NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9090, 26 June 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There was but one case of drunkennesg in the lock-up last evening. . Christchurch has subscribed £220 for the relief of the Norsewood sufferers. There is said to be excessive poverty and distress in Christchurch just now. Madame Duflot thinks that she will remain in Auckland for twelve months. The Woodville Cheese and Butter Factory i 3 advertised for sale in the Napier papers. A Russian Bailor was lately sentenced to a month's imprisonment at Nelson for misconducting himself. Dr. and Mrs. Medcalf, of Norfolk Island, firrived here yesterday per Southern Cross, en route for England. The chairman of the Picton Road Board tried to turn out reporters from a meeting of that body, but failed. , The police have received information that a woman named Mrs. Best has been missing from Piikekohe since the 19th instant. It is said that if the school ago were raised to six years, it would result in one hundred children being dismissed at the Napier main school. ■V child in Invercargill was nearly poi■oned by swallowing & teaspoonful of creosote. Prompt action saved his life. Creosote is ft powerful narcotic poison. Thanks to the humble beo, says a Southern puper, Mr. O. H. Martin, an Eyreton fanner, has been able to send good samples of red clover seed to market this year. The locking up of the land on the West Coast against selection for settlement, on account of the Midland Railway proceedings is causing great dissatisfaction in that district. . . Professor Bickerton's lectures in Christchurch on "Cosmic Philosophy," and " Partial Impact,"' have been well attended. He gives three lectures on electricity this week in aid of the Christchurch Industrial Association. The members of the Auckland Sailors Home Association held thoir annual meetins; yesterday afternoon, at the Home, Quay-street, "Captain H. F. Anderson prosiding. The proceedings are reported in another column. , A child was burnt to death in C hristchurch recently. The mother left her in charge of the house while she took two other children to school. On returning, the mother found the child in the garden with her clothes on fire.

One pound of bananas contain more nutriment than 31bs of moat or as many pounds of potatoes, while as a food it is, in every sense, superior to the best wheaten bread. An acre of ground planted with bananas will return as much food material ss li'S acres of wheat or 100 acres of potatoes. Mr. R. M. Roach died of typhoid fever lately at Gisborne. He came out to Auckland*about nine years ago in company with his brother, who is .still here. He was employed in surveying and station work, and was one of thoi-e who went to the Kimberley Goldfield at the time of the rush. The Lyttelton Times has produced some very brisrht paragraphs lately. This is how the" larrikins are described :—"Youths in boots with high-pitched heels, that give to their wearers the gait of a hen on a hot frying-pan, and in trousers with a waving width at the feet like the fetlocks of a Clydesdale." A company will probably be formed in New Plymouth, with a capital of 10,000, to establish a creamery factory, the headquarters of which will be in New Plymouth. Creameries will be built at various centres, where the cream will be separated from the milk, and forwarded to the factory at New Plymouth. This is the question which has been agitating the columns of the Wellington Pi ess for some weeks past : —"lf a hen and a-half lay an egg and a-half in a day and a-half, how many eggs will six hens lay in seven days f The prize is 2s 6d, but the question is still unsolved. Incorrect answers have been received varying from § of an egg up to4si. A correspondent of a Southern paper, commenting on the protests against Pagteur's microbes being used for destroying rabbits, on the ground that so many dead rabbits might cause an epidemic, and also on account of the cruelty, says: —"What nbout tho millions lying dead now ? The death by phosphorous is inconceivably more crue l—liquid fire in their insides, making them shriek in their agony." A pamphlet has been published in Christchurch gi\ing " a full, true, and particular account of the strange, eventful life and thrilling adventures of Jonathan Roberts (Zealandia's Turpin) with startling particulars of his crimes, trials, and convictions, together with glowing details of his marvellous, daring, and unparalleled escapes from custody at Timaru Gaol and Ripa Island." A Christchurch citizen, Mr. W. R. Parker, of Armagh-street, ha 3 invented a baker's oven on the principle of the "Koppa .Maori." It only uses a quarter of the fuel of an ordinary oven, and there is no smoke, dirt, or ashes. A fire lighted over-night und allowed to burn to ashes, which are then " banked up," will heat the twentyfive cubic yards of masonry composing the oven to such an extent that baking of all descriptions may be carried on throughout the day.