BRIEF MENTION.

Evening Star, Issue 8810, 27 April 1892, Page 2

BRIEF MENTION.

Colonel Fraser, M.H.R., is proceeding against the ‘ Evening Frees ’ for an alleged libel contained in an article published in Saturday’s issue with reference to a case in which a woman was evicted from a house in Willis street.

At the Easter meeting of St. Michael’s Parish, Christchurch, the parishioners presented the incumbent, the Rev. Walter Harper, with a special gift of LSO in recognition of his labors in the parish. The Fortobello School Committee have dosed their school for a short time, owing to several recent oases of diphtheria in the district. Farther Ministerial interference with the Bruce election is promised. The Minister of Mines is expected to arrive in Dunedin on Friday, and will probably speak at Kaitangata on the eve of the contest. From the annual report of the Otago Benevolent Institution we learn that the total nomber of persons who received outdoor relief during the year was 3,430, of which 2,347 were children. The total nrnnber in the inetitution on Ist January waa 230. There were on that date two men and one woman ninety years of age and over, thirteen men and two women eighty years and over, forty-two men and fourteen women seventy years and over. Australian brokers are negotiating with the owners of the Tyser line with a view to putting a stop to the keen competition in freights for cargoes to the colonies. Queen Victoria has left Hyeres for Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, in Germany. A Melbourne cablegram states that a charge of careless navigation is to be preferred against the captain of the steamer Bellinger, which collided with the barque Presto last week and sank.

A serious accident happened to Sells's circus, which was travelling by a special train, divided into four sections, between Teuterfield and Armidale, N.S.W. The fourth section collided with the third, the sleeping oar being derailed and partially wrecked. One man named Banks was killed, while four others—Walter Silbon, Runnel), Leslie, and the fireman of the colliding train —were seriously injured. The train was crossing a bridge at the time of the collision, but fortunately the bridge was decked, otherwise the sleeping car would have been precipitated a distance of 45ft. A meeting was held in London on March 1, when it was decided to raise a fond in memory of the late Sir Morell Mackenzie, the proceeds of which should be devoted to the enlargement of the Throat Hospital, of which institution he was the founder, and in which, up to the time of his death, he took the greatest interest, His friends in alf parts of the world who may with to join the Committee now being formed in connection with the movement should communicate with the secretary. Throat Hospital, Golden square, London W, The township of Maclean, on the Clarence River, and 330 miles north of Sydney, possesses most of the adjuncts of civilisation, together with a magistrate who fined a publican 50s for allowing a man to play a flute in his bar !

The Earl and Countess of Meath recently visited Ormond College, Melbourne, The Earl, addressing the students, counselled them to guard against either themselves or the educated class abandoning the political power of the country to wire pullers and place-seekers, and to use all their endeavors to make mercantile and public live sweet, clean, and strong, with the manfulness of genuine character. The Council of the New Zealand Institute of Journalists have, in reference to a case submitted to them, resolved: “ That under no circumstances can a reporter’s duty require Him to become an eavesdropper, to report or make use of a private conversation accidentally overheard, or to do anything inconsistent with the character of a gentleman and a man of honor.”

At a performance at Gunnedah (New South Wales) Sells’s circus took L 750 at the doors. Daring 1891 the lending branch of the Sydney Free Public Library sent out 70,000 volumes. The first five favorite authors of this reading constituency were Dickens, Thackeray, Sir Walter Scott, Kingsley, and Bulwer Lytton, There was a slight fall of snow on Swampy Hill this morning. The old “ saw ” about there being "nothing like leather” bids fair to be falsified by the advent of varnish. A London exchange says :—“ The huge varnish works of Messrs Nobles and Hoaro, In Oornwell road, near Waterloo station, seems to be a gold mine. Three of the partners have died in less than eighteen months, leaving an aggregate of over two millions sterling among them. Mr John Noble s fortune was L 929,000; his nephew, Mr Charles Crompton-Roberts, left L 274,000, and now the will of Mr T. Rolls Hoare shows him to have owned personal property amounting to L 812,000, none of it bequeathed to him by his partners. Not long ago Mr Hoare gave LI,OOO to the funds of the North Lambeth free Library on condition that a room should be provided for the reading of periodicals and newspapers on Sundays,” The challenge of Mr Knott, the temperance lecturer, to give L 5 to anyone who would produce a half-pint of beer, wine, or spirits that was absolutely unadulterated, has been taken up by Mr Mandhl, of Hokitika, who offers to forfeit LI 60 and olose his brewery if Mr Knott can find any adulterated beer on bis premises. A New Zealand journalist to the fore. Mr D.'Murray, who is a B.A. of the New Zealand University, has gained his degree of M.A. at the Sydney University. For two sessions he represented the Auckland 'Herald’ in the reporters’ gallery of the House of Representatives, and is now on the parliamentary staff of the ' Sydney Morning

A stack of oats, worth abont L 35, the property of James B. Smith, farmer, was bnrned at Naseby on the night of the Slat inst. Not insured. It is surmised that Smith’s son dropped a match among the loose straw which was lying about.