NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 5977, 13 January 1881, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Bishop Cowie is' at present in tne Bay of Islands district. "• ~l'C. ' All the female prisoners"at Pentriclger have: been removed to'the Melbourne gaol. ... The output of coal from Kawakawa for the month of December was 4557 tons llcwt. ''. . The traffic on all the Australian railways has increased largely during the last year. Sir Thomas Elder will add a gold cup to the Adelaide Cup of ISBI autumn meeting. . The "official screw" of the- Mayor of Sydney is £1000, with an upward tendency.:. ■' There were 207 entries for the Melbourne Wool Exhibition, 29 being from New South Wales. - ; M. Soudrey has left Melbourne for Paris, taking with him about £1000 which lie won on Grand Flaneur. The Victorian Review for January contains an article- by Sir Hemy Parkes on " Intercolonial Agreement." J On the Sydney side of the Main Range the past winter has . been one of the driest on record for nearly thirty'years. The theatrical critic of the South Australian Advertiser has got £105 damages from Mr. W; J. Holloway for assault. - •, ' It is rumoured that Mr. Andrew, the late member for West Melbourne, is about to start another newspaper in that city. ; . The .Tauranga County; Council have determined to communicate with the Government re the £1500 voted for the Te Aroha road. ■ ■.' . ; ■ ■ '■ ;

The Rev. Lewis Wazawacanavana is the name of a Dakotah clergyman. . He has one satisfaction—nobody opens his letters by mistake. . ' ■ .

Sir Henry Parkes refused to grant a sum of money to provide a banquet on the occasion of the opening of the" railway to the Murray. ; ■ , The carcass of a sheep stored in the s?resh Food and Ice Company, Sydney, ..-> since August, 1879, was eaten the other day and found to be excellent.

Theßallarat Star says :—" Captain Standish has been offered and has accepted the appointment of Colonial Secretary at the Cape of i Good Hope." ', At St. Francis Church,. Sydney, on Sunday, during prayer time, a man carried off the poor-box. He was chased and caught,, and got one month for it. ' ' , Operations for floating the Hyderabad, we learn from the Foxton Herald, are progressing satisfactorily. She seems to be as tough a job-as the s.s. Taupo. ■ ; Madame Wilmot, in a lecture on " Courtship and Marriage," given at Rangiora, considered that the Government should impose a tax on every bachelor over twenty-five years of age. . ! Another of the. Light Brigado (says the Pleasant Creek News) has breathed his last. We refer to James Lynch, who expired, at the Stawell hospital at the ripe age of 88. Lynch was a member of the Inniskillen Dragoons. - • " .. Victoria is not to be officially represented at the opening of the Albury railway. . The Government are of opinion that the proper time for a celebration is when the two lines are connected and the bridge across the Murray is completed. In the quiet little township of Waratah (says the Newcastle Herald) there met to spend Christmas Day four members of a, respectable family—three sisters and one brother—whose ages in the aggregate amounted to 271 years. One of the directors of the Titanic Steel and Iron Company is shortly to visit New Plymouth, with the object of inspecting the works at the Henui, and it is possible that some arrangements may be made for another trial of smelting the iron-sand. The well-known Buoy Rock, in Nelson Harbour, is to be removed by blasting' and diving operations, within the next six months, at a cost of £580. Two contractors successively attempted the job, but gave it up. Messrs. McLean and O'Connor, of Nelson, have undertaken the contract. ' Two desperadoes took possession of Eagle Rock, Idaho, U.S., shooting fowls, dogs, horses, and aiming at every one who showed himself, and for several days kept up a reign of terror ; but, the inhabitants getting tired of it, took the law into their own hands and shot them.

The news from Newcastle is that the Cooperative aiid Newcastle Collieries, which have employed between 600 and 700 men and boys, are likely to be closed because the proprietors cannot afford to sell coal at eight shillings per ton—the current price. Last year the total number' of. insolvents in New South Wales was 863, and the deficiency between liabilities aud assets was £175,231, which was equal to more than half the total liabilities. The number of insolvents was larger by 147, and the amount of deficiency larger by £160,671, than for any previous year. At the University of Melbourne this year no fewer than 771 candidates presented themselves for examination. Of these, however, the larger number were simply bent on getting through the Civil Service examination, and that minor test was passed by 424. But no fewer than 2SI passed the full matriculation.