NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8555, 1 May 1891, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Mb. W. Dunsmuib, of Port Chalmers, is exhibiting in his shop window a lpcsllyjgrown pear which tarns the scale at lib ,7oz. ■•' ■ .■'-'•''- \ Solomon, an Adelaide tobacconist, was lately fined £250 for allowing gambling in bis shop. TattersauV Club members subscribed the amount. The committee of the Education Board meets to-morrow in accordance with Mr. Grant's resolution, No. 5, in reference to text books to bo used in the schools. The Russell justices of the peace handed Inspector McGovern a letter on Wednesday expressing most kindly sentiments towards him both in his private and public capacity. , . An Australian bishop recently pointed out that New Zealand elects its Primate from among all it? bishops, and thought it might be well for Australia to follow her : example. . '. '■■','! Another of the popular entertainments of j the Burns Club was held last night in the Masonic Hall, Newton, Mr. Carter presiding. A programme of songs, etc., was gone through. The orange crop in the central Cumberland district, New South Wales, promises to be very light this year, and some of the oldest growers state that they never before remember such a light yield. Even the sanctity of a cathedral does not appeal- to act as a bar against the committal of robberies. Two of the offertory boxes in St. David's Cathedral, Hobart, were broken into last week and the contents taken. Football accidents are already commencing. Recently two young men named Peter Cleary and Petrie both had their legs badly hurt while playing football. The former belongs to the Lyttelton and the latter to the Sydenham Football Club. ,- > , u u Frederick Tulliett, chief cook, has been awarded £40 damages against the Adelaide S.S. Company for breach of contract. He was engaged for six months as a nonunionist during the strike, but at the end of two months he was discharged and a Unionist employed. Bishop Crane, of Sandhurst, has been presented with an address and a purse.of sovereigns by the sisters of the Brigidine convents at Echuca, Wangaratta, and sJeechworth. The presentation was made on behalf of the nuns by Dr. Murray, VicarGeneral of Cooktown. Referring to the system of charitable aid obtaining in the colony, the Otago Daily Times is of opinion that what forms the main ground of complaint is that the mass of recipients of charitable aid are being pauperised, and that the pauper feeling is likely to become hereditary. It is stated that the recent United States census shows that the negro population are nob increasing at anything like the rate usually attributed to it. During the last 30 years Of slavery the increase was 90 per cent. During the first 30 years of freedom it has increased but 66 per cent. The Yen. H. B. Macartney, D.D., Dean of Melbourne, entered upon his 93rd year on Friday, the 17th April, having been torn on that date 1799. Notwithstanding his great age the rev. gentleman is comparatively hearty, and preaches every Sunday at his church, St. James's, with his usual vigour. A "distressed housewife" of Dunedin is disgusted with the idea of raising the price of ''bread. She is of opinion that such squeezing of pennies from the public generally is a most cruel and unjust transaction, and will tend to depopulate the province entirely, as all who by any means means can will migrate to where they can live cheapest and easiest. 'The Hobart Mercury, referring to Sir George Grey's action at the Federal Conference, says :—" Men like Sir George Grey, who have got beyond the practical age, and who have grown positive in the belief of various fads and assumptions, do a great deal of damage, since many persons are not able to distinguish between the honour due to past services, and the weight that should !>3 given to present opinions.'' The Anglican Bishop of Tasmania states that, " The art feeling of the colony still slumbers. We are waiting for a few rich men to present pictures to the public museums, which can stimulate our native artists and give the purest of pleasures to thousands. These aims are purely Christian. Until they are taken up there is a want of breadth in our Christianity. -1 should like to see the Church of England take the lead in this as in all other questions." The Hobart Mercury thus delivers itself : —"The Federal Constitution as it stands, assuming that the ferocious democrats of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane allow it to come into force, will assuredly give rise to some serious difficulties. For the Constitution Act is an attempt to graft British practice on a Government dependent on a written document, so that we shall have, if the ferocious democrats only spare us, an endeavour to work together two systems which are directly antagonistic." The words " ferocious democrats" occur about half-a-dozen times in the article from which the above is extracted. «