NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7344, 3 June 1885, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There was rain on all but four days of last month in Wellington. ;"-i There are 79 acres of land in New Zealand in which tobaocp is being grown. There are 24,688 acres of land in New Zealand planted with forest trees. The railway works now in progress in Otago are estimated to cost £200,000. The highest price paid for colonial grown tobacco in Australia last year was £65 per ton. . : ['' . . . -

A correspondent of a Wanganni paper suggests the exportation of eggs in a frozen state, '.'['"!' /'-[;.' ',[ : : "'[['

Mr. Moor, of Port Aberorombie, has made great improvements to his dwelling, and built a fine large wopl-shed. ' . J The [Yjotorian militia force is to consist of 5000. men, at retaining fee of £12, the same as in the Naval Reserve.

During the season, the Wakaquj and Longbeach Road Boards received over 70,000 eggs and heads of small birds.

A weekly paper, called The New Zealand Volunteer and Civil Service Gazette, has been issued in Christohuroh.

The Otago Education Board have decided to limit the travelling expenses of members to 15s per day, exclusive of train fares. The Sydney ' Mail asserts that the market is glutted with heavy draught stock from New Zealand. It states that much of the stock aqnt there was perfect rubbish. The oat crop in the Hawera district has been very uneven this season. Mr. G. McLean threshed out fully 80 bushels to the acre, while Mr. Livingstone only got 75 bushels of 23 acres.

The Owake correspondent of the Clutha Leader states that the powder mill is to be taken over by a oomjwny, with » capital of £10,000. The mill .is now executing a Government order for powder for the big gun;. 1 J There are no fewer than one hundred and forty-two rivers, streams, and streamlets between New Plymouth and Wanganui. They are a capital feature of the country, but rather expensive in a road-making point of view.

On the occasion of his leaving Riverton for Auckland for the benefit of his health, Father Kehoe was presented with an address and a purse of sovereigns by his flook. The people of Riverton ' presented him with a gold albert chain. It is stated, Bays the Wellington Press, apparently on trustworthy information, that the wife of a small settler near Timaru who hai> recently been in very embarrassed circumstances, has come into a fortune of three millions sterling. We learn that Mr. Oswald A. Stevens, auctioneer, was thrown from his horse as he was coming into town from Onehunga on Monday evening. Although he was somewhat severely shaken by the fall, it is expected that be will be able to get about again in a day or two. The Westport Times says that the County Council of Westland have passed a by-law under which all tenders 30 a per cent, over or 30 per cent, under the estimate of the Engineer will be rejected. The Counoil will not pay too high for their work, neither will they allow the men to ruin themselves. Information has been received that His Excellenoy the Governor has appointed Mr. Alfred Ashton a member of the Grafton Licensing Committee in plaoe of the late Mr. C. J. Stone, and that Mr. Plummer has been appointed a member of the Ponsonby Licensing Committee to fill the vaoanoy caused by the death of Mr. W. McKinstry, A relio of the Maori war came prominently to the front at Wellington during the review on Queen's Birthday, It is ft silver-plated bugle, which was oarried throughout the whole campaign, and which was on that day presented to the Heretaunga Light Horse by the D Battery of Artillery. The trumpet bears the inscription —** From the D Battery N.Z.A., to Heretaunga Light Horse, Wellington, 24th May, 1885." The presentation was made by Captain MoCredie, and suitably acknowledged by Lieutenant Izard.