NEWS IN BEIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9306, 15 September 1893, Page 6

NEWS IN BEIEF.

Municipal elections yesterday. " Club night " ab the rink lasb evening. The Waxworks exhibition was well patronised yesterday. Queensland lias bub 255,000 acres under Cultivation, including the sugar area. A Sydney farmer is said to have made £450 off two acres of strawberries last year. The usual fortnightly dance took place ab the Asylum last night. A very pleasant evening was spent. The City Council has authorised the construction of a four-faced turret clock for the Public Library Building. The Karangahape ratepayers have returned Mr. H. T. Garratt as their representative to the City Council by a large majority. , .. At the Parnell election yesterday, Mrs. Matson was only four votes behind the candidate returned with the lowesb number of votes. , All the newly-elected members of the City Council, except Mr. H. T. Garratt, were in attendance at the regular meeting last night. At ~. „ The regular weekly drill of the "A" Battery was held last night. Captain O'Brien was in command, and there was a , fair muster. Discussion in the City Council re prevention of the introduction of cholera took place last night. The subject was referred to the local Board of Health. Members of the legal profession will be candidates for every seat in Southland except Awarua, where the Colonial Treasurer is expected to have a walk over. At the Parnell election yesterday the polling was unusually close. The candidate with the least number of votes was only 11 behind the candidate at the top of the poll. The prospects of the timber trade at the port of Hokitika are daily brightening. Vessels are offering in all directions, and 'the mills are quite unable to cope with the demand. I "The New Zealand Electrical Syndicate hopes to begin the private lighting of Wellington in about a fortnight. Three dynamos and most of the transformers are now in position. The Government of West Australia propose to float a loan of £540,000, to be expended in railway construction and in the development of goldfields and other mineral resources. , The Executive of the Dunedm Women s Franchise Association are energetically enrolling women. They declare they will place 1700 women on the Dunedin and Caversham rolls. ' At Greymouth the larrikin element has become so rampant that at the last meeting of the Borough Council it was proposed to put a by-law in force towards the subjection of this nuisance. The Southland Times stares that the death of William Nicol, a single man 30 years of age, at Seaward Moss, is believed to have been duo to his having strained himself lifting heavy logs. The Timaru Herald says :—lb was observed some weeks ago that the sparrows had deserted the town of Timaru. They appear now to be coming back again, and hi flocks of considerable size. An ex-Broken Hill chimney sweep, working on tribute at the White Cliffs (New South Wales) opal fields, recently struck a pocket of gems which panned out £36,000. The finder's share amounted to £18,000. There is a split in the Canterbury Liberal Association. A number of members lefb a recent meeting, alleging they were unfairly treated, and thirty have now formed a new Political Association on Radical lines. ■ - As the method best calculated to dispose of the standing scandal at Reef ton in connection with the waterlogged cemetery, the county engineer is to be instructed to sink holes in the sacred parcel with the object of draining the ground. At the meeting of the shareholders of the Northern Boot and Shoe Company yesterday, Mr. Elkin said that be feared that in the past dividends which had not been earned had frequently been paid by companies. This had led to many disasters.^ Many who were engaged in the West Coast campaign in 186S will remember the half-caste girl Lucy Grey, who acted as a guide and was'subsequently in the Government service. As Mrs. Dal ton she died in the New Plymouth Hospital on the 3rd instant. . At present twelve sawmills within the Westland district, working on freehold land, have cut 1,656,119 superficial feet, on which they have paid royalties amounting to £-241 14s 2d. Royalty on 1,137,185 feet, amounting to £123 2s 7d has been paid to the Midland Railway Company.