GENERAL NEWS.

Bay of Plenty Times, Issue XX, 10 June 1892, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

In Denmark the life-saving stations are all applied with oil for stilling the waves in storms. It is reported that a revolt has broken out in Armenia, and that the Turkish troops have been defeated by the rebels. Bloudal, Games and Co., Parisian bankers, have failed for a quarter of a million sterling. The assets are nil. Fourteen thousand Jews left Odessa for England, America, and Australia last week. The Parisian Municipal Council has voted two hundred thousand francs to celebrate the anniversary of their centenary. The Government will ask the House of Commons to guarantee a Mauritius relief loan of £600,000. It is proposed in a month or six weeks to invite the Australian colonies to admit New Zealand sheep, as the colony is now free from scab. Many farmers in South Australia axe appealing to the Government for time to pay their rents owing to the failure of the crops. The Victorian Parliament has decided to appoint a Commission to inquire into the fisheries question and the disposal of fish in the markets.

It is stated that out of the total population in the Fijian Islands of 110,000, not less than 103,000 attend the Wesleyan churches ; the rest are Roman Catholics.

Melbourne lit by electricity will be something to look forward to. Upwards of £35,000 is to be spent, and an expert is to gather information in England and Amerioa. The South Australian Treasnry bilk will be of different colours for the various ! amounts. For example, a £100 scrip will be ' coloured brown, a £500 green, and a £1000 scrip blue. The London Times, referring to their case against the St. James's Gazette, affirms that the judgment shows that the copyright law extends over articles of news. An excited meeting of the North Sydney Municipal Counoil was held the other night, and terminated in Alderman G. T, Clarke pulling Alderman Urquhart'u nose, Germany and France are disputing over the ownership of Aldabra, a group of little islands some dutauce off the ooast of Zanzibar. A new Government tax of one mark on each oat kept pb a house pet has been imposed in Dresden. Thousands of the animals have been destroyed by owners desirous of avoiding the * cat tax.' It is estimated that the last South Australian wheat harvest averaged 4 bushels 6 pounds per acre, and that the amount available for shipment during the present season is 109,910 tons.

In New South Wales twelve banks and financial syndicates own about 45,000,000 acres of land, one institution alone owning 8,500,000 acres.

You have mentioned several times during the evening, observed one of the audience to a lecturer, the word periphrasis ? Certainly, said he, it is simply a circumlocutory and pleonastic circle of oratorical sonorosity circumscribing an atom of ideality Lst in verbal profundity

AMr James Toole, of Window, Victoria, was struck by lightning recently and killed instantaneously. His watoh chain seemed to have attracted the electric fluid, which left a mark over the heart. The chain fused and severed from the watoh, which continued to go. A companion who was about two chains from deceased and was carrying a gun, was knocked over but not injured.

Japan has no fewer than 700 earthquake observing stations scattered over the empire, and a Tonquin correspondent giveg as his opinion that they are all needed. He points out that not ouly are the Japanese shaken up by iully five hundred earthquakes erery year — some of them more or leas destructive — but at intervals there comes a great disaster, amounting, as in the earthquake of October 98, 1891, to a national calamity. Japanese annals record twenty-nine such disasters during the last 1,200 years.

An English journalist writing on the famine in Russia says : — As might be expected, crime has increased. Often during the night, when miles away from villages or towns, I have driven alone through crowds of ill-fed, wandering peasants, and it has surprised me that no attempt has been made to extort money from me. Happily, in the country money is no temptation. A beggar will scarcely thank you for a penny piece ; but he will make- the sign of the Cross before taking a piece of dry bread, and fall on his knees to thank the giver.

A sewing-machine has been invented which, the Chicago ' Journal of Commerce ' alleges, stitches easily and rapidly through layers of leather five-eighths of an inch in thickness, this having been accomplished on a first exhibitory trial ; in a second trial, stitches were made evenly and rapidly through a piece of bird's-eye maple threeeighths of an inch thick ; and in a third test, the still more remarkable feat was achieved — viz., that of sewing through a layer of brass of one-eighth of an inch thiok, placed between pieces of leather.

