BREVITIES.

Evening Star, Issue 11512, 1 April 1901, Page 1

BREVITIES.

The Qneensttnrd contingent hare reached Cape Town. The sraaHpox outbreak ,in Glasgow is diminishing, English brokers importing thousands of tons of .beet sugar. Colonel Robin is in charge of the returning invalided soldiers. ■ » A boy named Gardiner is suffering from the plague at Brisbane. Indications are strengthening that the-s.s. Federal has foundered. Ftye thousand candidates offered for 300 commissiqns in the Imperial Army. A fire at Temora (.N.8.W.) destroyed a hotel, three, shops, and the post office. The schooncl Hawaiian Isles had a trying time off Wilson Promintory last week. Captain Crawshaw (of Timarn), who was twice wounded, has returned* to active duty. In 1801 1,570,000 newspapers were issued monthly. This has grown to over-41,000,000 a day.

The French Chamber of Deputies, by 296 to 254 votes, adopted, the Religions Associations Bill. .

The United States turned out a total of 2,196 locomotiveslast year. Four hundred and eighty were exported—l3o to British colonies. .

The sun is shrinking at the rate of, roughly, five feet a week, or a mile in every twenty years. - > The cable steamer Anglia left London yesterday with the Durfcan-Mauritins section of the Cane cable.

A man for cutting something out of a book at the (Mistchtrrch Public Library was fined £2 and costs.

Another.New Zealander a victim of enteric —Trooper Best, of the Fourth Contingent, who.halled from Nelson.

During the last fourteen years France has grabbed 2,000,000 square miles against Great Britain's 2,600,000. Lieutenant Douglas, of the Army Medical Corps, has . (been awarded the'V.C. V for bravery at Magersfontein. A Boer commandant has surrendered to General French, but Foure managed to escape from Bruce Hamilton. The Kaiser declares his desire to maintain the traditional relations between the German and Russian Empires. The Berlin Press are in arms against the Kaiser's veiled threat to put down insubordination by means of the military. - The Marseilles dock strike has ended, the chief agitator having been sentenced to three months' imprisonment. There are now about twenty-five hands working on the Heriot-Roxburgh extension, and another relay of men is expected. The Banks will this year observe their usual holidays at Easter—namely, from Good Friday to Easter Tuesday, inclusive. Out of 10,000 farms'in the Orange River Colony, with an- - average of 3,000 acres apiece, only 250,000 acres ore m cultivation.

The English Government have appointed a commission to inquireinto the question of the employment of children during school age.

"8.-P."does not want, any more candidates for his police. He has already enrolled 11,000—mostly English gentlemen or farmers.

The King of Portugal, before leaving England, made.a donation of £2OO-to Queen Alexandra's fund for -the- soldiers and sailors.

Mr H. E. Holler, Mayor of West Harbor, does not intend to seek re-election. The contest will probably be betWeen.Gr Cray and Mr Bolton.

Oxford won this year's inter-University boat race: by two lengths. This is Oxford's thirty-third win, against Cambridge's twentv-four.

De la Rey intended to intercept a British rearguard returning from Hartebeestef ontein, but instead had forty-one of his men placedhors de combat.

The half-caste Lock, who was concerned in the abduction of a girl and'* was also wanted for a criminal assault on another girl, has surrendered to the police. The Columbian Government offer the United States absolute control over the Panama Canal, with valuable concessions added. That should " fetch " Uncle Sam.

In order to cope with the block in tho grain traffic in New South Wales, instructions have been given by the State Minister of Railways for the construction of 200 additional trucks.

Twenty-three years ago a quarter-acre section of land in Gore was purchased lor £2O. The original holder held it until last week, when he sold it for £550 cash. There are no improvements on the section.

A purse of gold containing £4OO was presented to Miss Sarah Jane Rees at Aberdare. She is better known under her Bardio name of Cranrgwcn, and has preached and lectured in Wales for thirty-five years. Mr Edward Lloyd's retiring makes the dearth of really good tenors still more marked. So-called society is now so large, and fees are so high, that the next great drawing room tenor is assured an incomo of over £20,000 a year, says an English paper.

Dr Murray, the editor of the ' Oxford English Dictionary.' points out that those who are interested in the length of words will observe that *' incircumscriptiblencss ■' has as many letters as " honorificabilitudnity"— many letters as " honorificabilitudinity."—• has hitherto held the record.

The passing of the Queen, many people will be interested to learn, was witnessed by Miss Florence Nightingale from the window of her house, overlooking tho route of the procession, a touching figure wrapped in her white shawl, and easily to be identified by those who knew her pictures.

The Brisbane River a few roomings ago presented an interesting sight, immense masses of tangled growth, known as the water hyacinth, were brought down by a fresh from the upper reachess of the river. Some patches of hyacinth were several acres in extent, the purple flowers looking very attractive among the bright green leaves. Sir William Harcourt, at a reassembling of' Parliament,' had more than word for the situation. "I never remember," he said of the Ministerialists, " seeing .so large an army in so indefensible a position." The Budget was happily hit off. " Oh, I suppose it will be half a crown on beer, and five shillings on beer with arsenic in it."

At the Manchester Assizes a special jury awarded Mrs Anne Hope £2,000 damages for libel by her former husband, a metal merchant, ,of Carlisle, whom Fhe divorced. The husband swore, and afterwards published, affidavits contaming charges against hk wife, and continued to persecute and slander her at Blackpool, after divorce.

jThe wealth of floral offerings sent to Osbotne and to Windsor for the Queen's funeral is described as unprecedented. Some were so gigantic that a difficulty arose about their transit. < One huge packing case was sent over in charge of an Austrian officer from Vienna; so huge, indeed, that it could not.be got into any of the luggage vans. So it was forwarded on a truck from Dover.

This is the of the year when the Irish-American Fenians who are the pride of Tammany' Hall go wild on beef. A mighty chief named Patrick Dhrer holds the record. At one sitting ho stowed away 14lb of steak, aad was able to leave the t&ble with the help of his legs. He beat the next man, ihe Mayor of New by 61b. Last night there" was a great banquet at the Grand Central Palace, add several hundred Fenians disposed of B,fXX)lb of beef. It is not stated whether the raw or not; a tarn* over. a'dbarc6al;6rewwats t doubtless deemed sufficient by these oiajila.-—'Pall Mall.' *