TOPICAL TITBITS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1188, 7 December 1894, Page 16

TOPICAL TITBITS.

Deriby, of “ghost” fame, disappeared from Napier on Tuesday, according to a Ipcal papet. Oiiehunga ratepayers have apparently had enough df their lady Mayor, Mrs TriteS. Last week she was defeated by nearly 100 votes. The wreck of the Wairarapa stands third highest in point of loss of life by shipwreck on the New Zealand coast. By the Orpheus 190 lives were lost, the Tararua 131, and the Wairarapa 113. Dr Pollen looks upon landlords arid slums as the real “ social pests.” ' A well-known beggar in Hobart has left the comfortable sum of £ISOO in a bank.

A new Mayor for Wellington, and one who has never before sat in the Council.

A young man eh route to Coolgardie from Sydney dreamt that the New Guinea by which he was sailing was wrecked, and all on board drowned ; and when the vessel put in at; Adelaide he could not be persuaded to go any further in her, notwithstanding the efforts of his mates. The young 1 fellow, seeing the ill-fated Rodondo in port, took a berth in her, bidding the passengers of the New Guinea “ good-bye.” He was one of those drowned in the wreck.

Great satisfaction is expressed in New Caledonia at Franco ceasing to deport criminals thither.

The Marquis of Salisbury refers to Bimetallism as a subject of supreme importance to the Empire. . A young man who was refused a drink in a hotel in the Rangitikei district last week" bit the proprietor and two bystanders, broke up two chairs, and smashed five windows.

The Englishmen play their first match against All Australia in Sydney, commencing on the 14th December. The total estimated population of the Colony in September last was 722,520.

A Chinaman named James Lee Goon, charged with keeping a disorderly house, was fined £lO at Christchurch last week.

Only ©he person was convicted for drunkenness at Masterton last month, and yet they say the weather is very hot there. On many of the stations in New South Wales the shearing is a month behind the usual time in consequence of the strikes. The unemployed difficulty is again becoming very acute in Sydney. The number of men out of work is increasing daily. Of 49 presentations for yearly gunnery examination, the Dunedin Navals had 47

passes. The rain prevented any bowling on Saturday afternoon. Entries for the Tliorndon Bowling Club’s prize matches close on Saturday next. During the month of November rain fell in Wellington on 14 days, the maximum falls being *950 on the 19 th and ‘955 oh the 27th. The total fall was 4T3sin, as compared With 1*287 for the same month lastyear. The average for the month in previous years is 4*166. The weather was foggy when the Gwydir was wrecked.

The man Tough, who killed one of his partners' named Glynn with a tomahawk, in the Benalla district, Victoria, has been convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. A coffin with a corpse in it came to Christchurch from Tiinaru by rail as ordinary luggage. The railway authorities interfered,, and the people concerned then paid the extra charge. , The number of criminal cases dealt with in the Magistrate’s Court up to November 30th was 2112, against 2128 for the corresponding period of 1893, and 1566 for the same period of 1892. The Lyttelton Bowing Club have imported from J. H. Clasper a first-class racing four-oared outrigger.

The new ward for children in the Dunedin Hospital has been opened. It is an exceedingly cheerful apartment capable of accommodating about 20 children. The London Daily Telegraph says that colonial butter is taking the place of the , Danish article in the English market. A man named Thomas Ilensman, a resident of Shannon, was driving a din nail into a piece of matai when the nail rebounded and went through the pupil of his left eye.

Defaced coins were received as follow in the Wairarapa subscription in Wellington : —Fourteen shillings, sixteen threepences, eight sixpences, one penny, one half-crown, one two - shilling piece, one sovereign: total, <£2 6s 7d. j Lord Jersey declares that Great Britain alone possesses the vessels requisite for the survey of the Pacific cable route. He considers there would be no practical difficulty in the way if Neckar or Sandwich Islands were made the landing-place. The Star (Auckland) publishes a letter from Colonel Fox, denying that at a meeting of officers he used the expression that “ the defences of New. Zealand were looked on by sensible men and the Government as a farce, and that it was tolerated by the Government possibly for political reasons.” The London Statist announces . that it is expected France will issue a loan of <£40,000,000 early in 1895. There are indications that the number of unemployed in New South Wales is. increasing. It is estimated that there are close on 2000 in Sydney. The Agricultural Department of Victoria is satisfied with the price of Is per dozen . received for the recent shipment of eggs to London.

