TOPICAL TITBITS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1198, 15 February 1895, Page 21

TOPICAL TITBITS.

Prance and Belgium have reaffirmed the pre-emptive right to the Congo. The cost of the bridge to be placed over the Mangatainoka River, between the Borough of Pahiatua and the Pahiatua county, has beeu apportioned as follows County Council, <£7oo; Borough Council, .£I6OO.

During the present survey of the passage between Jackson’s Head and the beacon, at the entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound, several, sunken rocks have been found. The passage should not be used by vessels drawing over 12ft of water. According- to the San Francisco papers it is intended to accelerate the speed of the steamers with the San Francisco mail, making a saving of six days on the round trip. It is thought the IJnion Company will substitute a fast steamer for the Arawa.

The revenue on the Wellington section of the Government Railways for the four weeks ending sth January was <£9247 Os 4d, as compared with <£9003 7s lid for the corresponding period last year. Bolckow, Vaughan and Co., ironmasters and colliery owners, Middlesbrough, are the successful tenderers for 25,000 tons steel rails for Western Australia. The price is extremely low. The Sydney Morning Herald says the last quarterly banking averages show that the tendency in New Zealand, as well as the other colonies, is in the direction of smaller dependence on deposits and a larger use of the proprietary funds. The movement, adds the paper, is in a desirable direction. The accumulation of reserves, however, must tend to the reduction of the rate of profits. This is a world-wide feature of banking at present, and must continue till enterprise revives. The Auckland Employers’ Association has declined to register under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. This looks well, from employers.

The new Town Hall at Shannon was opened with a concert and dance on Thursday night. Rear-Admiral Cyprian Bridge says that next to England, Japan has incomparably the finest fleet in the Eastern seas.

A coroner’s jury at Oamaru has returned a verdict that a man named Alex. C. Johnstone has died of peritonitis, caused by the violence used towards him by his son. The son has been arrested. The Dunedin Social Reform Association allege, in their annual report that the pol ; ce “ cannot be relied on for wise and zealous service where publicans are concerned.” It’s quite simple to make remarks like these about the police, who cannot reply. The Otago Football Association decline to consider certain questions submitted to them by the New Zealand Football Association.

James Vowless, charged at Masterton with embezzling .£l6 Is 5d belonging to William Shaw, was acquitted.

The Customs officers at Brisbane have seized jewellei’y valued at nearly ,£2OOO on the s.s. Arawatta, from Sydney. The articles were packed inside concertinas and in cases labelled as books.

The Carterton Observer having informed its readers that it knew nothing of the status of the North Wairarapa Liberal Association, the Wairarapa Star has merely to remark that “it would be interesting to learn what the Observer does know about anything beyond a radius of five chains of its own door.”

The Palmerston Borough Council has authorised the Reserves Committee to spend .£2OO on the protection of the river bank.

The Rev J. Fleming, minister of the Scotch Church at Buenos Ayres, writes that apart from the success or failure of New Australia, Paraguay is a suitable climate for Australians.

The ketch Strathmore, which left Napier for Hokitika on the 18th January, put back owing to severe weather. The sails and steering gear were carried away when the vessel was off Cook Strait,

John Charles Hamilton, William Hamilton and Hugh Murray were committed for trial yesterday at Christchurch on a charge of maliciously injuring a horse by cutting off the tips of its ears and docking the mane and tail.

The proposal to borrow money for work* in the Mangapilcopiko riding of the Pohangina county was lost. A. petition to the Eketaliuna Road Board to raise a loan of £9OO for the repairing and metalling of the Tawaitia load is being circulated at Mangaone Valley. The time for being ashamed of poverty was the last century, not this. — Spectator. Madagascar has vast stretches of excellent pasture lands, and the soil is favourable to the cultivation of tea and cotton.

The Hutt County Council’s overdraft stands now at £I7BO. A few months ago it was nearly double that amount. The first edition of Daybrealc has been completely sold out. A second edition is being- printed. A man named Robert Pippard has been arrested at Napier on a charge of wilfully setting fire to the stables and coach-house of the Rev Mr Paterson, and stealing a saddle and a quantity of harness. The proceedings of the Victorian Tariff Commission are open to the press. The hotelkeepers at Broken Hill ara threatening trouble over the new standard time. They have now to open their hotels, as the clocks were previously, at a quarter past five instead of six, and close at a quarter past 10 instead of 11, and they decidedly object. The Napier Hospital Board are talking of placing the typhoid fever patients in tha general ward and closing up the fever ward, with a view to reducing the number of tha staff. The Bussard is to hold torpedo practice in Akaroa Harbour. At a meeting at Pemberton, it was resolved to recommend the alteration of the proposed special rating district for tha Otara Bridge loan so that it may include Rangiwaliia. The arrival of the Gascoigne at New York caused a scene of great emotion. Since the recent fatal accident at Vivian street, New Plymouth, the Taranaki Herald, wants the line diverted to avoid the Devon street crossing, claiming that it is unsafe. According to a Press Association message, the proposed agreement between South Australia and New Zealand is not regarded favourably by the Victorian vignerons. At the Anglican General Synod Archdeacon’s Harper’s Bill, dealing with, alterations in doctrine or the Book of Common Prayer, was lost. A Bill introduced by the Bishop of Dunedin, to constitute a board of mission duties, was rejected. It was decided to inform the Church of South Africa that the Church o£ New Zealand is not prepared to adopt the title of archbishop for its metropolitan. The Germans are spending £1,500,000 on the first portion of a narrow-gauge railway to connect Lake Victoria Nyanza with the coast.