On the authority of Mr Hayter, the Victorian Government statistican, it is stated that not only is Melbourne the most populous town in the southern hemisphere, but is more populous than any town in the United Kingdom, exoept London, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester: than auy town on the continent of Europe except Paris, Vienna, Constantinople, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Naples, and than any town in tha United States except New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Brooklyn. It must, however, be borne in mmd that Melbourne includes its suburbs, and that the same method of computation may not have been followed in all other oases.

A certain poor Chinaman his had a bad time of it between the United States and Canada. The United States authorities told him to * clear out ' which he did by crossing the Niagara bridge tc Canada. The Canadians would not admit him into the Dominion unless he paid a toll of fifty dollars, nor would they admit him agaiu into the United States unless he paid fifty dollars toll at that side. At latest accounts he was sitting on the bridge.

It may not be generally known that John Barns, the London labour leader, is sapported by meant of what is known as " The John Barns Wages Fond," oat of which he is paid by the managing body an allowance of £2 per week, with a farther sum for out-of-pocket expenses incnrred through his membership of the London County Council. Donations to the fond have lately fallen off, and an appeal for support has been made to the public through the press. In this appeal the lion. Secretary (Mr W. Sanders) emphasises the fact that the Wages Fund is Mr Barns* only source of income, and says there is no foundation for the impression that he receives, or has received, parmadent support from three or four of the larger Trade Unions. Occasional support has been accorded to the fund by several Unions, but the only one which has given regular support has been the Dookerr Union, which has contributed £1 per week for the last two years.

Here is a tragic illustration of the class I hatred whioh still animates certain portions of the United States. An unknown negro was lynched by a mob at Millersburg, Kentucky, simply because he " had Hagered about people's doorsteps and annoyed them in various ways," instead of leaving the town as ordered. The poor fellow w%s the only negro in that county.

The Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to erect a monument to the Duke of Clarence in the chancel of Sandriugham* Church, aud the Queen intends to place a statue of her grandson in the Prince Consort's Mausoleum at Frogmore. A church built of compressed paper has been erected in Bergen, Norway. It affords seating capacity for one thousand persons The paper walls are rendered waterproof by a solution of white of eggs and quicklime in curdled milk. Until the year 1816, the silver shilling was the standard of money. An Act of George 111. rendered gold the principal standard, silver becoming a subservient one.

A curious law-suit has been tried in Cracow. A barrister fainted in Court, and had to be carried out. The patient got worse instead of better, and lay in bed for nearly two months. At last he called in another doctor, got cured, and refused to pay the first doctor's bill on the ground of mismanagement. What is more, he brought an action against the doctor to recover 2,000 florins, the amount he reckoned he would have pocketed had not the physician kept him in bed. The Court nonsuited, on the ground that it need not have taken two months to discover that his doctor was an ass.

There are still about 1,000 succession and other lands to come before the Native Lands Court at the Thames before it closes its sittings there. At a meeting of thw Union Insurance Company held at Christchuroh on Tuesday, at which 91,241 shares were represented, resolutions confirming the action of the directors in the sale of the business of the Company to the Alliance Insurance Company were unanimously aloptad. A bonus of ten per cent, on all salaried officers in the Company was voted. The meeting also passed a vote of thanks to the staff for their past servioes and the direotors for the able manner in which they had conducted the business. The resolutions have to be ooufirmed; ;at ji special meeting on the 2rd of July. It is said that Mercedes Lopez, a Mexioan woman who lives on the Bio Grande, is, perhaps, the longest-haired woman in the world. She is some five feet in height, and wheu she stands ereot her hair trails on the ground four feet and eight inches. Her hair is so thiok that she can draw it aroand her so as to completely hide herself* Her, present suit of hair is only 5 years old. It grows so heavy as to cause headache*, and she id compelled to out it frequently, and she sells large tresses to hair-dealers every month. She is an ignorant woman, the wife of a sheep -herder, and is of Castilian blood. prance is about to issue a new stamp which has groat artistic merits. The * composition ' of the vignette is the work of M. Mouchon, and represents Navigation and Commerce waving over the wida seas the French colors. The figures are seated on the prow of a barque. On one side Naviga - tion is directing the helm with one hand while the other is employed in allowing the tricolor to float in the breeze. Commerca helps to hold the flag with one hand, and supports a cornucopia with the other. Above are graven the words, * Republique Francais — Colonies Poste. ' The new stamp comes into use on January 1, 1893.