NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8530, 2 April 1891, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Citizen's Ball this evening. A Brisbane man has been fined £10 for saying he was a detective. The citizens' ball to the Governor takes place in the Choral Hall to-night. . There were 1384 bankruptcies in the Colony during the past two years. The Melbourne Storage Company is said ■to have lost £10,000 by frauds, and the accountant is still missing. ■■ The Queensland Gov. Nt intend to Jjutinto operation an olu .. . allowing disorderly people to be summarily dealt with. His Worship the Mayor and the Town Clerk paid a return visit to Captain T. W. De Elbenbriick, of the Austrian warship Saida. -* The exclusion of Chinese from America and Australia lias turned the tide towards the Phillipines, which will soon be overflooded.

A strip of country in Queensland, between Lome and Terrick stations, has been set on fire by union shearers, and is now all ablaze. Thomas Fry was charged at the Police Court yesterday morning with the murder of William Veitch, of Wairoa, and remanded for a week. At Footscray (Vic.), a boy poured gunpower into the fire from a pocket containing 61b, when the lot went off. He is not expected to recover. There will be a meeting of the Auckland Jus tices of the Peace at the Resident Magistrate's Court on Friday morning, at ten o'clock, in order to revise the jury list ior the current year. The sentence of death passed on an old prisoner, named Cornelius Bourke, for kicking a fellow-prisoner to death, in Hamilton gaol, Victoria, will be carried out at Ballarat at 6th April. A coroner's jury in Melbourne, at the inquest on the body of a man who was killed by a fall from some scaffolding, returned a verdict of manslaughter against the contractor and architect for the building. In Brisbane last week, a young man named Vincent Butler was sentenced to six months' hard labour for entering a dormitory in the Nudgee Orphanage at night, and attempting to assault one of the girls. The New South Wales Cricket Association have decided to give their patronage to the English team ' that is about to visit Australia, provided the visitors do not hold them responsible for incidental expenses. Archdeacon AlcCullagh, # of St. • Paul's Church of England, Sandhurst, Victoria, who is about to take a trip to Europe, was presented at the Town Hall recently with a cheque for £300, subscribed for by the citizens generally. Mr. Henry John King is to succeed Signor Zelman as the conductor of the Melbourne Liedertafel. This is the first time that a Victorian-born musician has had the musical control of one of the leadins' societies of the metropolis. The Queensland Railway Commissioners tire making it known that under no circumstances will railway employees be permitted to in any way identify themselves with any labour dispute. Four men have been dismissed for disobeying the order. Two lads, named Fleming and Bogue, living in Perth (W.A.), were out recently on a piece of water known as Smith's Lake, in Cabbage-tree. The boat capsized in 12 feet of water thirty yards from the shore., resulting in Fleming being drowned. Our Russell correspondent telegraphs :— "The chains supplied lately for the Government for the use of the steam cranes at Opua, are turning out very defective — having carried away several times whilst coaling steamers, thereby causing great risk to life." At the last meeting of the Napier Harbour Board, the harbour-master reported that the ship Oamaru had had her cables parted no less than three times, and the ship Pleiades once. The Board had also under consideration the matter of two lost anchors of the ship Rangitikei. The cocksfoot harvest in Akaroa PeninSuVt is a big thing. An estimate for this year is 36,000 sacks, or over 5000 less than last year. In 1886 the product was 57,652 sacks. The same calculator reckons there will be a shortage of 17,200 sacks this year, as compared with last year, for all New Zealand. Professor Ives, of the Adelaide University, threatens to issue a writ against the pro prietors of Quiz for an alleged libel, unless they apologise and pay the present costs of action.* The statement objected to has reference to certain share transactions in which the professor considers that he is unfavourably referred to. At a meeting of the Committee of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals yesterday, it was suggested that convenience should be provided for watering the tram horses at the Queen-street end of the wharf, and the hon. secretary was requested to see what could be done in the matter.