NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9146, 30 August 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

*Puff" says the Korerorium is rapidly iegenerating into a penny gaff! The Post, in giving a resume of the session, heads it " Wearing Chicago." Scarlatina is so prevalent at Woodville that it is proposed to close the school. The estimated population of the colony on June 30th was 646,834, of whom 41,969 are Maoris. Upwards of eighty hands are now in active employment at the Waihi Gold Mining Company. "You don't appreciate Verrall on State Banks ?' " No, a visit to a lunatic asylum always depresses me !" The whole of the site of Adelaide was originally sold for £4000. • It is now estimated at £11,000,000. The Dunedia Star quotes Mr. Vaile's letter to the Herald about " Our Railways : The Down Grade." They had a " Caprice Soiree" in connection with a Sunday-school in Timaru recently. It was an immense success. The Gazette notifies that the bird kaka comes within the provisions of the Animals Protection Act from the 17th August. Alderman Benjamin, the present Mayor of Melbourne, is the first member of the Jewish race who has held that position. A Timaru paper publishes in full the examination papers at the yearly "test matriculation examination " of the Timaru High School. The pictures at the Melbourne Exhibition, about which so much was said and promised, are stated to have turned out to be nothing in particular. Gippsland, in Victoria, is said to be simply teeming with coal, and it only wants proper prospecting and searching for to give Melbourne a supply almost at its back door. It is stated that the author of "Colonists " has been so encouraged with the success of that work that he has made arrangements for the publication of another venture next week. The Melbourne Exhibition, with its concerts and other attractions, is seriously affecting the attendance at the theatres, and the failure of Amy Sherwin's Company is set down to this cause. They have a museum at Masterton, and some scientific people there recently, described something that was sent to the museum as "an insect, and a cross between a grasshopper and a kangaroo." Notice is given in our columns that Messrs. C. Bagley and A. T. Eyre have been nominated as candidates for the vacancy in the Parnell Borough Council, and that a poll will be taken at the Borough Council offices to-day. Southern papers deal very sarcastically with Mr. Verrall and his State bank. The Christchurch Telegraph compares his oration on the subject to Disraeli's maiden speech, and declares that there is a glorious career before Mr. Verrall. A man named Herbert Stoncliewer Cooper, formerly editor of the Fiji Times, was recently committed to Adelaide lunatic asylum as insane. He was found on a road near Port Elliot late at night, having walked ninety miles without food. A Napier exchange says—The American Rink in Napier benefits the foreign speculator to the tune of about £100 a week, that sum representing the average amount sent to America by the management. Is this the sore of thing calculated to do Napier any good ? Captain Sommerville has received word from the Defence Department that MartiniHenry rifles for the teams to visit Australia will be issued at once to the officers commanding districts with '200 rounds of ammunition to each weapon, but no further j assistance will be granted.