NEWS IN BRIEF.

Evening Post, Volume LIV, Issue 149, 21 December 1897, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

INTERPROVINCIAL. The new township of Evrebura, on the Otago Central line, is to be called Ranfurly. A motion to reduce the salary of the Mayor of Dnnediu to £250 was lost by seven votes to three in the City Council, and the ■alary retained nt £400. "All people in Chrlstchurch have more or les* bad livers if they live long enough," said Dr. Symes at the local Magistrate's Court the other day. In explanation he added, " The! longer a man lives in Christchurch the more likely is his liver to be disorganised." Robert Duncan, a boy about 12 years of age, was drowned while bathing in the Grey Eiver at Dobson, West Coast, one day last week. His father was a victim of the \ Brunner mining disaster. v Among the children at the native school at Waikawa, Picton, is a European girl who was adopted by the Maoris when a baby. She is bright, and lately gained a scholarship. The weather has been so favourable in the Marlborough district for the shearing season that on many stations the shearers worked for a month without an hour's interruption on account of rain-— an uuusual experience. Ministers have promised to provide the salary for a teacher to instruct tho Maoris at the Crobcelles, and if satisfactory work is done will probably build a school there. The temporary school is to open early in the new year. As the result of a public meeting held in Nelson it has been recommended that a company be formed for the purpose of erecting a boiling-down, manure, and canning works, as well a public abattoir, with a capital of £5000 in £1 shares. The Government has been asked to reconsider its decision that it was unable to assist in providing a town clock for New Plymouth. The townspeopß are prepared to subscribe £300, and ask the Government to give some further assistance and allow the clock to be erected on one of the public buildings in the town. A New Plymouth resident met with a peculiar accident the other day. He was attending his fowls, when a rooster flew at him, digging his spurs into the man's arm and severing an artery, with the result tJa^r assistance had to be called in to stop the flow of blood. A party of fishermen who were outside Nelson Harbour a few days ago came across a horse vigorously swimming seawards. They took it in tow and piloted it back to shore, where it landed none the worse for what had been an exceptionally long swim. A conference of representatives of most of the various implement-making firms of the colony is to be held at Invercargill this week, with the object of advocating the abolition of small agricultural shows, which are said to be springing up all over Otago, proving most costly to the exhibiting firms', and securing in. their stead large central exhibitions.