FLASHES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 25, 9 August 1887, Page 2

FLASHES.

Intetestixtit td the btinniCs.(the S.s. Kail kqura the other day firelight 845 stoats and weasels to the South Islan.d. , j , Johnny Sheehan used to say that he “ liked to see a good healthy public opinion, even If it found expression in rotten eggs.”. Judging from the rowdyism down'South a gobd many people there ate of poor Johnny's opinion. Thus the Otago Witness on our N.Z, Grand Old Man:— Under this swelling knoll, the Great Proeensullieri . , , , A knight anepetlr, tmfivalied ofi the stump, When the great Doomsday Angel sails hint to the nkied,. tn eloquent Sir George he'll find—M.ttutttf; . But destdte the fn’er. Old-G«qrgi« does Sood work by his orations. Long may fie ve to orate. , The irrepressible Aitken Connell, known as "the old colonial hand,” is addressing an Auckland audience almost every night. His address td, Irishtnen on Home Rule was * great success. •< *. r The Timaru Herald asserts that a number of inquests are held just to allow of the coroner pocketing the fees. Bosh. A Bishop’s opinion. Bishop Neville, of Dunedin, says “ the present education system is engendering an appalling condition of things, which is likely to be fraught with terrible consequence to the nation at large.” The Bishop must either be a very ignorant or a very narrow-minded man; , •‘.Sji vedfa ago,", said .fn Auckland shop; keeper the other day, " Six years, ago ttaugnt a class of girls in a Bunday school and. every one of those girls are now on the streets.”— Auckland Leader. The Bay of Plenty Times says that the natives along the coast grew a lot of maiae this year, but did not sell it, putting most of it into pits. The stench from the rotten oom neat the settlements is something awful. The hills round Whakatane are looking al! the better after the eruption. The Maoris say the volcanic, deposit nail made the land much more fertile. Beats the record by 24 hours. Orient Company's new steamer Onhua has delivered her English mills in Sydney in 82 days from London. Bully for Australian benevolence, the , Bulli colliery relief fund now amounts td

£37,000. Want to change their name too. A movement is on foot in New South Wales to change the name. An Okato (Taranaki) settler got a nice Jubilee present, a quartette of healthy babies. He’ll|be ruined by Winslow’s soothing syrup for them, and will petition tor a Government grant no doubt. The agent for the Opotlki town hall received the following wire the other day : “ 1 Engage hell for me on Saturday night,’ John Gill.” The agent replied "I am not agent for hell, but shall be glad to engage the town hall tor you on Saturday night. Says Mr Gill, candidate for the Tauranga seat “ I would never let a boy of mine enter the civil service. Genteel paupers halt of them were.” Election addresses from Messrs Gannon and McDonald are published in the Wairoa Guardian. A thousand acres of the Matamata have been sown for wheat. At a bachelor’s dance the other day at Hamilton (Waikato) a Kerosene stove was overturned, the fire being extinguished with some difficulty. As the fire took place in the porch, a serious catastrophe might have happened. The ladies behaved very well. The Lyttelton Times on Vogel: “ Sit Julius is a man no administration hoping to govern this colony With advantage can afford to be without." What rot. The heroine of the notorious Scott-Sebright divorce suit, Miss " Giddy " Scott was married a few weeks ago to a Mr Bussell. Sebright ran through £22,000 of Miss Scott’s money before she got rid of him, Volbracht, the Auckland Tobacco Company promoter, is now almost blind, and another attempt is to be made to get Government assistance for him. The Whangarei Mutual Improvement Society have been discussing the great problem " What sort of a girl should a man marry." This is better than the good old stock questions as to the death of Charles I and Republicanism v. Monarchy, etc. etc. Paste this in your hat and ponder over it. N. Z'a Civil Service, including the school teachers, cost £3 17s lOd per head of the population. Great Britain gets her Civil Service, with soldiers and sailors thrown in, for £1 9s fid per head. Good for Ballance! Ho goes for an elective Governor at £2OOO a year. Would’nt mind accepting the billet ourselves. Art ArmVland anaaint.v ditma n 9 htffh

dropped a lovely puree on Queen Street the other day*-fllled with pawn ticket) for beautiful dreaeee. Christchurch still ranks highly in artistic matters, The Society of Arts has 994 members and a credit balance of £684. They have purchased five English pictures at a cost of £272. Sir Frederick Leighton selected them. To Kooti's crowd have literally eaten the Tauranga and Opotiki natives out of house and home. He also gulled them out of £970 cash. Shylook's breed in Auckland. In a recent court case it turned out that a widow wM paying a dew money-lender 260 per cent interest. The Opotiki Town Board ate a happy body. They have struck no rate for two years, and yet have plenty of funds. Send some of it down here. We can do with it. Mr Crewes, a popular working man candidate, will contest Christchurch North with the great Sir Jooleyus. He ia hardly likely to beat the financier. The Union Steam Shipping Company haw given a donation of £2O to the Oreymoutb Floods Belief Funds. It is not often the Heathen One is " had 11 so chalk thia up. A “bogus" detective bought some lottery tickets from a Melbourne Celestial the other day. He returned, and threatened, then offered to square the matter for £5O, accepted £l2 10s as a deposit, and then decamped. A big fencing contract 1 The new scheme by the Sydney Minister for Agriculture for dealing with the rabbit pest, includes the fencing in of twelve million acres of land. The Premier dealt out a little judicious butter to the Auckland people by saying that in his opinion the harbour was the best in New Zealand and second to none in Australasia, except that of Sydney. The Wellingtonians will now abuse Stout more than ever. Sydney and Brisbane are going to have a daily steamer service shortly. In the Brassey bankruptcy case in Auckland the debtor's friends have offered to pay 20s in the £ if a fortnight's [grace were accorded. It was accorded. Talk about economy ! Look at this 1 There are now absent on leave with full pay, the General Manager of Bail ways at £lOOO a year, the Local Superintendent at £7OO a year, the Napier Manager at £475 a year, and the Stores Manager at £475 a year. Four officers with salaries totting up to the nice little figure of £2650. A science master at £5O a year has been engaged for the Auckland night school. Night schools are excellent institutions. It is a pity Gisborne has not one. Many of the young men who are anxious to improve themselves would join. Munro, of the Scottish Chiels, was beaten the other day at a sword dance competition in Auckland, but won hands down in all the other events. Auckland cabbies are in a high state of excitement. The Borough Council are considering a proposition to reduce the fares 25 per cent. A Wellington fishmonger has been selling five-day caught schnapper. Fined £5 and costs. More retrenchment! The mail service to Stewart island is to bs carried on without a subsidy. As usual those affected are crying out.

Next year will be the centenary of the colony of New South Wales, the first convoy of convicts having reached Botany Bay on January 20, 1788. The Melbourne Gun Club’s slaughter for the year was 25,066 pigeons,- at a cost, for birds alone, of £1,767. Messrs Nelson, Moate, and Co. pay oneseventh of the whole duty upon tea in New Zealand. A fireman who had rendered efficient service in fighting the fire fiend recently died His companions sent a floral wreath, on« which was inscribed: “.He has gone to hut last fire.” The widow reject'd the tribute.