The trial of speed between the new steamer Warrimoo and the Mararoa in the run between Auckland and Sydney, has resulted in the Union Co.’s boat more than holding her own. The Mararoa accomplished the distance in three days thirteen hours, while the Warrimoo took three days nineteen hours. The Anglican Synod’s Committee to in quire into the Gothenburg and other systems of managing the liquor traffic have also decided to secure all possible information on the working of prohibition in America. One of the attendants at the Auckland Lunatic Asylum has been .dismissed for ill treating one of the patients, whose injuries might have resulted seriously. _ A cyclone of considerable violence cut a track three chains wide along a portion of Poverty Bay Flat, levelling some buildings and doing other damage. No one was injured. ,. ~ Archdeacon Covett was thrown from his carriage near New Plymouth, one of the wheels passing over him. It is thought he has escaped without ■serious injury. Conflicting reports are current* about the Premier’s health. On-the one hand he is said to beimproving, but theother regards his ailment as serious. A man named Burns, who, with Mooney was charged at Ashburton with swindling a country youth of a totahsator ticket and discharged, was afterwards sent to goal for a month for vagrancy. A strange affair is reported from Welling ton, Mr Kirkbride, proprietor of the Evening Press, has stated that while in bed in his own house, he was attacked by a man who struck him with a hammer on the forehead, smashing the frontal hone. He jumped out of bed to seize his assailant, and followed him outside. When about to seize the man the effects of the blow made him dazed and powerless, and the man escaped. He could not recognise the man, as his face was blackened. The wound on the forehead is severe, hut not dangerous. The servant does not sleep on the premises, and the key is left under a mat for her when she arrives in the morning. The assailant must have been aware of this, as he. used the key to enter the house. The detectives have so far been unable to obtain any clue. 