NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9111, 20 July 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A. fancy dress masked ball is talked of in Wanganui. The street crossings in Dunedin are said to be " trackless seas of mud." ;. A girl at Lipperton got her right arm broken for the fifth time recently. ■ ' * '' lolanthe " was played by the Wellington Amateur Opera Company last Tuesday before a crowded house. It is said that there are 150,000 domesticated ostriches in the Cape colony, and that £1,600,000 is invested in the business A Christchurch gentleman, according to the Lyttelton Times, has invented a patent attachment to roller skates to prevent falling backwards. It is understood that Mr. J. P. Vause, the anti-Chinese postmaster at Te Aroha, has been advised from head quarters that he is to be transferred to another station.

A party from Melbourne is about to undertake an exploring journey through Western Australia, starting from Albany, and going in a N.E. direction to the Northern Territory and Queensland. Some fossil specimens of " unmistakeable gum-tree leaves" are said to have been found in some post-pliocene deposits in Poverty Bay, and in conjunction with them moa footprints have been found. A Canterbury paper contains the following strange assertion : —" There are only two ' Al' teachers in the colony : Mr. J. S. Foster, M.A., of North Canterbury, and Mr. D. White, M.A., of Otago." A writer in the Lyttelton Times, comparing the profits made on a given quantity of milk when made into butter and into cheese, calculates that there is one farthing per gallon in favour of cheese-making. " Bad as Mr. Withy's proposal to retrench salaries under £150 is (says the Wanganni Herald), the suggestion of the Auckland Trades and Labour Council is worse. They •wish all salaries over £300 cub down onehalf." -

The Rev. A. R. Fitcbett decries rowing matches. He thinks it a pitiful thing to see one individual pitted against an other, and the rest of the community going wild with excitement and squandering their money wildly in bets. "Mr. Hamilton," says the Hawke's Bay Herald, " whose splendid find of moa bones at Te Aute was narrated by us some time since;, will have a full skeleton of a bird set up early next month. The skeleton will be about eleven feet in height." A remarkable specimen of the "bunny " tribe was recently shot on the Woodbourne Estate, near Blenheim. From its lower jaw protruded two tusks, curving right over the nostril, and from the upper jaw another pair cupved downwards. The Christchurch Press says _ that the extremely mild weather experienced at Geraldine during the last few weeks has resulted in the growth of some well-grown strawberries, which, but for the rain of last week, would soon have been ripe. Allan Spencer, of Queenstown, a middleaged man, was found by the Invercargill police in an empty house, where he had remained for three days and nights without food or light. He had no money, and was apparently too proud to seek assistance. . The prospects of the Mahakipawa rush, near Nelson,are improving. Some "splendid specimens have been found, just about half gold and half quartz, with the rough honeycomb look which shows beyond a doubt that some rich reefs must be in the vicinity." A correspondent of a contemporary says of the Melbourne war scare that it showed what a terribly unreliable condition the defences are in: — "The torpedoes got adrift, the volunteers proved anything but soldier-like, and the whole muster turned out a regular fiasco.". Mr. Purvis, the chief engineer of the s.s. lonic, who is an enthusiastic ichthyologist, took home with him a frozen fish, weighing about Tibs, which was one of several caught on the Otago coast, and which according to Dr. Francis Day, a well known authority, proves to be a true salmon. An Oamaru paper says : —"As an instance of how the Harbour Board at Gisborne have managed their affairs, we'are told that they have speculated in hotels, and spent their funds in other strange ways." It goes on to speak of the Board having "criminally misappropriated the funds at their disposal." The Christchurch Telegraph praises Professor Thomas' remarks on Education, and says:—"Should his suggestions be acted upon, many who would otherwise find life's struggles very keen would be able to lead comfortable careers and do some £rood for themselves, and make a fair return to the State for the money expended on their instruction." ' <