BREVITIES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 230, 4 December 1888, Page 3

BREVITIES.

Weather again changeable. Prevailing topic—Does credit pay? Mr Booth has returned from the Wairoa. The females’ bath was completed yesterday. The Deva is expected to get away some time to-lay. Jimmy Madder has been taken on the Deva, in place of a deserter. The barque Lnchnagar is expected in the bay at the end of the week. The Rev. Mr Wallace bids farewell to Gisborne on Friday next. The first Halle'ujah wedding in Gisborne is said to be coming off shortly. Styche is reckoned to be the best New Zealand four-oar boatsman seen in Sydney. New potatoes are being retailed in Auckland at 15 lbs for a shilling. The judgment in the Renata Kawero will case took three quarters fan hour to read. The Hastings Fire Brigade hold a pic iic and anniversary sports on New Year’s Day. They are trying to raise subscriptions in Napier in aid of the Parnell defence fund. The first New Zealand Musical Festival, held in Wellington last week, was very successful. The breakwater work is proceeding rapidly* Forty feet has been nearly completed in ten working days. Each of John Bright’s sons Ins learned his trade in his father’s works. Mr Bright himself learned a trade when young. " The Floating Scandal ” is the suggestive title which a Wellington paper applies to the Government steamer Hinemoa, The Rev. Mr Ward returned to Gisborne by Sunday’s boat, having been more successful down South than he anticipated. The Appeal Court made the order asked for by the Land Registrar, in the case of Nils Lun’s section, referred to by us a few days back. The amount collected by the Salvation Army last Friday, in aid of the Hospital,

was £2, which the Government subsidy will of course double. The Petone Borough Council are thinking of borrowing money to carry out a waler supply and drainage scheme which Mr Higginson estimates will cost £8992. James Chisholm, aged 85, died suddenly at Wellington last week, from failing action of the heart. Hie son’s wife was standing by when she saw the poor stagger and fall. A telegram the other day stated that 100 acres of good land near Timaru had sold for 16* an acre. It now appears that the price should have been pounds instead of shillings The sergeant who was on guard at the fortress of Ham at the moment when the Emper'r Napoleon 111. effect d his escape has just died at Fr&ize in his sixty-eighth year. The recent musical festival at Wellington was held in the Volunteer drillshed, where it is quite a common thing to gei the full blast of steam whistles from the vessels in harbor, as well as other equally melodious sounds. Tha balance sheet of the Norsewood relief fund has net yet been pub’ished, and there is naturally much grumbling in consequence. Pe pie who subscribe so generously are entitled to know how the money is disbursed. “ Puff ” says people go to Rotorua to bail themselves in the hot springs and not to be roasted alive. I bet, he adds, there were some hot springs out of bad when the place took on fire—regular geysers; leaps and bounds, eh ? Sarah Bernhardt has fallen into evil ways. She sits all day long in a greasy wrapper, pl lying besique with poor Damala, and she drinks a great deal of raw brandy, always using some to pull her through exhaustive performances. A new departure—our contemporary has taken up a local subject; says in effect that in the past the bakers have been swindling their customers by an overcharge of 30 per cent. Yet it never had the courage to oppose the asserted imposition ! That’s self-convic-tion if you like! When the Auckland papers are hard up for a joke they always trot poor Garrard forward ; the Wellington papers have “The Whiffler,” or the Agnew* for the ago ny sort. But a high-toned Wellington paper was so hard up the other day that it fell back on the Whiffier’s dog, which had mistaken a log of wood in the water for a stick he was sent for. The Northern Advertiser siysifcis a remarkable thing that of a few Austrians who are on the gumfields i > that dis trio *, so large a proportion have to be sent to the Lunatic Asylum from time to time. These lunatics had not been drunkards either, but steady, frugal and industrious when in their right mind. The ordinary meeting of the Harbor Board takes place to night. Matters in this line seem to have got quite mild, but we suppose the ratepayers will now soon have the patience to read harbor reports, which it is very doubtful if two thirds did a short time back, the subject to them had become so prosy. When the wealthy distiller who built the Presbyterian Church in Belfast, referred to by Canon Wilberforce, lay dying, the Moderator of the General Assembly then in session took occasion to speak against the liquor traffic. The dying distiller, on hearing this, sent for his lawyer and added a codicil to his will revoking £50.000 which he had left to the Irish Presbyterian Church. The Melrose (Wellington) Borough Council offered a reward of five pounds to anyone who would give information of persons removing sand from a certain spot. Ona person gave such information, but the Council decided not to prosecute, and the informant of course

wants hi* “ five pun,” which the Council wish to shuffh out of. One Councillor quoted two lawvers’ opinions that the reward must be paid, but the other Councillors seemed to have such little regard for what is known as “ honor ” that they could not agree upon lhe matter, and thus it now stands. The Railway Department charging for the carrying of grain as per sack, soma of the farmers have had “ sacks ” specially made—these sacks it is needless to say having the sama comparison to the ordinary sacks as a lady’s satchel has to a bread basket. To make things worse the Department want to charge bv weight, thus causing enormous in« convenience to the honest farmers. The outcry was so great that the matter has been left in abeyance until the beginning of the year. An easy way out of the difficulty would he to weigh only those sacks of which tha body is suspiciously developed.