NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 5996, 4 February 1881, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Ddnedin has .accommodation in the State schools for 4454 children. The " cooked potato" controversy has attracted attention in the Australian Press. There have been large numbers of small bankruptcies in Wellington within the past week. The • Hon. W. J. Clarke's yacht Janet, with the owner and a party of friends, has left for Tasmania. The Melbourne Aletropolitan Gas Company from the New Year reduced the price of gas to 7s Id per 1000 feet. Mr. Colin C. Wilson, Private Secretary on H.M. s. Wolverene, died suddenly at Launceston while on a visit there. Over £40 has been subscribed at Waimate towards the Parnell defence fund, the subscriptions ranging from 2s 6d to £1. The police say that Auckland is the quietest town of the colony. This is different from when Auckland had a large military element. Rev. W. Allen and the Rev. A. G. Collocott, of Victoria, have been transferred to the New South Wales circuit for appointments in Fiji. Miss Margaret Hicks, who recently graduated in architecture from Cornell University, is the first woman in a college to undertake this profession. The expenditure of the Native Office during Air. Bryce's term of office is said to have been reduced from £SO,OOO per annum to £11,000, making a clear saving of £69,000. The jewellers and watchmakers of Wellington have, with one or two exceptions, agreed to close their places of business early on Saturdays, to give their employes and themselves a half-holiday. The Priuce of Wales in a Russian lock-ixp, on a charge of being drunk and disorderly, while on a visit to St. Petersburg, is one of the latest canards of a veracious Yankee newspaper correspondent. In the Argus of the 17th ultimo, in an obituary notice of the late Mr. A. K. Smith, M.L.A., it states that lie prepared plans and specifications for the supply of gas to Auckland. We go from home to learn news. The valuation of the city of Christchurch this year is £224,594. This, notwithstanding many small reductions, gives an increase of £5609, the additional number of buildings put up during the year being very great. A player of the "Great Bonanza" game has been arrested at Wellington for playing an unlawful game. The '' Great Bonanza " was in full swiny; on the Auckland Queenstreet Wharf on Regatta day, be it lawful or unlawful.

A girl was recently admitted to Wagga Hospital suffering from centipede poisoning. She bad killed the centipede with a broom handle, and afterwards when using the broom the venom got into her hand somehow, and the virus soon spread throixgh her sy stem. Air. J. S. Webb, the building societydefaulter, has settled at Honolulu, aud it is alleged has sent to Dunedin for his wife and family to join him. There is no extradition treaty between Great Britain and the Hawaiian Government, so that Webb is safe from arrest. It appears that the "phrenologist," recently arrested at Dunedin for false pretences, and who, when lecturing in that city, ■ adopted the nom da rjw.rre of Lio Aledo, is well known in Wellington, being none other than Air. Benjamin Strachan, who formerly carried on the practice of hair-cutting on Lambton Quay. At Tuniut, N.S. W., a Airs. George Bond recently met her death in a singular way. The evidence of Dr. Agassiz (late of Auckland) and other witnesses, showed that the deceased died from taking a dose of liniment containing aconite and ammonia, adminis'tered by a midwife in mistake for a soo tiling draught." The Alataura Ensign in announcing the arrival of the uniforms of the Gore contingent of the Southland Hussars mentions that a gentleman at Alataiira on receipt of a sample suit immediately donned it, and stalked through the town for two hours, to the infinite amusement and edification of several admiring small boys. The cost of the Town Hall clock in Dunedin was £1140. The Council have now received another bill for erecting the clock and chimes, amounting to £72S 5s Sd, bringing the total up to £IS6B odd; a large number of the citizens declare the chimes to be an unmitigated nuisance, and threaten to get an injunction against the Corporation. The Kaiapoi Woollen Factory shareholders voted the Chairman of Directors of the Company (Air. Isaac Walton) £200 as an honorarium last week. After receiving the cheque, Mr. Walton purchased fully paid-up shares to the amount, which are to be placed m the hands of trustees, the interest on which is to form the nucleus of a fund for the relief of hands engaged at the factory. A whaling captain declares that a new breed of whales made its appearance in the Arctic seas. They are supposed to have come from the open sea at the Pole. They are very much larger than the old whales, and are very gentle and confiding. In former days When a whale was harpooned, the rest of the herd threw up their flukes and made off. The new breed do not seem to mind in the least the capture of one of their number.