NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10418, 16 April 1897, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Good Friday. Mamari gone South. Richmond arrived from Fiji. 'Frisco mail leaves to-morrow. Upolu left for the Eastern Pacific. Alameda from Sydney this evening. Rotokino due from Newcastle to-day With an English mail. Evangelistic meeting in the Y.M.C.A. rooms this evening at 7.30. The International Syndicate have abandoned all their mining options held in New Zealand. There is some talk of starting a preserved milk factory in Taranaki, probably at Waitara. A lad named Quinnell shot himself in the leg whilst playing with a loaded revolver at Wagga Wagga. The next tournament under the auspices of the Northern Bowling Association is to be held at Napier. During the two months the Mining Exhibition was open in Melbourne it was attended by 50,000 people. Wanganui has subscribed £119 lis Id to the Indian Famine Fund, the Collegiate School contributing £23 14s. The licensee of Pelichet Bay Hotel, Dunedin, was fined 40s and costs for selling liquor to a boy under 13 years of age. Those who distinguished themselves in rescue work in the Stockton colliery disaster will shortly be presented with gold medals.

A shunter, whilst uncoupling carriages attached to the mail train at Orange (New South Wales) the other night, was crushed between two hooks. One of the Westport Harbour Board's cranes has,been purchased for £100, and will, it is understood, be used by the General Exploration Company. In our report in yesterday's issue of the proceedings of the Assessment Court, an error occurred. Mr. J. C. Smith's valuation was reduced from £375 to £320 (not £370). Mr. Samuel Vaile appeared. Two natives of the Rotorua district, Ehau Anaha and Rakau Rawiri, are now in town on their way to Wellington, having been elected as members of the Maori contingent for the Royal celebrations in June next. The examinations held under the supervision of the Board of Pharmacy will commence on or about Wednesday, the 21st instant. It is stated that the usual number of candidates will present themselves. Samples of the vines from the Southland vineries, where disease has manifested itself recently, have been brought to Wellington by Mr. J. C. Blackmore, Government Pomologist, for the purpose of examination.

On Monday morning while two young men were rowing in Evans Bay, Wellington, their boat capsized. Thore was a big sea running at the time, but a yacht which was in the vicinity quickly bore down on the men and rescued them. They were landed at Kilburnie very little the worse for their wetting. A peculiar occurrence happened in Victoria lately. A woman named Mrs. Cole was driving through Maffra, when a swarm of bees alighted on the hone's bead. The animal, which was an old one, immediately lay down and took matters philosophically. A man came to the rescue, and securing a pail of water, douched the bees, and thus frightened them away. The Wellington Post has reason _to believe that the gas required for lighting the railway carriages on the Taranaki, Wellington, and Hawke's Bay sections of the North Island Railways, will be manufactured in Pnlmerston North. The plant is expected from home about the beginning of the summer, and will be fitted up by an expert sent out by the inventor, A most daring feat (says the Wanganui Chronicle) was accomplished on Monday last by Mr. Harry Veoville Edmonds, of the A.M.P. Society, Wellington—viz,, the ascent of Mount Egmonc, with the snow right down to the base. The climb up took four hours, and steps had to be cut in the frozen ice almost the whole distance. The same procedure had to be adopted coming down. Mr. Edmonds was on a bicycling tour from Wellington to New Plymouth.