NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8477, 30 January 1891, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Papakcra is becoming a favourite picniceround. A lad named Frank Yaile was drowned at Chelsea yesterday. The Auckland harbour presented a most animated picture yesterday. There was an excellent attendance at the Takapuna races yesterday. The Mayor of Christchurch, Mr. C. M. Gray, is at Wanganui on a brief visit. The Auckland R.M. Court! sat yesterday, but was adjourned, no business being done. This evening the annual,meeting of the Working Men's Club will be held in the Clnbroom. The annual meeting of the Accident Insurance Company takes place to-day, at two o'clock. The news of the lire on board the Leading Wind caused some excitement in shipping circles at Lyttelton. It is calculated that 10,000 people were carried by the various ferry and excursion steamers yesterday. . A meeting of the shareholders in the Try Fluke G.M. Co. takes place at noon, in the office of Mr. H. Giltillan. The Tararu Gardens have been offered to the Thames Borough Council, as a recreation ground, for a sum of '-5. The members of the Christchurch Commercial Travellers Association held their first convivial gathering recently. The Auckland Champion Whaleboat Rice was won yesterday by the Hauraki Rowing Club's crew from the Thames. The Sunday-school annual picnic at Russell took place on Thursday. There was a large attendance. The weather was line. Mrs. Swann, widow of the late Mr. Swann, of Timaru, has been _ appointed mistress of the State school at Kaitawa, in the Wellington district. At Reefton yesterday, Messrs. Duffy and Hughes, charged with stealing auriferous dirt, the property of the .Caledonian Quartz Mining Company, were acquitted. The highest "rainfall during December was at Ingle wood, 11.12 in.; and Bealy, 10 in. Auckland was 1 - PS, Wellington 5.07, Lincoln (near Christchurch) .52, Dunedin 4.05. Nearly 200 labourers have left Otago for Tasmania, in order to work on the Zeehan railway contract —a line intended to open up the district from Port Maequarie to the silver mines. The maize at Te Puke, notwithstanding the cold and rain of the early summer, is looking well, and for the season of the year, is in a forward condition. Several large paddocks arj already in flower. It does rat appear to be generally known that samp.es of ore for analysis and assay can be sent free of charge to Wellington, to bo treated, if addressed, "0.P.5.0., Minister of Mines, Wellington." One of the successful candidates at the receut. matriculation examination in Melbourne was Miss Matilda Ann Aston, who is totally blind, and has been an inmate of the blind asylum for eight years. The Southland Times says the flow of tourists to our shores appears now to have fairly set. in, and for the next two or three months large arrivals of visitors may be expected by every steamer from Melbourne. Several farmers were charged at the Ashburton Resident Magistrates Court recently with tampering with the county water-races, in order to water their crops. Substantial penalties were imposed upon the offenders. The London publishers, Hutchinson and Co., will publish in February next, a work by an Auckland or. Mr. A. J. Yogan, called The Black Police," which will retail the author's experiences of an extended journey among the black colonists of Northern Queensland.