BREVITIES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2648, 15 September 1881, Page 3

BREVITIES.

The Victoria Woollen and Cloth Manufacturing Company turned out 146,118 yards of tweed last half year, and made a net profit of £4,441 on manufacturing account. A young man recently recovered £IOO damages from a silk hat manufacturer in Melbourne for a breach of apprenticeship indentures, the defendant not having given him a reasonable amount of knowledge of the trade, during the three years of his apprenticeship which he had served. Several dreadful cases of sons killing their parents have cropped up recently in America. In one case father and son had a drunken row —the father was 70, the son 40. The son literally shot his father to death, shot after shot. The dome of St Peter’s at Rome is illuminated inside and outside by the Siemen’s electric light, and the effect is described as brilliant and charming. The old Cunarder Persia, in its day the finest vessel afloat, took six tons of coal to carry a ton of freight across the Atlantic ; the Arizona, a new steamer about double the size of the* Persia, takes a fifth of a ton.

The skill of the Victorian police with rifle and revolver has been demonstrated in more than one bloodless fray (says “ iEgles”). At haystacks they are good average shots ifnot more than 20 yards off. They have weapons which they are not allowed to use, and powder which they must not burn. But the marksmen of New South Wales-are not much ahead of us after all. Two of them, armed with rifles, were escorting a prisoner. In running in the coach horses the groom started a kangaroo, which got into the corner of the hotel paddock, about 80 yards from the peace officers. They opened fire upon the marsupial, and after five volleys the bystanders saw the marsupial top the fence, and show a clean a pair of heels to the hunters as the Ferret did the Highland Railway Company.