SCINTILLATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 4290, 21 February 1884, Page 2

SCINTILLATIONS.

Taol.a_.oa Regatta tokcH place on 18th March.

Tho direct .iteamor Ruapehu should arrive here noxt week.

It is not necessary to use water' in poring ovor a book.

Whore every man meets with his deserts —At dinner.

Local lawyers expect a lot of business when ten o'clock closing becomes tho rule for hotels.

Government propose to tost the quartz reefs in Wilborforce district, Canterbury.

An explosion of petroleum gas has token placo in the South Pacific Company's bore at Gisborne ; oil should bo near at hand. Tho average of life, in England exceeds that of France by eleven years, though tho French climnto Is considered Buporior. Balmoral ostate, Queen Victoii__'o »«»«"■' ito residence, covors 25,350 acres, and is of the gross annual value of £2,400. The "Herald " this morninnr says: "We nopo lo Eee__t our ertlieg free from tho blots which disfiguro tho older centres of population nt homo." What havo tho "mudslingers " been up to . '5,404 shares havo been allotted in the North Creek Gold Mining Company, Cantorbury.

Two Good Templar candidates for Greymouth Licensing Committee wero returned at tho head of the poll. Tho only kind of weeds that aro oasily exterminated—A widow's.

Doctor.—A man who kills you to-day to savo you from dying to-morrow. Tho Prosbytorian Assembly at Wellington has concedod Mr Sidoy's right to take part in the proceedings, and appointed him clerk,

Tho Archbishop of Paris has just had his pay cut down from £1,800 to £1,200. The Bishop of London has £10,000 and two palaces. Archibald McPherson, a lecturer, was found dead on the road near Roxburgh, Otago, yestorday. Supposed cause of death is heart disease.

The New Zoaland tanneries turned out last yoar 20,019 hides, 41,877 skins, G0.642 basils, 112,011 sides, ond 15,000 kips nnd pelts. The sides produced last year were all tho product of Auckland, which district also furnishes about one-third of tho pelts proparod in the colony. Canterbury Tram Company is making satisfactory progress, though no dividend has yot been declared. Only half the capital of £50,000 has been called up. Farms in tho United States are valued at £2,000,000,000, their annual "products at £000,000,000, and tho implements used on them at £80,000,000.

Messrs D. Lundon, J. Conway, C. A. Clarke, F. Wrigley, John M. Clarke, J. W. Clarebrough, and R. Henry have been elected the Tauranga School Committee. On tho motion of Roy. James Paterson, tho Presbyterian Assembly at Wellington yestorday rosolved to get the opinion of a competent actuary as to the Ministers' Widows nnd Orphans Fund. Alex. Mcßae, Christchurch, has been committed for trial at Wellington on a chargo of fraudulent Insolvency—bail boing allowed of £50.

In every British man-of-war thero is now a branoh of tho Royal Naval Temperance Society, the members of which number between 13,000 and 14,000 men and 250 officers, ranging from midshipmen to admirals.