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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1511, 14 February 1901, Page 62

At Bathurst rifle range a fortnight .or so since a marker named William. Freeman had a miraculous escape from death. The local volunteers were firing a-t the 600 yards range, and Freeman was marking out a shot- which had been fired, when another rifleman fired at- the same target. The bullet struck Freeman on the for eh ad, above the eyes, some material splashing into his eyes. The bullet inflicted a nasty wound, and the force of t-lie impact rendered the marker insensible. He , fell to th<» ground, and was in imminent danger of being shot as he lay. On soon i&gaining consciousness, he proceeded down to the firing-point. A Sydney paper, in reporting the occurrence, says that the affair was purely accidental, and that no one was to blame; but ic is idle to attempt to glcze over a serious incident in such a manner. Either the injured man or the marksman committed a breach of the regulation.* drawn up for governing firing with ball cartridge for under these there is absolutely no element of risk if they are adhered to explicitly. The Freiijdh Legion of Honour is the biggest order of merit. It numbers 55,000 members. "

- The Bradford Chamber of Commerce recently passed a resolution calling attention to the injurious practice of tying fleeces of wool with string, rushes- or any other vegetable fibre. ’Hie objection is that portions of the fibre become detached and cannot afterwards be separated from the wool, with the result that the value and appearance of the article manufactured! from the wool fs considerably impaired. The fibre refuses to take the dye and gives the fabric a speckled or streaky appearance. The Chamber of

.Commerce points out- that fleeces can fee tied up, as is the practice in the United Kingdom, without string or anything else, and the use of a foreign substance for this purpose will undoubtedly affect the price of the wool. In January the number of marriages in Wellington was fifty-four, as compared with sixty-three in the corresponding period of last year. f ine deaths were sixty-four, as compared with fortyfive in the same month of 1900.