NEWS FROM ALL SOURCES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2169, 13 August 1897, Page 4

NEWS FROM ALL SOURCES.

The salvage of the R.M.S. Orotava, which went ashore in the Red Sea towards the end of February, cost the 6um of LI I,OUO. The University of Oxford has conferred upon the Right Rev. J. Stretch, Anglican Coadjutor Bishop of Brisbane, the title of Doctor of Divinity. Mine. Sarah Bernhardt entertains kindly remembrances of Australia. The famous actress assured the Australian Premiers at the Lyceum Theatre that she does. President Steyn, in proroguing the Parliament of the Orange Free State, declares that, although its frontiers are surrounded by British troops, peace is assured. The Swiss railways are adopting electric light in their trains to a great extent. According to the "Sehweizer Banzeitung,"' 335 passenger carriages in Switzerland are now lighted electrically, and the number is continually increasing. "The greatest discovery of the century."—So runs the announcement of the finding of the "Logia" in Egypt, by the workers of the Exploration Fund. The Logia is thought to be the "oracles composed by St Matthew in the Hebrew language." and to contain especially the words of Jesus Christ. The Minister of Public Instruction in France has, according to the Paris correspondent of the "Medical Press," decided to introduce into the programme of schools precise notions on the danger of alcoholism as regards the sanitary, moral, and social point of view, as well as regards that of political economy. There has just died In the village of Seamblesby. Mary Griffen, who was born at Tealby, Lincolnshire, and whose birth register is dated November 24th, 1793. She was until the last month or six weeks, of her life able to perform her household duties, and nothing gave her greater pleasure than to receive visitors.

At Monte Carlo the profits of the gaming establishment amount to nearly LBOO.OOO a year, i.e., this immense sum is annually lost by gamblers to the tables. LSOOO a year is spent in the secret service fund; L6OOO a year in sending those who have been ruined out of the place; L3OOO a year in small pension to those who, having been rich, have lost everything; and, worst of all, L 62.000 a year in subventions to the press

In connection with foreign correspon- • dence, it is very curious to find what extremely busy bodies Britons are in the matter of letter-writing, which, incidentally may have something to do with their position in the world as the head of all trading communities. It is calculated that every minute Britons send out 250 letters, etc., to all parts of the world, but receive only about 150. Asia and Africa send back only about »ne to three Britons send there, and from Europe generally the percentage received is about So of those we send. Experiments with electric traction are to be made on the Belgian State railways from Brussels tx> Tervueren, a length of about nine miles. The cars, which will carry 80 passengers, will be over 52ft. long, resting on two bogies, and they are to be run at the rate of about 30 miles an hour in easy parts of the line. There will be five cars, two fitted with Tudor batteries, and three with Julien "batteries. An ingenious system has been invented by a French military engineer, whereby ordinary carnages may be converted into autocars at a comparatively small cost. He has constructed a metallic underframe, which carries the whole of the mechanism, so that the body of any form of light vehicle may be lifted on it, and bolted into position, when it becomes an efficient and economical autocar.

The president of the British Board of Trade has appointed a committee to inquire whether the means of communication between the passengers in railway trains and the servants of the company in charge of the train at present adopted are sufiiciiiut, whether any particular system of communication in use or available is so eftVicnt as to make its general adoption by tue railway companies desirable, and also whether any extension or amendment of the law on the subject Is desirable.

A company has been formed for the construction of a canal which would connect the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean. The canal Is to have its beginning at the city of Tsugura, on the Sea of Japan, and its mouth in the Bay of Kurawan, on the Bimako Lake, from whence a second canal will go to the river Usikawa. on the mouth of which is the city of Osaka. The cost of the first part of the canal—22 kilometres—is estimated at L 309.700, and the second—l 4 kilometres—will be constructed at an expense of L25">,000. The depth will be sufficient to allow the passage of torpedo boats, and an important harbor will be constructed at Osaka, A recent, article in the "Marine Rundschau" discusses the comparative strength of the navies of Europe, and arrives at the following conclusion:— There is only one sea-power of the first rank— England. The French navy is barely half as strong, and France must consequently be classified as a seapower of the second rank. As none of the other naval Powers are equal to France, they are placed in the third class, which includes the Russian, the United States, the Japanese, the Italian, and the German fleets. Expressing the fighting value of the various fleets in terms of units, the author of the article estimates the English fleet at 1001, the French at 406, the Russian at 280, the American at 195, and the Japanese at 179.

At the last quarterly meeting of the American Statistical Association, Dr. S. W. Abbott, secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Health, presented some interesting figures regarding the proportion of pulmonary tuberculosis in females to that in males in Massachusetts. The rate in 1851 was 1451 females to 1000 males; in 1890, 1055 females to 1000 males; and last year only 974 females to 1000 males. Last year was the first in the history of the State in which the number of deaths from phthisis in females was smaller than that in males. The fact that a uniform reduction in the rate of female deaths began some five years ago, about ths time when women were beginning to ride the bicycle extensively. Dr. Abbott considers significant, and he is inclined to attribute the decrease in the death rate to the great increase in open air exercise among women which has beer, inaugurated by the use of the bicycle.—"British Medical and Surgical Journal." A Gentian brass band brayed for leu minutes iu front of an office recently. ••Let's heal a penny and have some fun," said one of the clerks. The penny was promptly heated and laid on the counter. The clerks grinned and waited. Soon the bis man who fills the brass bom with wind entered. "There's a penny on the counter," said one of (he clerks carelessly. The big man walked up to the counter, glauced curiously at the penny, drew from his pocket a piece of leather and picked up the coin. Turning to the clerks he smiled expansively, and said; "Dank you. clever .voting man." "He's been there before," said the first clerk.