BREVITIES

Evening Star, Issue 11677, 8 February 1902, Page 1

BREVITIES

The Prince of Wales has become a Fellow of the Royal Society. More people have died from colds than were ever killed in battle. Seventv Europeans are said to have joined Botha’s force via Zulnland. There is one titled person to every hundred commoners in Russia. Rawlinson’s Mounted Corps captured thirty of Botha's commando. In the Greytown arson case the jnry failed to agree, and were discharged. A ship yard at Ominato, Japan, still in operation, was established 1,900 years ago. There are 130,000,000 people on the face of the globe who don’t know what soap is. Andres Cronje intends to form a burgher corps as a protest against the prolongation of the war. In future the Vancouver steamers will call at Fiji, beginning with the Aorangi' on her next outward trip. The princes and people of India have undertaken to subscribe 30 lakbs of rupees to the Victoria Memorial Hall. The Waikawa School was burned down on Tuesday morning. The entire contents (including the library) were destroyed.

At Auckland yesterday was acquitted of burglary, and at Wanganui James Buckingham was found not guilty of perjury. The well-to-do Galicians are boycotting the German health resorts as a protest against Germany's tyranny to the Poles. The Arab, slave dealers in tlje Persian Gulf are credited with carrying on their operations under cover of the French flag. Mr Chamberlain declared that “C.-B.s” proposal to refer the new procedure rules to a select committee meant a year's delay. The British losses in South Africa up to date have been 965 officers and 24,240 men, including the victims of disease of all kinds. A disappointed Macedonian university professor ai fcotia assassinated the Bulgarian Minister of Instruction, and then committed suicide. Sydney citizens are forming a branch of the Empire League, the object of which is to maintain the supremacy and integrity of the Empire. Lord Salisbury's latest speech on the South African situation has convinced the Germans that Britain docs not intend to abate any of her demands. The Peace Note of the Dutch Premier and Lord Lansdowne’s reply thereto are to be communicated to the Coer leaders in the field by Lord Kitchener. Great Britain and Japan are strenuously opposing the Russian contention that the Manchurian Treaty and the Russo-Chinesc. Bank agreement are co-related. Mr Seddon, on his visit to Dunedin, will be accompanied by at least two of bto colleagues, and it is very probable that the Native Minister will be one of them. Two fresh cases of plague are reported from Sydney. Both occurred in George street, but at opposite ends, and the victims are a hotel employe and a news boy respectively. German publicists are trying to convert the Americans to a belief that it was the Fatherland, not Britain, that prevented a European combination in favor of Spain two years ago. Nelson’s Diamond Jnbfiee celebrations were brought to a o'ore yesterday with a regatta and water spoi is, the explosion of a couple of submarine mines, and illuminations of the city. The DnrMi inhabitants of the Weft Indies, to he (eded In (he I'nitc-d States, are to bo allowed two years in which to declare or disclaim aliegrai.ee to the row owners of the group. lu Mr John Re.inon’s oyiirdcn. creeping paralysis is increasing over the ITnvre of Commons. He regards the new as an attempt to bring about the disfranchisement of Ireland by insidious means. Germany’s opposition to the reduction of the Tientsin garrison and to the restitution of the civil government of the city by the Chinese Is to enable her to acquire exclusive mining rights over a large area in (Shantung. The district railway engineer at Auckland asserts that the discharged co-operators were treated with fairness. There was not a preponderance of single over married men employed. Instead of seventy being left, only twenty were retained.

The Chief Justice and Lady Stout yesterday celebrated their silver wedding, and received congratulations from all parts of the colony. The celebration was postponed from December 27 to ensure the attendance of all their children. Tobias Smuts, in a letter to a Berlin paper, says that the so-called barbarities (f the British were sometimes regarded by the Boers as military' necessities. He condemns the use of harsh terms towards the British, and confirms the allegation that the British were forced to establish concentration camps.

In consequence of a request preferred by the Government of the Australian Commonwealth. it is the intention of (he Home authorities to present to each of the colonies visited by their Royal Highnerses a bound record of the tour of the Prince and Princess of Wales as Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York. In each case it is understood that the volume will be signed bv the Prince and Princess.

At Duntroon, on the school resuming work the other day, Miss Livingston, who for the past, nine years has filled the position of mistress of the local school, was presented with a purse of sovereigns. Mr Reed, 8.A., in making the presentation, expressed the hope, which was shared, by all present, that “ the gift was a bright omen indicating the burial of the past, and heralding a successful future for the Duntroon School.” Reading between the lines, it is easy to see that Miss Livingston had a most "difficult role to play during recent troubles in the school. An insomnia society has been organised at Chicago with the object of waging war against, sleep. The members are pledged never to sleep over four hmus. and to train their children to do with less sleep. The president of the society says: - Since limiting myself to four hours I have felt more active, energetic, and healthy titan ever before. Milions of people are wasting their lives by unnecessary sleep. It is also a sure sign of laziness, and lazy people are not wanted in Chicago.” The society have a large membership, and branches will be established in other parts of the United States.

Comparison between the latest British and American census statistics discloses a remarkable difference in the numbers o‘ the males and females that make up the population of the respective countries. In Britain, it will be remembered, the female portion of the popula on were in numbe-rs at least by far the more numerous section, tut in America tins state of affairs is re. versed, the men and noys outnumbering the women and girls by i,800,000 in a population of 76.303,387. The excess appears more distinctly, perhaps, when it is said that there are 512 males and only 488 fc-re-V in every 1.000 people in the United States. '

The principal deposit of asphalt in the island of Trinidad is at Le Brea, where there is an apparently inexhaustible supply, ihe pitch lake is lio acres in extent, «I unknown depth, and situated Esolt above ti): level of the sea. The removal *.f 1,720,000 tons during the past thirty-foar years has apparently made no impression on the lake. The lake contains no liquid asphalt, but in other parts of die island tike kind from which illuminating lubricating oils can be distilled is found widely dls tributed. Glance pitch, also found in the island, is used for electric insulations an 1 for black varnishes.