NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11536, 22 November 1900, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Xattcxi left for Fiji. . .Wanaka due from Fiji. Alameda left for Sydney. Hanroto arrived from the Islands. Zealandia left Sydney for Auckland. X A proposal lias been made to the Citizens Committee to establish public restaurants in Sydney where the poor may be fed free. It is feared the potato crop at Pit Town (New South Wales) and the surrounding country will be a failure this year, owing to the presence of the potato bug. The Outlook states that Messrs. Don find Macneur intend starting on the 21st inst. for a complete tour among the Chinese in Otigo and Southland. The tour is expected to take three months. Another death of a woman under chloroform has occurred at Melbourne. This was at the Children's Hospital, and the patient was Mrs. Emily Pitcher. An inquiry will be held. " . Mr. Ayson. inspector of fisheries, mforms the Oamaru Acclimatisation society that the Minister having authorised the construction of a hatchery at Hakataramea, the work will be gone on with at once. The Waipawa District Hospital Board has decided to keep its own cows in<future, bo as to obtain pure milk for me hospital patients, and for that purpose a 20-acre section is being rented. The Lands Department is throwing open for selection on lease in perpetuity, a section in Mangaweka Village Settlement, containing one acre 10 perches, and a section of 25 acres in the Pongoroa Village Settlement. . , t When parsing Shands crossing, between Owhiro and Allanton, the afternoon train from town to Balchitha, ran into a hawker's van, knocking it to smithereens. Hunter, who was in charge of the van, escaped uninjured. . The Victorian Department of Agriculture is arranging to send a shipment of Victorian cheese to England at the end of next month. A special cool chamber is to be procured for the purpose in one of the regular steamers. Recently Charles Thomas Brook, aged 25, while sitting at the door of the Prince Consort Hotel, Brisbane, suddenly sprang to his feet, and immediately fell down again. He became unconscious, and died in a few minutes. . The fruit crop in Central Otago is said to look better than it has for some years past. Blight is almost unknown. The Otago Daily Times says the growers expect a crop of over 600 tons—chiefly strawberries, cherries, apricots, peaches, and plums. A four-year-old boy fell out of a train between Baddaginnie and Violet town (Victoria). The youngster was picked up five miles from Violet Town, having started to walk back to Baddaginnie. He was none the worse for his fall, with the exception of having received a few scratches. The Pahiatua people are taking steps to impress upon the Government the injustice of making the ratepayers of that county responsible for paying a portion of the sum required for re-erecting part of the Manawatu Gorge bridge. A public meeting with this end in view was held at Pahiatua. A kerosene lamp in Kico and Co.'s confectionery shop, in Gore, burst the other night, and for a moment or two a general conflagration was threatened. The timely aid of a number of spectators was fortunately effective in extinguishing the flames before much damage was done. An unfortunate accident happened at Invercargill (says the News) during the volunteer mano?uvre3. Private Watt, of the City Guards, and a private in the Mercantile Rifles were at close quarters, when the lat- j ter discharged a blank cartridge, the full force of which Watt received in his face. He will be incapacitated from work for some | time. ! An examination of the mineral belt between Cape Palliser and Maharahara is to he 1 made by Mr. Mackay, the Government Geologist. " The examination will occupy about six months' time. The belt passes through the Wairarapa and crosses the Tararua range in the neighbourhood of the headwaters of the Waiohine River.