NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9078, 12 June 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Hanlan, the sculler, is a vary bad Bailor,, The Chinese Conference begins its sittings K to-day. " 1 " . . , , There is a boom in hotel properties ab Reef . »'■ 1 ' A serious outbreak of diphtheria is reported at Marong, Victoria. \ The expenses of the English football team are about £400 per week. . A live frost-fish was found lately on the bank of the Waimakariri. Chief Justice Higinbotham, of Victoria, has declined to become one of the patrons of the Exhibition. A shipment for London was made lately of 20,900 bore, or 1050 tons, of Broken Hill silver-lead, worth £60 a ton. , Several flockowners in the Manawatu district have resolved to use the Wolseley sheep-shearing machine next season. They had a bon-bon party at the Wellington Columbia Rink lately, at which nearly all Wellington was present. _ _ It is reported in Melbourne that Captain Moore, who figured prominently in the Laura Swain Tragedy, has shot himself in England. There were two prisoners in the lock-up last evening—one, Frances Stearns, for drunkenness, and the other John Mackle alias " Happy," for vagrancy. The Government are understood to have positive official information that an Aus- ' tralian fever has set in amongst the Chinese at Hongkong and fcther parts northward. Some Wellington land agents have, according to the Press., just had inquiries from a Southern capitalist who is prepared to Invest £10,000 in Wellington city property. A little boy, son of Mrs. Hamilton, of Dubbo, fell down a well, a distance of 60 feet, into about 3 feet of water, and escaped with only a slight bruise on the head. A new boat has been built for Hanlan. Her dimensions are as follow: Length, 31 feet 6 inches ; breadth 10| inches; present weight, 171b ; full weight, gear and fittings, 271b. "The beach (says a Napier paper) exhibited another of its lightning changes this morning. Yesterday the shoro was covered with shingle, but to-day this has given place to fine sand." A young lady at Orange, ISiew South Wales, on hearing that her father, Mr. Robert Frost, a wealthy squatter, had been killed by a fall from his horse, received such a shock that she became ill, and died in a few hours. A man at Marten invented an improved lock fifteen years ago, but failed to take out a patent till the other day, when he found that the same idea had been patented just two years before, and was now estimated to be worth £10,000. The grain traffic between the Bluff and Melbourne is now so great that the Union Steamship Company tinds that it will be necessary to keep a steamer specially employed on that route for some time to come, in order to overtake it. In a leader dealing severely with the Hon. Mr. Fisher for his antagonism to the Wellington Board of Education, the Press concludes :—" We need say no more. We have shown how grossly untruthful the Minister of Education is in his statements." There is said to be a lack of tonnage to carry Home colonial wheat. One of the largest grain houses in the world writes from London as follows:—" If any demand springs up for wheat from the colonies, we really don't see where the ships are to come from." In a somewhat extraordinary case heard at the Sydney Quarter Sessionsa charge charge a young woman of keeping a disorderly housethe counsel for the defence handed up to the Judge a list of witnesses whom he desired to call for the defence, remarking that it included the names of several members of Parliament. His Honor, after perusing it, Slily remarked, " They'll have to adjourn the House.'' However, the witnesses were not called, and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.