NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8582, 2 June 1891, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Cbiminal sittings of the Supreme Court opened to-day. . Two hundred eovereigns have been found by a woman in Melbourne planted in a wustard tin in the ground. ■Mr. 1 Napier has been engaged by Mr. flugh Shorekhd, solicitor, to defend Floyd, Itfhola charged with murder. Mr. H. C. Brewer assumed the duties of Sheriff of the Supreme Court) yesterday, rico Major Gascoy-je, retired. Private letters, per Kaikoura, received in Wellington, state that the Hon. B. Oliver will return to the colony in October. For the four weeks, ended May ; 23, the butter exported from the .Taranaki 'breakwater only was 93 tons Bcwt Iqr 101b. The newly-elected licensing committee for the Onslow Borough granted a license to a new house which was refused by the old committee. . Somewhere about 2000 acres of bush are under contract for falling this year at JSTuhaka alone, giving employment to at least 100 men. __ At the Newtown (New South Wales) Police Court James Donahue was fined £5 for illegally interring a corpse In the PetierBham Cemetery. , . ■ A return published at Invercargill shows that* during the last four months 33 farms, totalling about 7000 acres, have changed bands in Southland. ■'■.'" .AToombul (QueenslandJJratepayer is the author of the new and' expresuive word which occurs in an epistle to the local Council.

A young Melbourne barrister in tbe County Court in cross-examining a witness, , inquired, "Did the prosecutor say anything else you didn't hear ?" . The Christchurch Press vouches for the statement that Mrs. Blackburn, a Kaiapoi resident; can dig up and put three tons of potatoes in sacks in a working day. Experts who have visited agricultural shows in Australia declare that the enormous bow exhibited at the last Wellington show is the biggest pig in Australasia. ■ A splendid collection of portraits of the delegates to tha Federal Convention has been presented to Wellington by Mr. A. J. Fraser, manager for tho New Zealand Press Association in Sydney. A curious contrztemps occurred as the jprison van was being driven into the Supreme Court enclosure yesterday. The harness broke, and " Black Maria" was left standing in tho gateway. A remarkable discovery of fossils has been made at Hamilton, Victoria, 60 miles inland, at 600 feet above sea level, consisting, of shark's teeth* ,a gigantic cowry shell, and a whale's ear, all perfect. t The meeting ofshetirers, : which was to have been held in the Trade Assembly Rooms last night, lapsed. Mr., J. R. McDonald, the delegate from' Queensland, was present, but the shearers were absent. There have of late been increasing signs • of.an exodus o£ Chinese from Victoria to ■ v their native land. Large numbers have been recently ehipped, and most of them declare that they do not intend to return. According to a. contemporary, fruitgrowing is a highly profitable industry, in JNelson. This season, from an apple tree 20 years old, 40 bushelsof apples were gathered. An orchard of 15 acres brought in in one year £700. . * . • ■■.., The action of the Geelong Agricultural Society in offering monetary prizes for the most extensive collection of sparrows' eggs and heads, has led to bird, nesting in the district being carried on with great energy by the competitors. A settler in the Horowhenua county has lately, lost six well-bred dogs, valued at £60, by poisoning, and several other cases of the same kind are reported. It is stated that someone has been laying , poison on the county road, and a reward of £10 has been offered for : the discovery of the offender. , In Wanganui the local educational authorities cannot get tradesmen to perform the work they want done in certain portions, of the'• district. On two separate -occasions tenders have been called 'for publicly for the erection of a schoolhouse at Pemberton and Apifci, but not a solitary- tender has been received. • The New Zealand Times states that tinder.tbe village settlement.- system people have done well who have had neither money nor agricultural knowledge—who had no-, thing, in but brains and hearts. It - strongly urges the wharf men who cannot get work to turn their backs upon the city and make for the interiorJ /.The Christchurch Press states:—"This year "there has, in the northern district, been a remarkable decline in the civil business of the Resident Magistrate's Courts, which some say is. due to the" storekeepers shortening terms of credit and others to the idea that the farmers have experienced more prosperous times." •Although vaccination is compulsory in Victoria, it is clear that the law is more honoured in the breach than the observance;- From the reports of two doctors who made the rounds of tho late baby «how in Melbourne it would appear that not half the infants were vaccinated at all, while the marks on the remainder showed but too clearly that,.the lymph, had; not done its work properly. . s At the last meeting of the Palmerston Ifcrtii Borough Council the Mayor mentioned negotiations were on the eve of being completed for the sale of the Palmerston North Gasworks to a Wellington syndicate for £9000. The Mayor reminded councillors of. the fact that he had advocated the purchase of the works by the Council a short time ago when they could haveoorb r tained the whole for £3500.