TOPICAL TITBITS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1211, 17 May 1895, Page 23

TOPICAL TITBITS.

The Chinese Government is sending 5000 troops to suppress the rising among the Black Flags. The Spanish Government has offered an American syndicate ,£4OOO per month if it will undertake railway construction work in Cuba, to absorb the unemployed on the island.

It is reported in New York that 3000 of the rebel Cuban cavalry were routed by the Spaniards, with a loss of 700. The Spaniards lost 300. The tender of Mr F. Cowern, <£lßs, has been accepted b.y the Egmont County Council for the valuation of the county. The Palmerston Times is informed that at a meeting held on Saturday morning it was resolved to proceed at once with the erection of an Opera House in 1 almerston.

The contract for the erection of the Government Life Insurance Buildings at the corner of Princes and Rattray streets, Dunedin, has been signed by the contractors (McLeod and Shaw, of Invercargill), and the work of pulling down the old building will commence almost immediately. The cost is about .£13,000. A child named Kathleen Elizabeth McSweeney, aged two years, was scalded to death at Belfast, Canterbury, on Saturday evening through falling into a bath of boiling water. A little girl named Edith Annie MarpJe, three years of age, was found dead near her parents’ house on the Hospital road, New Plymouth, last "Wednesday. Examination showed the child had been kicked by a horse on the head, the skull being fractured from hack to front. The contractors for the Awahuri bridge* have so far completed their contract as to allow foot passengers to cross. It is expected that by the end of the month wheeled traffic will be resumed. The Government are to be commended for the promptitude and thoroughness with which they acted in connection .tsrith tho Perthshire’s cattle. They have done, all that it was possible for them to do, and it* is to be hoped that the result will be to make quite clear at Home the distinction, between Australia and New Zealand. — 1 Haw era Star. Great Britain does not intend to renew the agreement with the United States regarding the arms and implements carried by sealers in Behring Sea. A miner named E. J. Sponteimer was injured m the United Alpine mine by a fail of stone. His back is bruised, but it is hoped the results will, not be serious.

It is stated that a number of youths are in the habit of practising football on the Basin Reserve at night. If this is so the authorities should have the practice stopped at once. The ground was recently sown with grass seed by the Cricket Association, and its condition will certainty not ! be improved by football. | “Mother dead, and father unknown’* was the report concerning a little toddler about four years of age who appeared before the Benevolent Society Trustees on Tuesday. The little chap is being looked after by the Institution, and on Tuesday he was'brought down to the meeting by the woman who has charge of him for “ inspection.” The little orphan’s healthy appearance was sufficient evidence of the good care that had been taken of him. He, however, appeared quite mystified by the simple questions put to him by Mr Willeston, but when that gentleman asked him whether he could play football, the youngster o-ave a knowing smile and nodded his head? His knowledge of the world began and ended there. The following extract is from The Sketch of 13th March, given in reply to a correspondent of that well - known Lon lou weekly : —“ For all practical purposes Wellington Waterworks 6 per cent, bonds at 123 or 124, or Auckland City 1930, 6 per cent, bonds at about the same price, are safe enough.” We should think they were, and a good speculation, especially at the present ruling price of money in London. A very large quantity of ice was seen by the ship Earnock, which arrived from Liverpool on Tuesday morning. On the 13th and 15th April she passed between rows of great icebergs, and the navigat ion of the vessel at night, while these unwelcome neighbours were so close at hand, was a matter of extreme difficulty. At cue time she was surrounded by bergs, and Captain Yates counted over 100 of them. The vessel was in this dangerous company for about six days, during which, it is said, she passed about 900 bergs, some of which, were two or three miles in length and about 600 feet high.