NEWS IN BRIEF.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1406, 23 August 1881, Page 2

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Queen, who is not used to haying her advice disregarded, received the Baroness Burdett-Coutts at her last drawing-room in a very stiff and formal manner. The Baroness wore a grey satin dress, with a very long train of the same shade trimmed with white lace and roses. Her Majesty's ll kiss"' was glacial in the extreme. The sums of money placed in racing sweeps are enor;nous. Mr. J. J. Miller statea in his sporting pamphlet, that last season he received and disbursed io* sweeps £36,000 on the Melbourne Cup, £14,000 on the Champion Race, and £2,Q00 on the Australian Cup. £50,000 therefore, passed through the hands of one man, in gambling, upon two races. The French Government, realising that nationai and indiridal prosperity are dependent upon the development of agriculture, have introduced a Bill into the Senate making it obligatory to teach the element* of agriculture aud horiculture in the 30,300 primary schools of the nation. Mr. Alexander At Houston, who so gallantly saved the life of the seaman Jasper on the occasion of the Cerebua torpedo explosion, has received the silver medal af the Victorian Humane Society and the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society. A Scotch clergyman, who «fti,-a hard labourer on his glee, and, when occupied in cultivating it, dressed in. a Tery slovenly manner, was one day. engaged in a potato field, when he was surprised by tbe very rapid approaeh.oj* his patron in an open carriage wifesofae ladies whom he was to meet ati^Wwer in the evening. Unable to escap^u time, he drew his bonnet over his face, extended his arms covered witj_ r '__s tattered jacket, and passed himself off as a "tattiebogle." Mrs L. S. Iliff, the owner of the largest cattle ranche in the world, has sold one-half of her herd of 25,000 cattle to her managers. Her range extends from Greeley to Julesburg, Colorado, em« bracing a country about 100 miles wide. She has made a round million since the death of her husbaud, "the oattle king," three years ago.