NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9155, 10 September 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A Dunedin firm have just; turned out their fifty-third piano. Up to the end of August 265,000 people have visited the Melbourne Exhibition. All the newer coal mines at Newcastle (New South Wales) are Victorian owned. We learn from an exchange that an old lady at Reefton died from fright caused through the earthquake. Favourable reports have been received from all parts of the Wairarapa district of the lambing season this year. The leading railway contractors of Victoria have resolved that the standard rate of pay for navvies shall be 7s per day. One old lady travelled to Potter's Paddock on Saturday to see the footballers as it was "so long since she had seen an Englishman." The New Zealand grain display at the Melbourne Exhibition is said to be magnificent, and surpasses everything of the kind in the other courts. The demand for land is increasing (says the Wanganui Herald). Bush falling is going on briskly in several parts of the district, and there is a demand for bush ha i n t d to be hoped (says a Southland paper) there is no place in the whole world where people beslobber themselves and one anotaer with praise in such a shocking manner as they do in Dunedin. At Petone, Wellington, a child has been born with five fingers and a thumb on one hand and four fingers and two thumbs on the other. The child is otherwise quite natural and enjoys good health. H. H. Travers, clerk, of Wellington, has filed a petition in bankruptcy, showing a deficiency of £0391. W. T. L. Travers, the well-known barrister, father of bankrupt, stands as a creditor to the tune of £5000. At Picton since the recent gold discoveries at Mahakipawa a wild prospecting mania prevails. Every piece of stone found in the vicinity of creeks is eagerly scanned to see if any trace of the precious metal can be discovered. A movement is on foot (says an exchange) to send a representative from Dunedin to Melbourne, to ascertain what support colonial and foreign exhibitors at the Centennial Exhibition there would give to an exhibition held in Dunedin. Farmers in the South are on the horns of a dilemma. They do not like to sell theii stocks of wheat while the price is going up, and at the same time they fear that the increasing freights may counteract any benefit they may obtain by . waiting for higher quotations. Five bags of Chinese-grown cabbages imported from Wellington (says a Napier paper), were despatched by mail coach to Havelock and Hastings. Hawke's Bay gardeners say they cannot grow cabbages, The Chinese market gardeners at the Hutt pav a rental of £10 an acre for their land. the Victorian irrigation movement is, it is said, likely to clash with mining interests. Rivers like the Goulbourn and Loddon are becoming polluted to such an extent that it may become impossible to utilise their water for irrigation purposes. On the other hand, to interfere with the flow of sludge in certain localities would seriously hamper mining.