BRIEF MENTION

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 337, 23 May 1885, Page 14

BRIEF MENTION

The Evening Bell is fast ringing its way into public favour. Detective Hughes is generally admitted to t>e a hughesful man. New Grand Stand to be erected at Ellerslie, to cost about £5,000. " . Thirteen thousand persons travelled by the Auckland tramways last week. Mr J. Howard Wallace, an old colonist, Is writing the " Early History of New Zealand." The New Zealand Industrial Exhibition opens at "Wellington on August 1. The City Council talks about laying down rails on the wharf. The wheel traffic is playing up with it. Monday and Tuesday are bank holidays, and the 'Frisco mail is expected to go out on Tuesday. . Jack Lundon takes command of the newly formed Onehunga Naval Artillery Corps, and Hollis, the 'bus proprietor, will boss the Hifles.- , The Wellington police are going for the consultationists of the Empire City, under the "hact." The boys say it will take 'em all their time though. Typhoid fever at Sydney and "Wellington: # Aucklanders shordd remember that cleanliness is not only next Godliness, but is the best srfeguard against disease. Three hundred and eight names on the electoral roll of the Auckland Parliamentary Union. The " House " hopes to sit at the same time as that at Wellington. Mr A. McDonald, of Pukekohe Valley, •would like to see our railways in the hands ot a company. So should we — anything for a change in the local management. An Onehunga resident informs us that building operations are very lively in the little township just now. As fast as the houses are run up they are taken. The Hamiltonians are agitating for railway reform, and are prepared to support Mr "Vaile, " or any other man," provided they can effect their object. We wish 'em luck. Inspector Pardy, the "active and intelligent," takes charge of the Taranaki district. Evil-doers down there had better be on the ijui vice. The Inspector will never be a Pardy to crooked ways. Milner Stephen, the modern miracle monger, is back in Sydney. Milner's "takings " while he was in Auckland would have easily gone into the vaults of the JB. N.Z., and room to .spare. The Auckland V.M.C.A. Library contains about 3000 well assorted books. Auckland's volunteers in their full war paint at the Government House grounds on Monday, on which day the Queen's "first . appearance "isto be celebrated. Mr Farr, who came out per Kaikoura in charge of salmon ova, was twice locked (by mistake, of course) in the freezing chamber of the steamer, and was twice rescued just in time to prevent his conversion into * frozen meat.' A correspondent, whose melancholy duty it was the other day to look out, and if possible obtain, a plot of ground for a private interment, says he made the round of the Auckland cemeteries in vain ; not an inch of ground could he get for love or money. According to a Southern paper, "Auckland is in a state of deplorable depression." This is the kind of par. that makes glad the heart of the Southerner. But no matter. We can still give Dunedin and Christchurch points (to come no nearer home), and score every time. Classes for imparting technical instruction have been'started at Timarn, South Canterbury. Pupils are now taught (in specially erected workshops) how to handle tools used for fashioning wood and stone. This is a step in the right direction. Mf Arthur Pittar, of Ponsonby, nrges the establishment of an Auckland fishery company. ' The waters of the Hauraki Gulf and the Manukau,' says Mr Pittar, 'teem with fish.' This is very true, but the thing lias been repeatedly tried, and somehow it doesn't ' gee.' Blue Ribbon i 8 at a premium in Dunedin since Booth's visit, the supply is giving out, and there is talk of a run. on the red. The latter ribbon would harmonise better than the blue with the noses of some of the converts, which are said to be "a pleasing combination of the beetroot and the rose " in tint. "Have you got such a thing as a devil ?'t asked a man the other day of a Grey-stree "notions" dealer. "No," was the reply, "but I have got a devil of, a lot of things." To prevent misapprehension, we hasten to . explain that the " devil" wanted is aa article used in dressing flax. Another fair dame has been so incautious • - as to give hei lord and master grounds to, suspect her; devotion to him. He alleges she has been gallavanting with a trust and -loan investment merchant, and therefore . proposes to. see if a jury of good. men: and. ■ 'true, who ar.e supposed, to. have a fellowrfeeling'irisuch matters, will not give him £200 5,: to pay : for. his wounded.. honour, to be; paid r "by the said manager. It all-occurred in the. " saintly, city V of Wellington.

