NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9086, 21 June 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Jonathan Roberts is still at large. The Timaru woollen mill will be started in a week or so, after a thorough renovation. During a recent thunderstorm some of the ; telephone wires to Manutahi were fired by lightning. A brunch of the New Zealand Educational Institute, has been formed in the • Waikato. The harbour works at Gisborne are likely to come to a termination before they are completed. Specimens of silver, copper, and tin ore from Broken Hill are on view in the window of Mr. A. G. Bartlett. Pickpockets are about, and the crowd around the " Golden Chariot" is one of their happy hunting grounds. ... , , There were two persons Lb the lock-up last evening, one a case of drunkenness ana the other the man Daniel Geary, charged with larceny. _ . . ... The Wellington Press, which is now bitterly opposed to the Government, styles Sir Harry Atkinson " The devil we know." Diphtheria is very prevalent in Lyttelton Just at pr<!sent, and the State school in that town has been closed in consequence for a fortnight. The blows of the waves on Dashing Rocks, when a heavy sea is running, can be distinctly felt in Timaru, a mile away, so says the local paper. ... * The Melbourne Exhibition is becoming known as the " Centennerios," after the analogy of the " Fisheries," " Healtheriea," and " Colinderies." It is possible that the Hon. Mr. Larnach, ho is very popular on the West Coast, will receive some souvenir from the miners before be leaves the colony. The Hon. Mr. Man tell savs that the Episcopalian cemetery in Wellington is so crowded that in digging new graves the remains of those previously buried are thrown out, and he did not know what became of them. The installation of officers of Lodge Ara, 345, 1.C., will take place at the .Freemasons Hall, on Monday next, at high noon, when Brother C. C. McMillan, V\ .M. elect and his officers, will be duly installed in office. A beggar in Wellington, who was in the habit of visiting the houses of residents of Thorndon on begging expeditions, choosing a time when men were most, likely to be absent from home, and frightening women by his threatening actions, was sentenced to six months' hard labour recently. The Age says that during the last twelve months Melbourne has been in a state of "astounding prosperity, exceeding the wildest dreams of the most visionary individual." It also says "the boom in land, after lasting five years, spins along as on the day when it was first started." Gold, silver, and copper and other minerals are apparently being found everywhere throughout the North Island just now, and there is more prospecting going on Than there ever has been before. New Plymouth people are sanguine that the recent find of gold in the P;ihi range is a valuable one. A paragraph i 9 going the rounds of the New Zealand press on Mr. Vaile's letter to the Herald about the Kamo-Whangarei railway. It says, amon? other things:— " Mr. Vaile still ' pegs away' at the railway tariff, and he has certainly 4 scored one' in his last."

The following telegram was sent yesterday to. Messrs. Goldie, Withy, and Monk, by the secretary of the Political and Financial Reform Association :—" Committee request return moved to-day for all compassionate allowances or compensations granted during past twelve months, name of recipients, former salary, under what authority given, with name of Minister who approved payment. —R. J. Duncan."