THE WORLD'S NEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7400, 28 February 1902, Page 4

THE WORLD'S NEWS.

.* London, January 11. Cordite has been condemned by a committee of the Admiralty and War Office. Another live toad has been found inside a rook— this time at Durham. Smallpox cures consumption, says an eminent London doctor. A stage villain has been too realistically shot at a Liverpool theatre. According to a Paris, paper the Czar, the Kaiser, aud the Emperor of Austria have ordered bullet-proof clothes, invented by M. Szepanek. The capital for the new London and Brighton Electric Railway is £12,000,000. Cape Colony is reported as now requiring little more than the supervision of military police. New York Muncipality affairs are now declared free of the blackmailing pest. A large fleet of refrigerator steamers is to be built for Transatlantic trade from Bristol. Nobody doubts (says the St. James' Gazette) that Sir Ernest Cassel will be among the Coronation peers. The King of Italy has successfully passed his examination as a motor-car driver. A gold-bearing reef has been struck underneath the Johannesburg racecourse at a depth of 4743 ft;. One hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds have been granted for the asphalting of the Dnter den Linden and a few other streets in Berlin. A new system of wireless telegraphy, by which messages are said to be kept absolutely secret, is to be tried by the Admiralty. Another Arctic expedition is being organised by Captain Bernier, a Canadian. The final stage is to be covered by motor-car. In 1901 nearly 450 miles of the Anglo-Egyptian railway were built, and another 700 miles will be undertaken on the Upper Nile in 1902. Ten tons of copperß, in all 1,107,068, were collected by the Manchester Gas Company last month from prepayment gas meters in the district. Hot dinners at 2d a head, to be delivered in any part of London — such is the programme of a scheme shortly to be inaugurated. Seven thousand curates in the Church of England are in receipt of incomes averaging less than JEI3O a year, writes the Bishop of London. Shipping, representing a total of about 1,732,000 tons, was launched from private shipbuilding yards in the United Kingdom last year, constituting a record. Only 58,000 tons represented sailing vessels. The Carlton Hotel, London, has inaugurated a day and night electric carriage service for the convenience of its visitors. , The number of London newspapers and periodicals is 948; of provincial newspapers and magazines 2373, and of London magazines and reviews 1412 ; making a total of 4733. Municipal insurance against fire and accident is desired in Sheffield, aud the Finance Committee of the Corporation has been asked to draw up a scheme. In Edinburgh a man named Burrows is attempting to establish a record by swinging a pair of Indian clubs weighing two pounds each for twelve consecutive hours on six consecutive days. Her weight in silver currency was the dowry of an Austrian bride recently married at Koniggratz. As she turned the scale at 1551b, her dowry came to 13,500 kronen, equivalent to £562 10a. At least £2,000,000 is wanted at onco for scientific research to help us to fight German industries, says the vicepresident of the Technical Education Board. British exports during 1901 show a decrease of more than 10£ millions sterling compared with 1900, which, however, was a year of greatly inflated values. A deficit of £10,000,000 in the forthcoming Budget is forecasted by Sir Robert Giffen. The Bucknall liner Basuto, which sailed from the Manchester Ship Canal on December 10 last, has been given up by her owners as loßt. It is feared she has foundered in the Bay of Biscay with all hands. Building operations are proceeding on a large scale at Durban. If the present rate of progress is maintained, it will not be loDg before the town has doubled its size. Sir William Macdohald has given a donation of £25,000 for the teaching of domestic science to girls in Ontario schools. The telephone service in Sweden is about to be taken in hand by the State, the two telephone companies being bought out for £650,000. The postal authorities have decided to supplement railway and horse traction for the conveyance of parcels between Manchester and Liverpool by the institution of a motor-car seryice, which will commence on March Ist. A new book by Dr Conan Doyle embodying the truth about tho war is to be published next week in six languages, and will be distributed abroad. Lady Methuen, who went to South •Africa recently in the hope of being able to see her husband, has been successful in meeting him at Klerksdorp. Lord M'ethuen has been in South Africa since 1899.

Shepherds' wages for 1902, as settled at the annual hiring fair, Hawick, averaged about for the year, with a cow, three bolls of meal, and potato land. Men not paid in cash got fifty sheep. One of the political riddles of the pantomime season asks the question — •' Why cannot Sir H. Campbell-Banner-man insure his life ?" And the answer that brings down the house is— ".Because no one can make out his policy." The Marquis of Anglesey scores an enormous success in the butterfly dance in his pantomime of " Aladdin," which is now running at the Gaiety Theatre, Anglesey Castle, under the direction of his lordship.

A lawsuit which was begun in 1871 by the Belgian. noble family of Arernberg against the Westphalian Mining Company has ended in the company being condemned to pay dG7,000,000 to the plaintiffs.