NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9023, 9 April 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Diphtheria is prevalent in Hawera. 7 A dairy factory is to be erected at the Mimi, Taranaki. : "Hv * . There is now only one ease of diphtheria In New Plymouth ; . Mr. Butler, -land purchase officer, leaves for Waikato to-day. ' " . ' . It is intended by Dick Matthews' admirers to get up a benefit for him. ; The burgess and defaulters' list may be viewed at the Municipal Building#. - _ The Auckland Fishing club had their last excursion for the Season on Saturday. No less a sum than £3679 was passed through the totalizators at the Hutt races. Mr. Blackett, Engineer-in-Chief, has been bavin? ft look at theTaranaki breakwater. _ The Thames Advertiser says that Mr. Mitchelson is an "accomplished native scholar." , . The Wairarapa takes, on her present trip to Australia, 400 passengers to Melbourne. . CI I 1 The Auckland Acclimatisation Society are to hold their annual meeting to-morrow, The departure of Major Jervois and his wife for England is greatly regretted in Wellington. , _. , , ' The pupils of the Wellington > Girls High School gave a concert a few nights ago in aid of the recreation fund. Messrs. Fox and Glover are conducting temperance meetings at Tauranga on behalf of the New Zealand Alliance. At the dinner given in European style by Taipari to the Hon. Mr. Mitchelson a number of native ladies were present. A Taranaki paper says that Ministers are prepared to give the petition to take Over the harbour "every consideration." The s.s. Hauroto, on her last trip from the South to Sydney, had on board 1050 tons of general farm produce and 5 horses. Petitions of insolvency have been filed by Samuel Miller, farmer, Pukekohe, and George Haynes Durston, jockey, Ellerslie. The pension upon which Mr. H. S. Wardell, late Resident Magistrate in Wellington, retires, amounts to £366 13s 4d per annum. , Mr. Molloy, M.P.. lectures at the Thames to-night on the hydrogen-amalgam process of extracting gold from ores, of which he is the patentee. The New Find and Silver King mines, now formed into one, will be called the Mount Aioha G.M.Co. Several contracts have been let. The Thames Advertiser states that a gentleman in Auckland has purchased the claim owned by natives at Puriri for the eum of £1000." Owing to the growth of the Wesley an cause in Wellington, there will In future be three ministers instead of two in the Wellington circuit. Mr. 5. Marchant, M.H.R. for Taranaki, has been visiting the Marton route of the trunk railway. He speaks disparagingly of the land along that line. Miss Fanny Martina Simonsen, # a daughter of Madame Simonsen, was married lately at the Registry Office in Sydney to a Mr. Max Rown, of that city. A recital of sacred music will be given at St. Sepulchre's Church on Friday next at eight p.m., at which a collection will be made in aid of the new organ fund. All licenses for billiard and bagatelle rooms, theatres, public halls, and places of public amusement, expiring on the 30th inft., must be renewed on or before that date. Constable McLellan, the bailiff of the Police Court, served a summons yesterday, but it was to attend the altar. Service was accepted by the other party. No cards. At the meeting to-night of the Remuera Lodge, 1710, E.C., the W.M. elect (Brother John Coom) will be installed in the chair. It is expected that a large number of Freemasons will attend. There were in the lockup last evening three persons on charges of drunkenness, and a man named William McDonald, for j breaking and entering into the house of Margaret Sullivan, Nelson-street. The taxes and rates charged against the Manawatu Railway Company represent a gum equal to about 2} per cent, per annum upon the capital. An effort is to be made to get the company exempted from property tax. , . A splendid harvest of grass seed has been secured all the way up to the West Coast of the North Island this year, the crop everywhere having been unprecedentedly large. In the bush districts, too, a large sum has been received for fungus. The annual general meeting of the Colonial Insurance Company will be held at Wellington on the 16th May, when a resolution will be proposed in the direction of prohibiting any person from acquiring more than 3000 shares in the company. It is rumoured that, owing to the intended migration of the Waikatos to the lower portion of the district, Mr. G. T. Wilkinson, the Government Native Agent, will in future be stationed at Otorohanga, and his having been appointed interpreter to the Court therj seems to confirm this report. Harry Laing, the champion pugilist of New Zealand is now in Wanganui, where he goes into training to meet Slavin, the Australian, on the 25th instant. Laing is pretty confident of the result, although he expects a hard battle. After this ' ' mill" he will go to Sydney, where he wants to 'meet Burke, the American.