NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11842, 20 December 1901, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

- -Herald Summary. . • | 'Frisco mail leaves to-morrow. ■ Waihora arrived from the South. •- The Waihoiu leaves for > the South this afternoon. • • - ! . '- • Steamer "Nithdale arrived'.'from Java and Australia. ; . A number of missionaries have left Sydney for China. Last evening the s.s. Hauroto left for the ' Islands and Sydney. ;; • Good', ■ fat cattle are said to be becoming 'scarce in Hawke's Bay. , . ,! ' Country visitors are beginning ,to come into the city for the holidays. >p ~ ; A federation; for the whole of the labour onions in Australasia ;is hot. contemplated. A patient who died recently at the Porirua Asylum had 103 epileptic fits in 44 hours. Yachting has been revived on the.Wangaxiui River, where it used to iiourish amaz- , ingly in bygone days. ■ ■ . iv, Owing to drought at Riverstone, New South Wales," many householders have been - carting water for two miles.- • • ; Shearing, which was in full, swing in all - the sheds in the Teviot district, Otago, has 1 -• been, greatly retarded by the recent rains. Cootamundra district, New South Wales, • it is estimated, will yield 16,000 bales of ' •wool, and ,700,000 bushels of wheat,' this year. ' ' The body of an old man named Patrick Berrell was found in Phill's River, New South Wales. He was the oldest resident ■■■ of the resident. • 4 An interesting action to recover £1000 'compensation for the death of an engine- ' .r. driver 'at a Botany tannery was commenced at Sydney last week. An infant named Harold Fernev. 18 months old. was kicked in the head by a horse at West Wallsend. New South Wales, and v was instanteously-killed. . - i -It was .mentioned at a meeting of the Timaru Board of Education that school com- ' mittees in getting work done should be care- • X ful to have it done by contract, -as by so ■ doing they cannot be held liable for accidents • under the Workers' Compensation for Acci- . dents Act. < , Last week a flock of 15 black swans paid ■ . a visit to the lagoon at the head of Gabriel's Gully,- Otago,' but' were disturbed by being shot at, and' immediately resumed their flight, heading for up-country— for the Dismal Swamp, , which is a favourite haunt of these birds. The incident is a somewhat remarkable one, black swans having never before been . seen. in. the neighbourhood. , A telegram to the Government of Queensland, from the Lieutenant-Governor of New Guinea, reports that the three native prisoners who were believed to have killed M. Guilanetti, a magistrate, at :Delena Mission Station. Hall Sound, on November 4, were captured, and tried at Port Moresby. Two were j convicted of manslaughter, and sen- . tenced to 14; years' imprisonment each, and ; the other was discharged, v.;. .< O The Poverty Bay Herald, of Monday last, '.'says:—/ Bathers, in the river and on .the beaches would do well to beware of sharks, , which .seem: to be unusually plentiful just now. . ..Yesterday no less than three were hooked on the lines of people fishing on the gr&yne and breakwater, one being fully 7ft <: sr in length. Another danger to bathers is the ; presence of stingarecs, two very large ones having, been ■ caught in the fishermen's nets about a week ago." ' ; v >. ; v-.''