NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11058, 9 May 1899, Page 6

NEWS IN BRIEF.

'Frisco mail due. Tarawera left for Sydney yesterday. The Mararoa leaves for the South to-day. H.M.s. Mildura leaves for the North today. „ ~ N. sign of the missing steamer i'ertnCold weather is predicted by Captain Edwin. The Ovalau leaves for the Eastern Pacific this evening. Eight cases of typhoid were admitted to the hospital last fortnight. The Governor met with a very hearty reception at Huntly yesterday. The new Costley wards will be out of the contractors' hands in a week or so. Influenza is said to be very prevalent in the provincial district of Marlborough. The results ot a month's extraction from Monowai ore have proved unsatisfactory. Nino applications for old ago pensions were granted yesterday by Mr. Brabant, 8 M "it is announced that Captain Russell mil deliver a political address in Auckland on Tuesday evening next. The Fonsonby Schools Committco intend to a.sk the headmasters to give their views on the home-lesson question. The Waihi Gold Mining Company s return for April shows that 7534 tons of ore were treated for bullion to tie value of £22,779. Tho £500 gift oi Captain Rough, together with the subsidy of £600 it earned, is to lie placed on fixed deposit for one year A public meeting of Auckland citizens will be held on Tuesday, Tvlay 23, to urge the retention of Auckland as the port of call for the San Francisco mail service, Eight defendants were fined at the Police Court yesterday for committing breaches- of the City Council by-laws, tho fines varying from 5s and costs to 20s and costs, By the thermo-byperphoric process the Rev. Joseph Compbell is satisfied that from 80 to 95 per cent extraction can bo obtained from the most refractory ore in New Zealand. Colonial shareholders of the Monowai Gold Mining Company, at a meoting yesterday, expressed dissatisfaction with the management of the property by the directors in Glasgow. The question of the supply of stimulants to the hospital again engaged tho attention of the members of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board yesterday, and the discussion was spirited at times. A Biverton man was eating a cockle the ether day, when his teeth came down upon a large black pearl worth about £3 10s. Since? then cockle-eating has become the fashionable pastime among Rivertonians, As a. result oi a surprise visit paid by the acclimatisation rangei to the Palmerston district a few days ago several persons were detected shooting prohibited game and prosecutions will doubtless follow in due course. At the last meeting of the Wellington City Council a proposal to form a cycle track on Kent and Cambridge terraces was shelved, the engineer reporting that such a track on the streets would tend to encourage a high rate of speed. The Peilding Star understands that the formation of a separate acclimatisation society for Feilding and the surrounding district has received Government assent. Hitherto Feilding has been part of the Wellington acclimatisation district. At a meeting of the Ellesmere ratepayers thi chairman stated that it was impossible to get tenderers foi several works required by the Board. The Board had decided to expend £400 some time ago on works, but could get no one to undertake them. A Southern paper has been shown a sample of the new "wind-resisting" barley, grown at Lecston. The barley has yielded 50 bushels to the acre, and was threshed much more easily than was expected. The berries are well-filled and plump, the skin faiily smooth, and the horns tough. A good many crops of rough-skinned kidney potatoes have gone bad this season in Canterbury. The potatoes when dug appeared to lie all right, but on being cut revealed brown spots, which lead to the rapid decomposition of the tuber. One heavy crop had to be sold as pig-feed. Yesterday the Mayor cabled to Mr. J. H. Withcford, at present in Sydney, asking him to interview the Postmaster-Gene-ral of New South Wales, in order to obtain the support of that colony in the efforts being made here to retain Auckland as the port of call for the 'Frisco mail service.

It is said that there are no empty houses in Ashburton, and houses have never been in such request. This is attributed to the opening of the Fairfield Freezing Works, and their employment of 200 men. The company have secured a good lot of land about the works, and are now laying off a township of their own, to be called Fairton. It was mentioned during the visit of Mr. Denny, the well-known British naval architect, to Wellington that the models of the Ladybird, now a hulk in Wellington, and the Stormbird, still running to Wanganui, took first and second prizes at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. Tho Ladybird was built to convey passengers across the Channel during the exhibition.