NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6269, 20 December 1881, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A MEETixr. lias been held to form a Gaelic .Society for Timaru. Miss Fidler is at present giving leetares in cookery at Dunedin. A teacher in Canterbury has sent in his resignation because " lie had no confidence in the Board of Inspectors." It is said that the cause of Mr. Soymour, Chairman of Committees, losing his seat, was his conduct in suppressing the stouewallers. The Kumara Times reports that during the earthquake experienced on the morning of the sth instant "two or three galvanised iron water-tanks burst by the vibration of the water.' A witness in the District Court, Christchurch, deposed that, as wages for cutting grass, &c, at Barry's Bay, he had received a balance of Sd, for six weeks' work at Is ! an hour. "The rest was spent in drink." The annual prize for elocution given to the Dunedin Girls' High School !.y the Shakespeare Club, of that city, was competed fora j few days ago. Several of the young ladies displayed dramatic ability of no mean order. The utility of flourishes in handwriting is shown by the fact that at the last elections ! a voter, obviously meaning to scratch out one name, appended a flourish which went through another, and the paper had to be disallowed. The teacher of the public school at Te Aroha, Mrs. Harvey, has relinquished her appointment, being about to remove to another sphere of usefulness. A testimonial was presented to her by the school committee on her retirement. A sudden death under very extraordinary circumstances is related by the Fielding Guardian. A married woman named Streeter was engaged in conversation with a friend when a funeral passed. She inquired whose it was, and then for the cause of death. Immediately after being informed that it was heart disease she dropped dead into the arms of her companion. She -had been suffering from heart disease, and the shock is supposed to have caused her death. The New Zealand Journal of Science is the title of a journal to be brought out in January by Messrs. Wilkie and Co., of Dunediu. It will be published every alternate month, and will be 48 pages in size. Mr. G. M. Thomson," F.L.S., science master in the high schools, will edit the Hew journal. Amongst the contributors to the first . number will be Professors Hutton and • Parker, Ciptain Broun (of Auckland), and \ Mr. Maskell (of Christchurch). ,