NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11952, 29 April 1902, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

'Frisco mail due. . fSv«x mdl arrived. ZeaTandia left for Sydney. Elineamite arrived from Sydney. , The Manapouri is due from the islands tomorrow. The Elingaratte had a very rough passage across from Sydney.. The next sitting of the Court of Appeal •will be held at Wellington on May 22. Neat iron bicycle stands have been erected outside the new post office at Ashburton. In Victoria 4600 permits to land in South Africa have been issued since the system wag introduced.

The Hospital Board assessment for Christchurch city for the year ending March 31, 1903, is £982 14s. _ ' The Indradevi arrived from New York and Australia yesterday, and has been quarantined at Motuihi for 12 days. The second bore that is being sunk at Ngatapa in prospecting for petroleum has reached a depth of some 350 ft. At Cobar, New South Wales, water for domestic purposes was being carted recently ffom a dam five miles distant.

The Western Star learns that there is the greatest difficulty in getting relieving teachers in the Southland district. It is stated that owing to the small traffic on the Bowen and Cooktown railway lines, Queensland, the Government proposes closing them, . There is a considerable number of unemployed in Dunediu, and batches are being drafted off for employment on the Otago Central line.

Typhoid is raging at Fort Pirie, South Australia. The local hospital is so full of patients that many sufferers are being sent to Wallaroo by train. Applications are being received freely in Sydney from all parts of Australia and New Zealand from persons desirous of settling in the New Hebrides.

The imposition of duties on fodder imported from outside Australia is having the effect of turning red-hot protectionists from Victoria into freetraders.

A kerosene tin, containing portions of Lie remains of a child, was unearthed by the police at the rear of a house in Drummoyne, New South Wales. ' Owing to the i destruction by fire of a weatherboard house at Young, New South Wales, a six-year-old son of Mr. David Normoyle was burned to death. A boundary rider, who had his leg broken on Mooculta station, near Bourke, New South Wales, placed his boots on his hands, and crawled two and a-half miles to a homestead. The output of maize on the Clarence, New South Wales, for the past season shows a decrease compared with last year. Farmers are cutting down their crops to feed cattle.

At Lismore, New South'' Wales, a lad named Alfred Diaz, while riding a bicycle, collided with a sulky, one of the shafts of which pierced his thigh, inflicting a severo wound.

In South Australia the wheat yield this year was eight million bushels, about a million and a-half less than hist year. In the northern districts the crop was largely reduced by rust. A correspondent writing to the Wanganui Herald suggests that the Manawatu Kailway Company should lay down a line from Longburn to Palmerstbn North, parallel with the Government line.

The Federal Premier has been asked by the Seamen's Union to introduce a Commonwealth Navigation Bill, enforcing the payment of ruling rates on all ships trading in the Commonwealth.

A well-known resident of Muswellbrook, New South Wales, named David Hoick, a cutter, was found dead in bis bed. At the inquiry it. was recorded that death -"as caused by disease of the heart. In the Cairns district, Queensland, much anxiety is being felt regarding the cane crop, rain having been very scarce. Owing to the drought Taut year the crop only realised 3000 tons. This year it is feared that it will be under 600 tons.! /

Whilst a miner named Thomas MoNamara, aged 27, was working in a mine at Bethunga, New South Wales, a piece of ore weighing 81b fell from a distance of 45ft upon his head, smashing his skull and knocking one of his eyes out. As an instance of the effects of epidemics Upon attendances at the public schools, it is calculated that the Wellington Education Board lost about £1200 in capitation in the September quarter of last year through the measles epidemic which then occurred throughout the district. In Narrabri district, New South Wales, pastoralists declare that many of their sheep are too weak to travel. Men are engaged skinning dead sheep on the stations. Feed is so dear that chaff is quoted at £8. and in some outlying places at £10 per ton. Many dairymen are closing their dairies owing to the drought. The following is the state of His Majesty'! prison, Auckland, for the week ending Saturday, .April 26. 1902:—0n remand, two nifties, "one female awaiting trial, nine males; sentenced to penal servitude for life, two males; sentenced to hard labour, 155 males, 19 females sentenced to imprison-. ment. one male; default of bail, two,males; received during the week, 17 males, three females ; discharged, eight males, four females: total in prison, 171 males, 20 females.