NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9103, 11 July 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Roman Catholic Synod will shortly be held in Auckland.

The cost of our opened railways is now set down at £13,352,978. The Invercargill ministers have started an anti-totalisator crusade. The Melbourne Hunt Club has imported 22 fox hounds from England. ; There are one hundred men on the new goldfield at Mahakipawa, Nelson. A seal some few few feet long was captured on the beach at Napier a few days ago. There was but one person in the lock up last evening, Henry Barstow for drunkenness. A lady evangelist, Miss Malcolm, is at present making a great sensation in Wellington. An act is to be passed in Victoria to protect the ornithorynchus, or duckbilled

platypus. In Southland there are no less than nine dairy factories, most of which are paying a dividend. The Mayor of Christchurch has obtained leave of absence to go to the Melbourne Exhibition. " Succumbed to the existing depression," is the honeyed phrase used by a Southern paper for going bankrupt. Mr. Lawson, the official assignee, and his assistants are busier just now than they have been for some time past. A larger quantity of grain was moved by rail in the South Island in May last than in the same month in any previous year. The Auditor-General has disallowed the item £8 8s for the portrait of the late Mayor that appears in the Hastings Borough accounts. f

A settler in the Pukekura district has caught no less than fifty-three hawks during the last month in an ordinary rattrap baited withdraw meat.

The Rabbit Preserving Factory at Blenheim is putting through twelva thousand rabbits per week, and expect to increase the number to eighteen thousand per week. The Otago Daily Times hopes the Dunedin people will remember the severe lesson of ten years ago, and " refuse to be carried away into a silly speculation such as is now going on in Melbourne." " The London Times, in referring to the Chinese question, states that the colonies find themselves in a difficulty not unlike that of the old magician who called up the devil, and was unable afterwards to get rid of him. ■ :

£3 16s per head was the cost of the last consignment of stoats and weasels per Awatere. A great reduction in the cost is looked for, as the London office of the N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Co. had established collecting centres in England for the vermin. The birch bark industry is now an important one in the Nelson district, and many men are employed in stripping the bark. „ It is said to be superior to wattle for tanning purposes, and a set of harness made 30 years ago from birch bark tanned leather is said to be still in uee in Nelson. The drive under the Maharahara copper lode is now in a distance of 166 feet. The ground is terribly hard, and progress is only made at the rate of 9 inches a shift of eight hours. The water is saturated with copper, and indications of the vicinity of the lodejire very distinct. Speaking of the recent finds at Kimberley, the Christchurch Telegraph advises its readers who would follow the example of "the adventurous Argonauts who set out in the Triumph a couple of years ago, to remember the disappointment which resulted upon that occasion, and to stay at home." v -

A Southern paper, after speaking of Mr. Bryce as "the coming man," goes on to say, " Mr. Bryce's record is absolutely untarnished. He has proved himself to be one of those still strong men that-will speak : out and dare not lie. With him and Atkin- ; son, and Fisher in the same team, the affairs of the -country would be tolerably safe." Another paper says: -." Mr. Bryce is> a disappointed politician, of moribund views—a paltry political pessimist. The Waitotara electorate rejected him, and the country doesn't want him." • " '