NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9120, 31 July 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

, Trrs salmon have been seen in the Selwyn River. The first snow of the season fell in InverCargill on the 24th instant. A Shorthand Writers' Association has been formed in InvercargilL * They have been playing a locally written operetta called " Petrolea" at Gisborne. It is proposed to hold a boomerangthrowing display at the Melbourne Exhibition. Many of the Melbourne schools are giving holidays at) " Exhibition time " instead of at midwinter. -

The Minerva Petroleum Co.'s bore at Gisborne is now down 120 feet, and the boring is proceeding night and day. It is said that some of the courts at the Melbourne Exhibition will not be thoroughly ready before the beginning of September. The Post says it will be a long time before any settlers name their children after the present Minister of Lands, G. F. Richardson. At the Melbourne Exhibition there are 250 flagstaff's from which will float flags of all nations and 250 bannerets. Inside there is to be a design requiring about 3000 flags. A Southern paper speaks of the power of the new tariff "to fill the veins of our commerce with the wholesome blood of active, . independent, wage-earning consumers."

. It is stated that the recently-reported discovery of a bank of mud oysters near Napier was a hoax, by a tradesman who wanted to advertise his oysters and sell them quickly. It is rumoured, says a Southern paper, that Roberts, who recently escaped from gaol, is now a sergeant in the New Zealand police force. He has selected this disguise as a means of evading the vigilance of the force. ' A Napier paper has the following : — "The reason why so many young ladies desire to be probationers at the Hospital may be inferred from the fact that eight nurses have married from the institution during the last four years." Sydney tobacconists complain bitterly that they have lost much trade since, the roller-skating mania set in. The young man who dawdled away his time in the smoking and betting dens now gyrates at the rink, where smoking isn't allowed. At the recent election at Ashley the .voting was as follows : —Mr. Verrall, 234; Mr. Saunders, 232; and Mr. Dixon, 225. The first-named gentleman thus represents 234 electors, and 457 are left out in the cold/ The Hare system would prevent such an anomaly. The Hon. Robert Campbell, says a Napier paper, deserves the thanks of the colony for. his action in warning English investors against the Otago Dock Trust Loan. It speaks of the scheme as "this maddest of the many mad enterprises entered into by New Zealand local bodies. Carnivals are the order, of the night at the Melbourne rinks, and they take a variety of forms. Flower Carnivals, Paper Carnivals, White Carnivals, Masked Carnivals, Apron, and Necktie Carnivals, and goodness knows what not in the line, not to mention exhibitions at all the rinks of fancy and trick skating. . .' : r '" ' Mr. T. W. Glover, of the New Zealand Alliance, thus sums up Napier Much * cannot be said "of Napier. It seems to be a hard place to move against the drink ; the traffic seems to be mixed up with everything in the town, even the very churches, although the clergy are, many of them, brave and' true. ' A private letter has been received in Wanganui from a person travelling by the last San Francisco boat. The writer states that Dudley Eyre, the Wauganui absconder, was a passenger. He explained to those on board who knew him that he was going to America on account of the illness of his stepmother. . • If a hen and a half lay an egg and a half in a day and and a half, how many eggs will six hens lay in seven days The \Vellington Press published this riddle some months ago, but declares that it has not received a correct answers yet, although up to date it has received some columns of answers. It offers a prize of 5s for the right answer, which it says is laughably easy. A Gisborne paper offers half-a-guinea for it.