NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7904, 24 March 1887, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Newton Grammar School sports yesterday. The Melbourne hospitals are crowded out ov typhoid patients. Mr. Ligbtband, of Nelson, has been resident on the same spot since 1842. . Pinal match of the tennis tournament will be played to-morrow (Friday). The Paten Harbour Board contemplate raising a loan for river improvements. Rows in the volunteer force in the South Island. Would that war wero declared. It la estimated that there will be between 700 and SOO men at the Easter encampment. The Wellington Harbour Board are taking special precautions to cope with any fire on the Wharf. There are 1355 justices of the peace in New Zealand, 100 less than on the previous commission. At a late sitting of the Bankruptcy Court, Wellington, there were no fewer than 22 bankruptcies closed. « The French frigate Daquesne, the flagship of Rear-Admiral de Saint fiilaire, arrived from Tahiti yesterday. . The electric light in the Post and Telegraph Offices, Wellington, Is to be worked by a Davey vacuum motor. • Sydney footballers have invited the doughty Maorilanders to pay another visit to New South Wales. The Thames Naval Artillery and Rifle Hangers have deoidad not to take part ia the volunteer camp at the Lake. Melbourne Cricket Club has written to Auokland re visit to this city of the All England Eleven next season. A shark has been caught in the harbour, and measures nine feet six inches. It is on exhibition near the watermen's stairs.

A Mr. Munro gave an entertainment at Patea the other day, which consisted solely in his playing tunes on the bagpipes. Mr, H. Roberts, of Wellington, the wellknown cricketer and footballer, is about to take up his residence in Christchurch. Lady students in the faculty of medicine In the Melbourne University will have to undergo the same scholastic training as male students. . Mr. John Tasker, of Wellington, has just finished a portrait in oil of the Hon. J. Martin, M.L.C. The likeness is very striking. A man in Melbourne was fined £1 for not having buried, with the least possible delay, the body of his daughter who died from typhoid fever. The Taranaki News sfeys that the bowlers speak in the most flattering terms of the hospitality they received at the hands of the Auckland bowlers. Provisional directors of the Athletic Sports Ground Company meet this afternoon at Mr. Hayr's oUice to decide definitely upon the leasing of a ground. The Ashburton Mail says that so far from Hall being in a weak state of health, he Is the best pick and shovel man on the Lyttelton hard labour gang. The Inspector of Weights and Measures, Sydney, has been directed to proceed to Melbourne, and see how they carry on the rorresponding department there. A writer in a laranaki paper says that, at Stratford, one sees the largest crop of thistles probably this side of the equator ; there are miles of thistles, and the gentle zephyrs blow the thistledown about in perfect clouds. The Napier News says .—" The Tramway Company is being wrapped up and put away in the refrigerator to wait until the land questions are settled. It is to be honed the people interested will be ready to give it a good thaw when it is brought out again." Vigorous opinions hare been expressed About the mischief which racing is doing to the rising generation, but evidently the members of the Hawke's Bay Education Board do not care about showing an example of abstinence, for at the last meeting of the Board most of the members were absent attending the races. Sir Charles Tupper's satisfactory answers that the Imperial Government intend to immediately grant a subsidy of £100,000 per annum for a mail service between Vancouver and China-Japan, augurs well for the early development of steam communication between Canada and Australia and New Zealand. The Gospel Temperance Mission meeting, bold in the Forest.-ra' Hall last Sunday evening, was conducted by the Women's Christian Temperance Society, there being a large attendance. Mrs. Erame officiated as chairwomen. Earnest addresses were given by Mrs. Brame and Miss Belfit. Both speakers pleaded hard for hose present to become total abstainers.

Mr. G. S. Lee, of Sheffield, who has returned to England from a tour in Australia, directs attention to the extraordinary volume of business done by American houses in Australasia. He quotes the returns of goods shipped from the States to these colonies in three months—namely, 1537 cases of hardware, 167 cases of electroplate, 457 caseß of tools, 208 cases of shovels and spades, 907 cases of nails, 35 cases saws, 3242 cages of axes and hatchets, 1000 cases of lamps, 573 cases of sewing machines, etc. "I think,' idds Mr. Lee, "these figures will in some measure account for home depression in British hardware trades."