NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9480, 9 April 1894, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

• Rtattemata Election to-day.- -../ <■_$ » Madame Favarb" at the Opera Eonso ■^^ySS^^ at the Choral Hall is postponed till the 19th inst. V : . S oate are reported to be getting very numerous in the WaUara and Huirangi districts in Taranaki. ' . ':,'""' In New Zealand last year the gross cost of prisoners per head was £49 Ids .6d, and the net cost £36 4s sd. , The North ■ Otago Times says there are more unemployed about Oamaru just now than there ever were, before. ■.■ ' It is' stated that the Pahntna County Council keeps poisoned grain in its office for the benefit of farmers who wish to destroy small birds.,: : r. ' During March the rainfall wa« more than an inch below the average of the previous 27 years.- ' The mean temperature : was slightly below the average. :-;'A •.;v ' A letter from respondent to petitioner produced during the hearing of a divorce case in Sydney a few days back was signed "your loving wife till divorce does us PII A* Sydney paper says that a horrible practice is gaining favour in Sydney, that of keeping the bodies of deceased persons until Sundays, in order to ensure a large attendance at the funerals. , - 4. Melbourne clergyman is reported to have said:— " Well friends, the church is urgently in need of funds, and as we have failed to get money honestly, we will have to see what a bazaar can do for us." . There is a rhubarb plant in a mill garden at Milton (Otago) that measures eight feet across in one direction and about six feet the other. One of the leaves is four feet across, and the stalks are enormous, weighing 31bs to 41bs. • ', _i .. The members of the Westland County Council were recently appalled by a lawyer's bill -of costs ■ being presented to them amounting to £500. It covers five years' work. It. was resolved to request) that the bill be reduced by one-half, and the date cannot be fixed when that will be paid.; :/ One of the tame black swans on the Avon, in Christchurch, recently built a nest Dii the bank of the river just below the old sill and had commenced to lay. . The heavy rain of Wednesday week flooded the river to such an extent that the nest and the two eggs it contained were swept away. The Oamaru Mail remarks \ that the unusually wet summer has not been an altogether unmixed evil, for while it has had "a serious effect; upon the harvest, it has been productive of a material diminution of the rabbit nuisance, many of the young ones having been drowned in their burrows. A "new Roman, Catholic Church was opened at Leeston, Canterbury, on March 1, j by Bishop Grimes. The" church is said to be the most handsome building of its kind in New Zealand. The style of architecture is English Gothic of the fourteenth century. The tower, which is 92 feet high, and surmounted with a handsome gilded cross, can be seen for several miles. At the auhual meeting of the Christchurch branch of the Public' Service Association, the other evening, the question of holidays was discussed. It was felt that the present irregular system of holidays was unsatisfactory, and that a more uniform practice r'jould be adopted. It was decided to instruct the committee to request the Council of the Association to approach the Government on the subject. . : : : -■ -