NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10520, 13 August 1897, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

(fella gone to Fiji. Anglian left for Sydney. The scow Totara has been purchased by Macklowßroa. ■ The Hastings Borough Council propose* to establish public abattoirs. A Roman Catholic Church will probably be erected in Eketahuna before long, Complaint* are made of the insanitary condition of certain places in Eketahana. The waterworks receipts at Palmorston North for the current year are estimated at £1300. At Newman, Forty-Mile Both, last month, it rained on 20 days, the total rain» fall being about 10J inches. The Eketahuna School Committee In* tends to rigidly enforce the compulsory clauses of the Education Act. The sale of the special issue of stamps at Sydney in aid of the proposed consumptive hospital has reached £3000. A number of sheep have been lost near Cambridge Downs, Queensland, apparently through eating some poisonous weed. A hawker named Walker, a man of over 70 years, was found dead near the Nudgee railway station, Queensland, last week. We have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of the timetable for the New Zealand Government railways for the current month. The Towneville Harbour Board has adopted an extensive scheme of harbour improvements, the estimated cost being £200000. One-fourth of the present prison population, Mr. Miller (Under-Secretary for Justice of New South Wales) says, are habitual drunkards. According to statistics published by the South Australian Agricultural Department, viticulture and wine-making are largely on the increase in that colony. A junior porter, named John Garnham, had both his legs almost cut off by a train at Sydenham Station, Sydney, the ether morning, and died shortly afterwards. The Defence Department has set up a Committee of Inquiry to investigate a charge of insubordination against a private in one of the Wellington volunteer corps. The New South Wales Under-Secretary for Justice says that the cost of an institution properly equipped, for the treatment of habitual drunkards, will not be less than £70,000 to £80,000. It has been suggested that if steamers were compelled to carry and use a searchlight in thick weather, the risk of such disasters as the loss of the Tasmania would 13 almost done away with. The Taranaki Petroleum Company has received a new supply of 6in casing. The staff will now remove the Sin casing, and put the 6in down as the drilling proceeds. The depth reached on Wednesday night was 1080 ft.

The authorities of the Waneanui Collegiate School have started an appeal to the Old Boys of the school and others to assist by subscription the erection of a swimming bath and good gymnasium to the school to mark the sixtieth year of too Queen's reign. Hares are becoming very numerous on the Manaia. The other evening a wellknown Masterton cyclist was taking bis usual run, and on passing near the old Manaia racecourse he observed a large hare quietly feeding on the bark of an apple tree.

A package of galvanised iron weighing about scwt fell on a boy named Albert Smith, employed at Messrs. Alexander and Co.'s plumbing works, Wellington, on Saturday last, with the result that his left leg was broken above the knee. He it progressing favourably at the hospital At the Thames Police Court, yesterday, * man named Colin McDonnell was sentenced to 24 hours' imprisonment for drunkenness, and one month's imprisonment, with hard labour, for assaulting Constable Emerson whilst the latter was performing his duty as a police officer. It is a curious concidence . that the Tarawa, the Wairarapa and the Tasmania were wrecked on the same day of the month. The Tararua disaster occurred on the 29th April, the Wairarapa struck the Great Barrier on the 29 October, and the Tasmania was lost on the 29th July. A man named J. Henry was engaged loading heavy timber at the Junction Wharf, Paeroa, yesterday, when he accidentally fell off the wharf and struck the wheel of a wagon, thereby inflicting a heavy gash on his temple. The wound received was so big that a number of stitches bad to be put in. It is now evident (writes a correspondent tf the Dunedin Star) that the area of land to be sown in grain throughout the Middle Island will be enormous, and with a favourable season New Zealand will put up a record in grain industries in 1898. The general idea is that oats will be dear before next harvest, as enormous quantities will be required for seed and teed, owing to so much land being prepared for grain this year.