TOPICAL TITBITS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1189, 14 December 1894, Page 15

TOPICAL TITBITS.

Two totalisator tickets were taken Out on the wrong horse at the Dunedin meeting, but the horse w r on, and the tickets paid <£23 each. The Local Bodies’ Loans Act of 1886 has been brought into operation in Grey town Borough, and a loan of <£3ooo is to be raised. y. The editor of a country newspaper ventures to remark of a contemporary: —“ His intellect is so dense that it would take the auger of common sense longer to penetrate it than to bore through Mount Blanc with a boiled carrot.” The Government have purchased 600 acres of land within four miles of Timaru, The young man Noah Allport, found dead in bed at Inglewood, was a son of Mr T. Allport, of Blenheim. Baron Schroeder is forming an Assets Company with a capital of .£1,000,000 to take over the Union Mortgage and Agency Company’s guaranteed mortgages. Young Saunderson, arrested for the murder of a woman, and since found to be insane, mutilated bis victim with a knife in the same way as Jack the Ripper did.

At a sale of Crown lands in different parts of the Pahiatua district in the Public Hall, Pahiatua, on Wednesday, bidding was brisk, and all the sections were disposed of. ■ v

A copy of the Public Service Journal for November is to hand. The paper is thoroughly up to date in all that concerns the Civil Service. It has been admirably printed at the Times Office. The South Australian Government intends to introduce a Loan Bill for =£1,140,000 for the purpose of completing the public works' in hand. . A man named John Shearer - has been arrested on suspicion of having caused the fire by which Hearn and Kennedy’s stables at Momohaki were destroyed. Speaking at Nottingham, Mr Balfour, in referring to the proposed reform of the House of Lords, declared that the Premier had dooned the cap of Liberty, and proposed a revolution which he wbuld be unable to control.

The Victorian Legislative Assembly ha reduced the vote for the AgentGeneral’s Department in London, and its action is likely to lead to the recall of Mr Gillies.

The Factories Bill has passed through committee in the Legislative Council of South Australia. An amendment was inserted requiring young people to procure a medical certificate of physical and mental fitness for the work in which they wish to engage. ; ; '

The Norwegian barque, Prospect, 710 tons,, has been badly damaged by getting on a reef at Nikualofa. The cargo, 527 tons of copra, will he discharged, and the hull probably sold. A Fine Arts Society has been established in Ashburton.

The Convalescent Home, Oriental Bay, and the office of Grace, Clarke and Co., Manners street, have been connected with the Telephone Exchange. Some of the hill slopes near Pahiatua are just now covered with enormous patches of daisies, which, from a distance, have the appearance of snow-white carpets.

Fifteen Anarchist thieves have been arrested in connection with the great newspaper blackmail scandals in Paris.

President Kruger, of the Transvaal, has some great schemes in contemplation, which may possibly require millions to develop them. He announces that he is determined to obtain a sea coast for the territory. If the Transvaal obtains Swaziland, it will cost a quarter of a million to restore order and buy up the concessions which have been granted. At the meeting of the Peninsula and Oriental Company Sir Thomas Sutherland stated that the Company had spent about £150,000 in fitting up its vessels with refrigerating machinery for the carriage of meat and produce. The meat freights had not brought in a profit, but,fruit and butter had partly compensated the Company.

The 'Victorian Agent-General cables that the fall in Victorian stocks is due to the

Standard publishing a quotation from the leading article in the Argus of 23rd October last. The annual magazine of St. Patrick’s College is to hand. In addition to the prize list, calendar and syllabus of studies, there are interesting notes recording the principal events of the college life and work during the year. It is anticipated that the Defence vote on the Victorian Estimates will be cut down by <£50,000. The people of Whakatane are excited on 'the question of Sunday tennis. At a meeting of the Auckland Board, of Education a letter was read from the residents protesting against the local school grounds being used for the purpose of playing lawn tennis on Sundays. An appliance has been invented by an Auckland resident by which he proposes to raise the steamer Wairarapa. The lightning on Saturday afternoon at Palmerston North fused a number of wires attached to the telegraph and the telephone instruments. Several telephones were rendered useless.

