NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9496, 27 April 1894, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

two little bore at Wellington have been fined 29s for shooting a tui. Every vear Australia consumes intoxicating drink to more than the value of the gold yield by all its mines. There is an agitation in Sydney against the sweating of certain girls employed by some of the tramway companies. An octopus, eleven feet long, was exhibited at lnvercargill the other day. It was caught with a line at the Heads. The annual commemoration of benefactions of the University of Sydney passed off the other day with a considerable amount of eclat. The settlers at Taupo complain bitterly of the ravages of stoats and weasels, which have now made their appearance in that district. The wife of a working farmer in the Charlton district, of Victoria, gave birth to a triplet—two boys and a girl. They are all doing well. A hawker named David Leachovsky was swindled of £18 in Melbourne the other day by a confidence man, who promised him a situation in Queensland. Rabbits have now made their appearance at Lake Taupo, and it is believed that they will spread rapidly in that district, and on the Kaimanawa Range. Mr. J as. Napier writes to state that there is no truth in the report that he is retiring from the management of the Cassel Company's plant at Waihi. _ In Fremantle, W.A., Chinese criminals and lunatics are becoming so numerous that the authorities are considering the question of sending them back to China. A report is current at Balranald, New South Wales, that opal fields have been discovered about forty miles from the town. Several parties have pone out prospecting. The voting at Glorit, the Returning Officer informs us, for Mr. Masaey at the late election for Waitemata was 18, nob 10 as printed. Mr. Palmer's votes numbered Our Mangero correspondent states that Mr. and Mre. Mellsop, and Mrs. Woodward deserve the warmest thanks of the district for raising the necessary funds for the children's Christmas picnic. The loss sustained by the recent fire at Messrs. Kempthorne, Prosser, and Company's, Wyndham street, has been settled, the insurance companies interested paying the amount of loss, about £300. An attendant at the Adelaide Zoo, named Bradshaw, ha* been severely bitten while a surgeon was performing an operation on a tapir. The animal was given sufficient morphia to kill a pig, bub the dose had no affect on it. An attempt i 3 to be made during the ensuing session of the Victorian Parliament to secure an amendment of the Licensing Act, allowing the transfer of hotel licenses from inferior to superior houses in same district. The shareholders of the Federal Coffee Palace Company have prepared a petition on the subject. At a recent meeting of the directors of the Newcastle Meat Chilling Company, the manager was authorised to purchase a desiccating plant to treat the offal, and also an extra boiler. From January up to now 100,t00 sheep have been treated at the works, and orders are already on hand to keep operations in full swing till August. A most disgraceful scene, it is stated, was enacted in the Masterton Wesleyan Church the other day. Mr. John Lister was being married to Miss Lily Ivess, a local barmaid, and daughter of Mr. Ivess, journalist, when a number of drunken roughs crowded into the church conducting themselves in a most boisterous and unseemly manner. The minister, the Rev. Mr. Dukes, had eventually to go down the aisle and order the roughs out. ______«_.