BREVITIES.

Evening Star, Issue 14038, 20 April 1909, Page 8

BREVITIES.

Charles Darwin died April 20. 1832. The total number of mentally defective persons in England and Wales is estimated to be 271,607. j About 500.000 tons of silver is produced annually by Mexico, Peru, Chili, and British colonies. I More than three-fifths of the world's supply of copper comes from the American and Mexican mines. Braybrook (Victoria) railway disaster, by which forty-four persons were killed, occurred April 20, 1908. The barking of a dog on the earth can be distinctly heard by balloonists at an elevation of four miles'. The State woods of Germany extend o\er 10.000,000 acres, and give employment to nearly 100.000 people. The mail despatched from Dunedin via Suez on the 11th March arrived in London on the night of the 16th inst. There are in Great Britain 1,446 481 private dwelling-houses over £2O in value with a total value of £65,681.722. The House of Louis contains 608 members, of whom 483 are hereditary, the remaining 125 being non-hereditarv. Sydney reports that £I,OOO "worth of opium was seized aboard the German steamer Pnnz Waldemar yesterday, i ta "' a brought to Wellington yesterday 245 passengers. The assisted immigrants were chiefly domestic servants and farm workers. The Appeal Court yesterday gave judgment orally in ihe case Rex v. Charles Baker, unanimously affirming the conviction of the prisoner. Gore Borough Council last night passed a resolution congratulating the Government on their action in stopping work ori the Lawrence-Roxburgh Railway. Hawke s Bay County Council chairman states that for the eight years ended 1902 the charitable aid lew averaged £3BO a year, while it w-as now £1,154, or an increase ot 300 per cent. At New Plymouth last night a meeting* of subscribers, to the Transvaal patriotic fund resolved to erect a memorial on Marsland Hill to the memory of the men who tell in the South African War The Native Conference at Huntly agreed to the proposals submitted to the Ministers in attendance with regard to the allocation of 700,000 acres of land reported on by the Native Land Commission An aboriginal was executed at Brisbane yesterday for the murder of Mrs Evitts Death was instantaneous. The man expressed regret for his crime. Mrs Evitts was murdered at Jundah on January 21. North Island Railway Appeal Board sat at Wellington yesterday, when two train examiners appealed against a reduction m grade and a. clerk lodged an appeal against his dismissal. The Board have not given their decision.