NEWS IS BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9490, 20 April 1894, Page 6

NEWS IS BRIEF.

There are said to be 600 men on the Wellington wharf who cannob geb a job. The Oamaru Harbour Board is about £12,000 in arrear with its payments of interest. The new train service from Greymonth to Hokitika has reduced the shipping to the latter port. A Wellington writer comments on the large amount of begging which goes on in Wellington streets now-a-days. The recent bush fires at Eketahuna parboiled the trout in the local rivers, and consequently they will need.re-stocking. Chrysanthemum Society's show to-day and to-morrow. This evening the Young Ladies' Orchestra will play some fine selections. The New South Wales Railway Commissioners anticipate that the retrenchment in salaries will effect a saving of £25,000 per annum. Artesian water has been struck by Mr. Foster on his premises in Wanganui at a depth of 245 feet. The water rises 26 feet above the surface. An interim dividend of 6d per share has been declared in the Union Oil, Soap, and Candle Company, which will be payable to shareholders on Monday next. A Masterton paper alleges that children attending a school near .Masterton conduct themselves in a most unruly manner, and use language both filthy and obscene. Fourteen heads were secured by a deerstalking party in the V\ airarapa district last week. Red deer are very plentiful in the Gladstone and Martinborough districts. A company has been formed and a plant purchased for a new evening journal in Gisborne, of Liberal policy. The first issue is expected to come oub on the Ist May. The conception of the Newcastle Council to invite Mr. Gladstone to Australia has been received throughout the colony of New South Wales in the light of a ridiculous proposal. The ' Pahiatua Herald is responsible for the statement that several settlers in the Forty-mile Bush who " sold cut " to take up land at Cheviot have returned sadder - and wiser men. In addition to the names we published yesterday as having been nominated for feats on the City Schools Committee, we learn that Mr. J. Squirrell has also been put in nomination. An important discovery of gold, Pays tho Hokitika Guardian, has been made a short iistance behind the saltwater lagoon. The country is quite new, and a party now on the ground is doing well. At the Police Court yesterday morning Mr. R.S. Bush, S.M., presided. John Tattons, for drunkenness,was fined lOs.Jor in default fS hours' imprisonment. Patrick O'Kane, for a breach of the Factories Act, in having failed to register, was fined Is, and costs 375. Mr. McAlister, instructed by the Crown Prosecutor, conducted the prosecution. 1 Since the Victorian Government began i to retrench its civil servants over 60 years j of age there have been rumours of the i South Australian Government following the ] example. Considerable fear in this direc- ] tion is now felt owing to a circular ad- i dressed to the heads of departments calling for a return of officers over 60 years of i age. An extraordinary rich specimen of quartz ] was brought into Lyell, West Coast, the i ether day, having been found by a party of ] Chinese miners in their alluvial claim in the vicinity of Dublin Terrace, about four i miles above Lyell on the Nelson Road. The i specimen is about the size of a man fist, ] and is estimated to contain about 4oz of pure gold. An interesting experiment in sanddrift reclamation by means of marram grass is now being carried on (says the Sydney t Daily Telegraph) by Mr. J. H. Carruthers, M.P., on the sanddrift at Lady Robinson's Beach. This grass was imported to Port ' Fairy, Victoria, and succeeded well on the ' sandy wastes there. The success of the ' experiment seems assured. ]