NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7569, 23 February 1886, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A vegetarian restaurant is suggested in Melbourne. Alining in Tasmania seems likely to improve duriDg the present year. The Rev. Rutherford Waddell, of Danedin, is about to leave for a trip to the home country. Harvesting is going on in many parts of Tasmania, and on the whole the reports are favourable. The members of the Majeroni and Wilson's Opera Company left Lyttelton on February 16 for Brisbane. A rumour is current that Bishop Pearson, of Newcastle, is likely to succeed Bishop Moorhouse in the see of Melbourne. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Collier are at present in Australia, The former is well-known as a conductor and composer of light opera. Recently a hail storm of extraordinary Severity visited the Geelong district. The hailstones were of a tremendous size being larger than hens eggs, Mr. T. E. Chamberlain, of the Upper Hutt, reports that the returns of his crops average 35 bushels of wheat, 43 ditto oats, and 37 ditto barley to the acre. John O'Conner, landlord of the Imperial Hotel, Ballarat, was assaulted bo severely by two hotel touters that he died. His assailants are now charged with his murder. Sir James Martin, of New South Wales, is described as " a man of immense strength of Will, forms his opinions with great vigour, and stands by them with unconquerable obduracy." The library of the late Rev. W. H. Gualter, M.A., of the First Church, Dunediu, was sold by public auction at Melbourne a week or two ago. It was a very valuable collection of books. The Chief Postmaster, Thames, has received an official intimation that regular traffic will be commenced on the ThamesWaikato Railway between Morrinsville and Te Aroha on Monday next. An old colonist writes to the Argus to call attention to the fact that in 1853 the late Mr. W. J. T. Clarke paid £4000 for a quarter of an acre near the Old Pier Hotel, Sandridge, being at the ratedf £16,000 an acre. At the Wesleyan Conference at Sydney a series of resolutions was adopted urging upon all the members and adherents of the Church the necessity of resisting every effort made to open public libraries and musems on Sunday. A Sydney correspondent says :—" Among the young drunkenness seems rather on the increase. The lads in our factories can often earn from 10a to 12s a day, and as they know .no better use for their money and their leisure than to drink, they may be seen reeling in the streets of an evening." The New Zealand Tom Thumb is at present at Wanganui. He is just 30 inohes high. Tom Thumb's successor appears to be a great favourite with the ladies, especially with the native belles. He has, moreover, contracted the vice of smoking, though evidently more for show than anything else. The Kirikiri Sawmill, which was until lately the property of Mr. John Read, timber merchant, has been purchased by Messrs. Blair and Gillespie, on whose account the operations are now being carried on. The mill is intended to be utilised in cutting np the timber from Mr. Blair's bush at Waipaheke, of which several millions of feet are now lying in the branches of fche Hikutaia river, awaiting a fresh sufficiently strong to bring it down.