NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9179, 8 October 1888, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Normanby (Q.) blacks have recen&y been dining on roast Chinaman. Petty thieving is stated to be very rife in Hamilton just at present. Blenheim is excited, over the proposal to use the old hospital as a temporary school. Mr. Seddon, M.H.R., is recovering. It has been "touch and go" with him, he Bays. There were in the lock-up last night no less than six prisoners on charges of drunkenness. The Blenheim Borough Council have determined to cable home for a steam fire engine, the same as imported by Christchurch. A boy named Neilson, while playing with a dynamite cap at Lyttelton the other day, applied a hot iron to it, when it exploded, severely injuring hi;? hand. . . Mr. R. E. Isaacs, who has been on a visit So London during the last three months, was a passenger bv the s.s. Tongariro, which arrived at Wellington on Saturday evening. Rain commenced to fall in this locality oil Saturday about midday, and has continued at intervals since. It will do much good in saturating the ground before the heat of summer. The usual entertainment at the Temperance Hall on Saturday evening was largely attended, A number of sailors from H.M.s. Diamond assisted in the entertainment. Mrs. Kilgour, of the Thames, is at present on a visit to Dr. and Mrs. Lethbridge, at Alexandra, Victoria. A local paper speaks highly of her performance at a concert there. There is a lob of wild talk in Victoria just now about the vast coal deposits of that colony, and it is solemnly stated that Melbourne itself stands on a rich coal bed, sufficient in itself to supply the city. The run holders in Ota go (says an exchange) are going in largely for Wolsely's sheep shearing machines. It is understood that about 20 of these machines will be fitted up at Benmore, and 40 between Station Peak and Otekaike. A Napier paper states that there was recently a narrow escape from a terrible railway collision at the Napier railway station. The matter was hushed up, but the paper demands a searching inquiry in the interests of the travelling public. There is one school at least, in New Zealand in which proper attention is given to that very important subject of shorthand, and this "is the Wanganui Collegiate School, where there are 50 boys who are struggling with the mysteries of Pitman's curious signs. A Wanganui paper says : Miss Crisp, of the Auckland Hospital, visited the local hospital, and expressed herself as highly pleased with the manner in which Miss Taylor conducts it. The diet scale., she says, is much more liberal than that in the Auckland Hospital. We understand, says the Te Aroha News, that there has been a large increase in the carriage of goods between Auckland and Te Aroha by rail since the tariff was reduced, which has also made an increase in the receipts in that department, notwithstanding the fact of the reductions in the charges. A "disgusted digger " who has just returned to Masterton from a visit to the Wahakipawa goldtields, says if everyone would take his advice, they would stay Where they are and leave the goldfields llone. He states that there are about 500 >n the ground and only 50 working, and diggers are leaving the field daily in disgust The Wanganui Herald wants to know when the Government is going to appoint Judge Ward permanently to the* Supreme Court vacancy. It says :—" The Government, we suppose, are beating about for another appointment which will better meet the views of one or two of the Judges of the Supreme Court." Mr. John Runciman, of Cambridge, has lately had several letters from fruit growers in California, and they all speak in commendatory terms of the fruit-pickers he sent there on triuL One firm want him to patent the instrument, and let them work the agency for him. He has, however, not yet decided what to do regarding it.