The proposal to raise a loan of .£3OOO to improve the County road between Ihakara’s reserve and the Eitzherbert boundary was carried at a meeting of ratepayers at Shannon on Saturday night. The “barracker ” of the theatre pit is causing .an outcry in Christchurch. Professional men, tradesmen—everybody, in fact, who takes his seat in the stalls does so mid a running fire of senseless jibes... Judge Denniston ha 3 decided that the Board of Governors of Canterbury College may legally expend money from the accumulated rents of the reserve set apart as an endowment for the medical department of Canterbury College in the erection, fitting-up and maintenance of a biological laboratory, and in the salary of a lecturer in biology. A slight hut prolonged earthquake shock occurred at Christchurch at 1.58 on Tuesday afternoon. The New South Wales Government, as a result of the recommendation of the Postal Conference, has decided to continue the mail contracts till 1896.

The overdraft of the Hutt County 'Council amounted on November 30th to <£2333 15s 2d. The -harbourmaster at the Bluff states that the wreckage found at Preservation Inlet is not from the Firth of Forth.

In the Supreme , Court at Auckland Joseph A. Jagger, commercial traveller, sued John Trenwith, boot manufacturer, upon a libel alleged to be contained in a letter sent by Trenwith to the Hawke’s Bay Herald, setting out that he had discharged his traveller for grave reasons. The defendant pleaded justification. The jury awarded the plaintiff <£loo damages. The ratepayers of the Manawatu Land Drainage District have approved of the decision of the Board to borrow .£SOOO for an outlet for the drainage of the whole district.

The Pahiatua County Council are going to ask for a further grant for the Ngaturi bridge. ’ The Masterton Hospital Trustees intend improving the sanitary arrangements at the Hospital, and hold a special meeting on Friday to consider the matter’.

“If we would become as successful as our forefathers, we must he more thrifty/' —Sir "Robert Stout, at Bulls.

The conditions for the trophy presented by General Feilding to the Manchester Rifles have been arranged, the ranges to be 300, 400 and 500 yards, and the highest aggregate in four competitions out of six to be the winner.. The trophy is to be held for three years. Sir Robt. Stout, in his speech at Bulls, avoided politics, except to speak briefly of the Licensing Bill of last session.

A letter received in Christchurch from Mr Vecht states that in Victoria lie is receiving every assistance from the Government in introducing his system of curing pork for export, and he has made such progress tliat the first shipment of the pork will have been made by this time. Porkraising has already become an industry of some magnitude in Victoria. The sitting of the Court of Appeal has been adjourned until next Wednesday. The late Major Tulce underwent an operation a few days ago, and had not strength enough to withstand the effects. Judge Kettle says he will do his best to alter the practice by which a man, on the system of “ Heads I win, tails you lose," goes into business with the idea of personally profiting if he gets on, and making his creditors suffer if he loses.

A Taranaki paper saj’s : —“ The freight zalue of the first of the bi-weekly produce trains run between New Plymouth and Wellington is computed to have been already be regarded as eminently successful.

Several sporting reporters and others who were present at the Winters-Smith fight, in which Smith received injuries which caused his death, have been arrested as accessories to manslaughter. A sulphur spring has been discovered at Frankston, 26 miles from Melbourne. In the generous aid given to the poor at Christmas by the charitable public of Wellington, the Hospital ought not to be forgotten. Any grants will be most thankfully received by the Hospital authorities. The Horowhenua County Council has resolved to raise a loan of .£3OOO in the Tokomaru Riding to bridge the streams and complete the construction of the main road in the riding. A man put his shoulder out while turning a somersault in the swimming bath at Palmerston North yesterday.

The German Government asks the Reichstag to prosecute on a charge of leze majesty the Socialist members who took part in the recent scene in the Chamber. A West Coast resident just back from Coolgardie gives the place a terribly bad name. He says that if he wanted to pay off a grudge, he’d send his man to Coolgardie, and be quite satisfied,

A branch of the Stock Department is to be established in Napier. About 500 applications have been received for the cheap money. A curiosity in legislation :—On page 339 (Act No. 43) of the volume of statutes passed during last session of Parliament it is announced that the Native Land Court Act, 1886, is repealed ; but in Act No. 44, on the very next page of the book, we are directed that “this Act shall be read together with the Native Land Court Act, 1886/