A young man named Allport was found dead in his bed in a boardinghouse at Inglewood on Sunday morning. The Victorian Railway Commissioners

hope to reduce the working expenses of the railways by <£loo,ooo before the close of the financial year. William Potter, a young man, was killed at Ohinewai, near Auckland, through the Upsetting of a lobd of flak, which ho was conveying to the railway station. Great Britain has recognised the Hawaiian Republic. H.M.S. Wild Swan, a composite sloop of 1130 tons displacement, 800 indicated horse-power, will relieve 11.M.5. Champion in the Pacific Squadron. Tlie United States Government has decided that the postal rates under the union shall apply to all places in the world except Canada. In connection with the unemployed relief works contemplated by the New South Wales Government, a stringent condition has been made that only men who have been domiciled in. the colony for six . months, will have any chance of employment,. The Premier of Victoria has cabled to the Agent-General to allay the fears of bondholders in connection with the recent fall in stocks. The Government attributes the fall to some temporary market influence rather than to any politioal cause, ,

The FeUding School Committee are strongly complaining that 300 children are packed in a building made for 200, with no proper ventilation. The Mayor of Gisborne and the agent there for the Labour Bureau protest against the proposal to send 20 men from Christchurch to co - operative Works at Nuhalca. The Labour Department state, however, that the men are going from Christchurch via Napier to Nuhaka, and not going to Gisborne. The Wanganui Licensing Committee has refused all, applications for the extension of closing hours until 11. The chairmen of the Pahiatua County Council and the Manchester Road Board are to confer regarding the reduction of tolls across the Gorge bridge. The Nelson harbour is to he dredged as soon as suitable plant can be hired. The weekly bill for water at one hotel in Coolgardie runs to over £IOO. Mr Samuel, of New Plymouth, is on his way. t.o. Sydney to make arrangements for sinking the petroleum bores at New Plymouth to a greater depth. A; shearing disagreement is said to have occurred at the Balmoral Station, near Christchurch* and men have been discharged without .payment of wages to date. Wet sheep again; * The Tanner and Milsom settlers, Taranaki, are calling out for bx-idges across the Waitara River at Purangi, and the Matau Stream, at the Junction road. There were tw o tenders for the bridge over the Makino on Forlong’s road, but neither have been accepted. The man Noon, arrested on a charge of forgery, at Carterton, is well connected, and is said to have been an officer in the British ai*my. Forty-one unemployed have petitioned the Gisborne Borough Council to urge the Government to spend some of the moneys allocated for that district.

The Manchester Road Board has accepted the tender of A k Ryan, <£66, for work on Penelope road. Apropos of the cotton powder explosive fog signal referred to elsewhere, it may be mentioned, as evidence of its cheapness, that the batteries cost .£lO each, the cable Is a and that each detonating charge costs Is. The ratepayers of the Coal Creek riding, Pohangina County, intend to spend loan money in improving the Main Ridge and Branch roads.

Work at the Mohaka bridge contract, Hawke’s Bay, starts this week.

Mr, Turnbull, S.M. at Napier, has obtained a month’s leave of absence. He will be relieved by Mr Stanford, the newlyappOinted Magistrate. About 240 bales of wool have been shipped by the Loan and Mercantile Agency Company on the Star of England, now loading at Castlecliff, Wanganui. Shortly before the Avawa left Auckland for San Francisco last Saturday she was moved to an anchorage in the stream, because there would not have been water enough at the wharf. A telephone office has been opened at the shop of Mr G. W. Wilton, chemist, Adelaide road. Prime Warden is favourite for the Auckland Cup. A Prohibition campaign is the latest thing at Gisborne. A sum of <£loo has been remitted to the Wairarapa* Fund in Wellington from Feilding, a first instalment. The London Times says it is rumoured that the Treasury will allow the Post Office Savings Bank in future to invest deposits in Indian stocks.

At the usual monthly meeting last night of the Wellington Operative Tailors’ Society some new members were elected. A copy of the current issue of the Wellingtonian, the magazine of the Wellington. College, is to hand. It is smart and gossipy.