News Items.

Colonist, Volume XXXIV, Issue 7050, 29 June 1891, Page 4

News Items.

Be_ebi__ to the progress being made with railway line to Beefton the ' Guardian ' says : — The nature of the work at the Saddle tunnel, we are told, necessitates slow progress with the work. It is thought there will yet be several large slips at the south headiDg, and if so, considerable deiay will ensue. The .tunnel iB now in about nine chains from the north end and that part whioh is finished looks very well done indeed. The dirt is conveyed out of the tunnel by trucks, whidh are breasted out and in by horses. 1 Practice has made the horses adepts at this novel mode of propulsion j and the manner in whion they push a loaded truck ia surprising. We understand that the railway will very shortly be opened as far as Slab Hnt Creek. '..'..

At the Queen's Birthday parade in Melbourne there were no less than 1254 cadetß on the ground and taking part witb their seniors in the military display on the oooasion. The total of all ranks present was 5,800. A Melbourne correspondent writes : —The Bernhardt boom is the biggest that the theatrical world has seen. £814 the first night and an average of over _500 per night ever, since, which gives a return of about £8,500 for the first week. Or this amount, it is understood that tne fair Sarah receives 4120 per night, one third of the groes takings in addition, and also £40 a 'week for hotel expenses. These sums together give her £720, £1,166 6s Bd, and &40. making jrVall £252<3 6a 8d v iThiß r^ViHitf-islin Oarner management have the balance,;; but their expenses are enotmons, the band alone costing £ 400 per week. : ,'\ News from,, Botprna states that in connection with ; fo^ of the springs auother curious outburst took place a few days ago close to some wharesnear the Utihina Bridge, Lake Eotorua, A tont was pitched over a warm part of the ground, and oloee to a small spring \ used vfor opoking pur£b£es, reason for^^ tent there was for the more favorable treatment of a sick native women, Mrs fiowhia, who is suffering from asthma. She had oeonpie d ; the tent for some days, but when the rain came on was fortunately removed to a whare, for without i any^ the ground on which -the tent had theeja greeted! burst open j and hot water and: _an_ were thrown /to-ia; heights of -fifteen ■ -eefy' Othe^ool- b^ continued^^ing: jforf half lan $$*•: Theie;|tiß four miid pools simf meringi quietly; had the woman not been removed in time she have^en l scj^d tbldcatbi : Be?ilray.sfatjßp rings have broken ou| in fresh places, but without doing: any damage. « -;■ :- ' -7^ : >\wy:..ri\*-

_fi_ ' Australasian ' tells the follow- 1 ing : — She evidently bad that touohing confidence in her husband which all dutiful' wives ought to possess. " Maude> dear, 0 she explained to her daughter, as the train stopped at a little wayside station on the Ohristehurch line, < k this is the station where yottr father 'was left behind. onoe by the train. He* Went across to that hotel to inquire for the landlord, who was nnwdlli and the train went without him." But. Maude, who Isfinde siecle, murmured sweetly, "Ah, just like father ; When we go to the theatre withf him he is always slipping but between the acts, to inquire after the health of the barman."

The high price of 183 per lb was realised by Messrs Winch combe, Carsou and Go. at a recent wool sale for one bale of. the EB over Springvale brand, scoured by Messrs Ellicott Brothers, of Inverell. This price has hot been reached in the Sydney j market for many months. The bale for whiqh this price was paid was classed as extra super combing, and was a very superior sample, bright, soft, and free from fault— a credit in every way to the district in which it was pMduoed.--Syd._ey jpaper. The railway authorities in these Colonies might do worse than take a hint from the Americans in the matter of trucking- cattle for long distances. Into each track is placed 3 inohes of gravel to give the, animals foothold. It not infrequently happens that an animal slips and falls down on the boprds, and when once down it stands a very fair ohance of being trampled to death.— 'Australian P. Be view.'

'A. statistician, has been studying the effect v of comfort, on longevity, His tables show that the richest people have an average life of fifty-two years, the middling forty-six, and the poor only forty-one and a half. One of the discoveries made by the latest Arctio explorers is that the length of the polar night iB 141 days. "What a glorious place that would be," says Brown, "in which to tell a man with a bill to call the day after to-morrow and get his money." Professor Doremus says that elephant milk is 100 per cent richer in butter than the milk of a Jersey cow. But the worst of it is that an elephant is 100 per cent worse than a cow to milk, having a tail at both ends to slash round in a man's eyes. Willie _. composition on soap is worth printing. He writes: — "Soap is a kind of stuff made into nice looking cakes that smell good and taste awful. Soap juice aways tastes the worst when you get it in your eye. My father says the Eskimose don't never use soap; I wish I was a Eskimose." .

A magnificent instance of red tapeism is furnished in connection with the recent discovery of a human skeleton in the Puhipuhi Forest. An inquest was held, when the medical evidenoe proved that death had occurred at least 20 years and possibly 50 years before. The inquisition and other papers were duly forwarded to the Justice Department in Wellington, but returned because net accompanied by the usual certificate of the causes of death. It would require a clever man te furnish this. — * Post.'

The Australian 'Star' calls Sir George Grey " the prince of Australasian democrats."