NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9285, 12 February 1889, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are playing" in Wellington just now on their farewell tour. The Chinese residents of Wellington , celebrated their New Year's Day on 31st January. Captain Edwin telegraphs at 3.45 p.m. • yesterday:—North to west and southwest, strong winds and glass rise. In Victoria there remain altogether 13,755,351 acres, or 31 per cent, of the whole, still available for settlement. We learn by telegraph that in Canterbury, the fine weather has broken. Showers fell yesterday afternoon and evening. Sir Maurice O'Rorke is contributing a series of articles to the Sydney Morning Herald on " A Flying Visit to the West." Our Thames correspondent telegraphed yesterday :—" William Dufty was acquitted to-day on a charge of horao stealing. The case occupied all day." The results of New Zealand quartz treated at the Melbourne Exhibition were shown in Mr. Witheford's window yesterday, and excited much attention. Sir Henry Ayera, of Adelaide, has received news by the English mail that the sale of the famous Burra copper mine to an English company is to be completed on March 13, The Wellington Operatic Society has given £20 to the Lunatic Asylum Recreation Fund, a like sum to the Home for the Aged and Needy, and £10 to Mr. Riley's School of Design. Our correspondent at Paeroa telegraphed yesterday as follow? :—" The Ohinemuri School Committee vote for Messrs. Goldie and Lennox, and Professor Thomas for the Board of Education.' , The petitions for dissolution of marriage in Victoria are only one to every 2SS marriages. It seem?, however, that the number of These petitions is twice as great in Victoria as in England and Wales. There is some talk in Wellington about organising- a company for brick and drain pipe making. It is said that those articles rule higher in price in Wellington than in any other part of the colony. The fair sax in Napier are agitating for the establishment of suitable dressingrooms on the beach, in order that both sexes may enjoy the sensible Continental and American system of bathing. The Lyttelton Times states that) Mr. Wi Pere, Mr. W. L. Rees , companion, was a through passenger by the steamer Manapouri. which passed through Lyttelton on January 31 from Melbourne to Gisborne. The "list of candidates in the New South Wales elections shows that about 260 candidates are announced for 136 seats. Of these upwards of 120 are Protectionists, and about 110 Freetraders, while 30 are not yet classified. The Government intend to re-arrange and probably increase the Native Land Court Judges with the view of relieving the pressure of business at Wanganui and Gisborne. The Maoris are stated to be largely availing themselves of last session's Act. A lad aged 13 years named Henry Roberts, who wa3 under apprenticeship by the State Children's Relief Society to M. Kelly, of Jomberoo, N.S.W., hung himself recently in a shed on the farm. The boy had never given the slightest indication of a suicidal tendency. A Wellington paper says : —" We regret k> hear that Mr. Hannah is talking of dosing his boot and shoe manufactory in i\h city, and of opening one in Auckland. 3e leaves for Auckland to-day, and seems very earnest in his resolve, which is induced by "the trouble he has had lately with workmen." A gold nugget was found at Dunolly, Victoria, the other day, which weighed 99 ounces. The nugget was obtained infold I •workings, only about 6ft from the surface, in a very small corner of a wall, between two old claims which had been left untouched previously, although the ground all about had been thoroughly worked.

The public (say 3 the Hawkes Bay Herald), evidently scent a good thing in the Maharahara Copper Mining Company, as applications for shares are coming in rapidly to the brokers. The fact of several well-known " warm" men having token 2000 shares each may have something to do with it, especially as these investors are known to have " bought to hold."

Mr. John Blair, of Abbotsford, Green L-land, Otago, a contemporary states, intends publishing shortly a small volume, entitled " Lays of the Old Identities." Mr. Blair was a frequent contributor to the Otago Witness in olden times, and intends republishing some of his contributions to that journal, together with other sketches of the " good old times."

A Westport telegram to the Greymouth Star says :—" It is reported that as a result of Admiral Fairfax's visit to Westport the gunboat Lizard and other smaller boats of the equadron will come here for supplies of coal. The Admiral when here spoke in hifh terms of the quality of the coal, and safd he would recommend its use for the China squadron."