NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9000, 13 March 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Order of Buffaloes is spreading in the South. Mr. Sydney Taiwhanga, M.H.R., is at Botorua. Subscriptions are being got up in Dunedin towards the Irish National Fund. The humble bee has been found as far south as the Limestone Plains in Southland. It is said that the wheat in Canterbury is not turning out so heavy as was anticipated. Sir G. S. Whitmore's official duties m connection with the volunteers have now ceased. Bishop NeviH. of Dunedin, goes to England by the Aorangi, to attend the Lambeth Conference. . . . A Wellington gentleman has; written a comedy burlesque specially for the Green.wood family. ■ , ■ , *. 'ml '• i. The Rev. Mr. Telfer lectured at Christchurch the other day on "The Scottish Covenanters." The new buildings for the New Zealand Insurance Company in Dunedin are now nearly completed. At the next year's rifle meeting at Blenheim all the competitors will be armed with the Martini-Henry. Miss Amy Sherwin gave a concert at Dunedin for the foundation of a musical scholarship at the University. The Great Eastern Company (Central Otago) lately crushed 100 tons of quartz for a return of 2Sooz of retorted gold. Several cases of typhoid fever are reported in Christchurch. A number of cases of diphtheria have occurred at Rangiora. Mr. Parkos, the inventor of the new process for smelting gold and silver ores, is a passenger for New Zealand by theKaikoura, which lias left London. We may remind Auckland justices that a few days ago two boys were sentenced at Dunedin to six strokes of the birch rod for stealing fruit. A Christchurch paper calls on the authorities there to take warning by the typhoid epidemic in Auckland, and improve the sanitary condition of the city. Captain Edwin advised yesterday : Northwest to west and south heavy gale, with colder weather, and class rising within the next twelve hours. Indications bad. Miss Annie Forbes, at present second mistress of the Girls' High School at Oamaru, has obtained the M.A. degree, with honours. Miss Forbes studied at the Otago University. A shock of earthquake was felt at Gisborne yesterday morning, lasting for five or six seconds. "The general direction was from S. W. to N.E., but it was. irregular in its movement. Mr. T. Mackenzie, M.H.R. for Clutha, has lately been on a visit to Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide. Ho desires to obtain the adoption of free interchange of products between the colonies. There was a practice of the Ponsonby Choral Society last evening. Mr. Trimnell, the conductor, is giving the members a thorough drilling in the cantatas " Boadieea" and "Stanford's Revenge." It is a curious circumstance that McNeill, whose tragic death recently at Boulogne caused some sensation, was designed for a Baptist minister, and should have lost his life while on an expedition to see a prize fight. Yesterday afternoon a lunatic named Francis Walker, who has escaped several times from the Lunatic Asylum, was arrested ; in Queen-street, being identified by the police as one of the inmates of the institution. There was in the lockup last evening a eeaman named Christian Guldager, who was arrested by Constable McDonnell, of the Water Police, on a charge of refusing duty i on board of the brigantine Deutschland, on the high seas. The Napier Tradesmen's Athletic Club have elected the following office-bearers :— President, Mr. R. D. D. McLean; vicepresidents, Messrs. W. R. Blythe and N. Heath; treasurer, Mr. G. I. Clarke; secretary, Mr. A. G. Howe. At the meeting of the Dunedin High Schools' Board of Governors it was resolved, " That, for the sake of uniformity in the two schools, the official title of the headmaster of the Girls' School shall in future be ' rector,' and not ' principal,' as heretofore." Great disgust is expressed in Canterbury at the parsimonious conduct of the Government in cutting down the volunteer capitation grant to 30s per man. Some officers state that they will be unable to carry on their corps on the small sum they will receive under the new system. The Lyttelton Times, speaking of the proposal made in America to abolish the duties on wool, says :—" We may not see the wool duty taken off by next —though that is by no means improbable — but that the abolition is not far off may now be taken as among things established." .Amongst the exhibits at the forthcoming conversazione of the Cbxistchurch Industrial Association will be three sections of iron rails sent by the Onehunga Iron Company. The company have just executed an order for 40 tons of rails for a private company in the North Island, and have some iOO tons still in stock.