NEWS IN BRIEF.

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 137, 11 June 1898, Page 2

NEWS IN BRIEF.

INTERPROVINCIAL. The Government Auditor complained to the Taranaki County Council as to the manner in which its" accounts were kept. It appeared that the Council had received a (similar communication from a previous Auditor, but took no notice of it. The Councillors decided to continue to keop their books in their own way, and ignored the Auditor. The terms on which an Auckland firm has offered to holp to run a bacon-curing factory at lLauera aro — to take over tho premises at a rental which will guarantee shareholders 0 por cent, and a bonus of Gd per pig after the 100 per week. The offer has been accepted. A Taranaki County Councillor expressed tho opinion that it would bo a good thing if tho Council wero to get other bodies interested to combine for the purpose of getting the control of native lands taken out of the hands of the Public Trustee and dealt with by Land Boards. The Otago University Council declined to hold the "capping" ceremony iv one of the public halls of Dunedin, as requested by tho Studouts' Association. The Council feared the "tomfoolery," as the Vice-Chancellor styled it, of the students. Mr. Stanford, SjU., does not believe in the oft-followed principle of his brother. Magistrates of turning a troublesome man loose so that he can go and make himself a nuisance elsenhere. Mr. G. J. Smith, M.H.R., 'has written to the Police Commission, askiug that auy expenses that he may have become entitled to in connection with his attendance upon the Commission may be handed over to the Christchurch Beautifying Society. Mr. W. H. Cooper, who was lately appointed to tho Chairmanship of the Board of Conciliation for the Canterbury district, forwarded his resignation of that position to the Governm«nt previous to starting for a tour of the Australian colouies. Seven Maoris last week went out to the Mangapoaka district, behind the Waikopiro, on a shooting expedition. Their bag for the week was 300 pigeons and two wild bullooks. Two Ormondville men in the same district secured 57 pigeons in one day. By the Waimate, which left the Bluff a few days ago, the Southland Frozen Moat Co. consigned 6000 crates of rabbits, there being no room for any more. Writing to the Gore papers a Kelso correspondent says :—": — " Bunny has got scarce around here this season. Some four or five thousand rabbits were railed away weekly ; now there are not as many hundreds — a sign that trapping persistently and continuously is the most effective xt&foi dealing with the pest." Three pounds five or one month's , imprisonment was the punishment meted out at Napier on Monday to two men charged ■with procuring liquor for a prohibited person. The Christchurch League of Wheelmen is urging the City Council to put up a railing along the kerbing near the Post Office, so that cyclists may be able to leave their machines without being prosecuted for blocking up the footpath. The Poverty Bay National Association complains that the district has been shamefully neglected by the Government. A license has been granted for the accommodation house at the Nuhuku Springs, Poverty Bay. It has been decided to lay a marble slab in tho new Children's Hospital at Auckland to the memory of the late Mr. E. Costley, whose bequests some 15 years ago endowed the principal charitable institutions of the city. The Medical Superintendent of the Auckland Hospital wrote recently to the Charitable Aid* Board, drawing .attention to the fact thai a man had been forwarded to the Hospital four times iv nine mouths, on each occasion suffering from delirium treraens. The Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Hoard has informed the local Police Inspector* that persous suffering from delirium tremens will not be received in the Hospital. There are about 100 stags in Hawkes Bay, imported by the Acclimatisation Society. They are doing well in tho ranges near Kuripapango. On reconsideration, the Minister for Education has withdrawn his opposition to a district high school at W r estport. The Riccarton Road Board has passed a resolution expressing the opinion that it is inadvisable, for sanitary reasons, that public abattoirs should bo "erected in so thickly populated a locality as Addington. Among the entertainments offered to the Mayor of Christchurch on his recent visit to U.M.S. Tauranga was the explosion of a submarine mine charged with 361b of guncotton. The mine was exploded by the Mayor himself touching the necessary button. Hard frosts and warm sunny weather have prevailed in Cheviot for the past week, and the settlers are busy in putting in the wheat crop.

The members of tho Bruce Licensing Committee have passed a resolution asking the Colonial Secretary to provide thai elective members be paid for their services at tho rate of 10s per day, besides travelling expenses. A horse was put up to auction at a pound near Hastings tho other day and failed lo secure? a bid. It was afterwards given away by tho pound keeper. A petition is iv circulation in Gisbornc praying the Government to acquire the Willows ostate. The Taranaki Education Board has docided that il. has no power to order the suspension of the compulsory clauses of Iho Education Act iv the case of children who have difficulty in attending country schools on account of bad roads. Tho Palca County Council will co-operate with the Manawalu and other County Councils in endeavouring lo secure an amendment of Iho Government Loans to Local Bodies Act.