News in a Nutshell.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 142, 15 May 1884, Page 2

News m a Nutshell.

A .Great Seizer.— The Sheriff. Grate blessings. — Fires m the mornings. Cattle m portions of Queensland, owing to drought, are quoted at £1 per head. Favo, the winner of the last Sydney Cup, was given away m exchange for a hack a few mouths ago. The only genuine letter of the poet Burns m the colony has been purchased for £10 by the Canterbury Caledonian Society. Daring March, only one Chinaman arrived m the Colony, while thirty left. . Hanlan thinks that our colonial scullers are much superior to their English' brethren. . . . : Typhoid fever m a malignant form is said to have broken out m " the slums" of Ponsonb}', a suburb m Auckland. In Adelaide the stench from the public sewors is such as to 'make life unendurable." It is three years since the telephone exchange system was introduced into Melbourne. At present the number of subscribers to the Melbourne telephone exchange is 700, and it is constantly increasing. Tho Wellington Harbour Board, by the casting vote of its chairman, has decided to ask Parliament for power to borrow another £100,000. It is now stated had Mr Fairfax, the senior proprietor of tho Melbourne Morning Herald, been m the colony when the fine for contempt of Court, was inflicted, he would not have paid it, but would have gone to prison. WhenXJlara was asked what she would "> do if a- nice young gentleman should ask her' hand m marriage, she naively repliud, "J "don't think I'd no." "' ■ It is proposed to givp a publio reception to Mr Mitchelson on his arrival m New Plymouth. There is a project for the establishment of direct steam communication be* : • twden Anstralia and Imdia. - 4 movement is on foot for establishing a corps of militia m connection with the Melbourne University. Milk m Sydney, m consequence of the drought,, is selling at 8d per quart, . whilst vegetables from the same causa aro very dear..