a barrister and solicitor in Edinburgh, but now reduced to gathering and selling bottles, fell down in a state of collapse at Wellington on Monday. He had entered « yard to borrow a handcart, and while attempting to wheel it out fell prone on the ground. He was taken to the. hospital, and is now somewhat better.