The alacrity with which porters and shop- i assistants are wont to put up the shutters on J Queen-street' of an-- evening is attended with some danger — and more inconvenience . — to pedestrians on the ' sidewalks.' The glald. consciousness that 6 o'clock has arrived leads to the handling of shutters with a reckless haste that will mean trouble one of these days or rather nights, and then the injured party will ' write to the papers.' Copy of Wilfrid Badger's "Statutes of New Zealand," in two vols., just furnished to each member of the City Council. A couple of copies would have been ample. The work is only useful for reference. The general reader wouldn't find it quite so interesting as "The Woman in White," or " Ouida's " latest. This is how the money goes ! " . . Dalton, who pleaded guilty at the Police Oourt "on Monday to stealing Buller's ' British Birds ' from the Museum, offered it to a pawnbroker for half -a - sove reign. ' Uncle ' would only bid 4s, and for this the book Cvalued at £25) changed hands. This little' transaction goes to prove how shamefully pawnbrokers are maligned when they are accused of not watching their own interests. The bootmakers' strike at Christchurch is at an end. We never thought it would " last," seeing that there is " nothing like leather," and that the "xipper " classes cannot go without boots more than the lower. Why " shoed " we be surprised, therefore, that the opposition offered the strikers has been "bootless?" The low rate of wages we believe was the " sole " cause of " awl" the trouble. A Dunedin barrister, who interviewed a dentist the other day for the purpose of having a troublesome tooth extracted, was put under chloroform. While his patient was still in a semi-conscious state, Mr Forceps asked him if he felt relief. "On that point, Yoixr Honour, we are perfectly agreed," was the reply of the drugged man of law. ■ •- - Mr A. Cullen, C.E., suggests that an overline foot-bridge should be erected at the railway "man- trap," connecting Customsstreet with the offices of the Bail way Department, and continued over the sidings, for those wanting to go to the wharf. A similar foot-bridge is badly wanted at Newmarket, but nothing will be clone until a few more lives are sacrificed. A ' young folks' ' branch of the Wellington Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has been established. Mr Chantrey Harris told the little boys and girls assembled the other night that they (referring to the human family) 'were all related to the animals of the lower kingdom, which might be called their poor cousins.' Exactly so ; ' Chantrey is an ass,' we believe — that is, his own paper once said so. John Wilson, convicted at Blenheim of a rape on a little girl only ten years of age, and who was sentenced to 5 years and 2b lashes, received his final flogging last week, and, according to a local paper, " howled pitifully." Glad to hear it. The only way to touch these fellows' feelings is to touch their backs — with the " cat." A suburban storekeeper residing~some 12 miles from Auckland, lost a valuable horse the other day, and had hardly recovered from the very natural vexation occasioned by his loss, when a second horse in his stable died under precisely similar cimnnstances. A subsequent analysis of the contents of the animal's stomach revealed the presence of sugar of lead ; the poison, it is conjectured, having been administered in the feed. The storekeeper of course suspects foul-play, but is quite unable to throw any light on the matter, which is one the police should be asked to investigate. The manager of a Berlin theatre got up a drama in which a human head was to be offered to a tyrant. In order to produce as much effect as possible, he resolved to use a human head. On the stage was placed a table covered with a cloth. On the table was a basin, and an actor, concealed under the cloth, poked up his head through a hole in the table, so as to seem to be placed in the basin. The effect was prodigious ; the audience applauded and trembled. Unluckily a wag, who had been strolling about the stage, had sprinkled a spoon -ful of snuff on the basin, and just as the tyrant finished his address to the severed head of hia enemy, the head replied by a hearty fit of sneezing, changing the audience, from " grave to gay" with remarkable expedition. To the Editor Observer and Free Lance : Sir, — I am a labouring man, and was employed by a contractor named Dunn, who had a contract from the Waitemata County Council to make a road to the Wade. He was not to get any payment until the contract was finished. He, however, found that the contract would not pay, and therefore left the district — I believe the colony — with the contract unfinished, and the eight laborers unpaid. I am told that the engineer of the Council values our work at £57, but our claim for labour is £68, or thereabouts. We have applied to the Council for payment of- our wages, but they refuse', to pay... us anything, and as we cannot find f the contractor, what are we to do ?. Don't you think. Sir, that the Council ought in justice to' puy- us the £57; which they have got value for in our labor? It is a hard ease; Can you advise us what to do ?. —I am, "Sir, yours respectfully, LABORER. Auckland, May 13, 1885. -