NEW IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5358, 18 January 1879, Page 7

NEW IN BRIEF.

The sum collected on doc licence* in Sin Franei-cn, last year, amormte 1 to £7300. The product oa of mushrooms in Paris is s : ated to 1>- abci* 25 r ons. P'le's! 44 Ravon'' wa* w i finally sold t-o the American ' for 10 dollar?, say About 40 conspicuous Democrats in Kerlsn have received notice of expulsion from ch» chief of police. Cremation in Goth?, i? certainly cot t*xpensivc, a=? eich b >dy submitted to the process will cost about €1 There .ire 225 * in the Kistern States of America en mired in the manufacture of starch from potatoes. Lnrge quantities of the sctz, one of the moat valued fi-»h found in Chinese are being introduced in France. The new Principality of Bulgaria ha 3 a population of about 1,700.000 souls, 40 percent of whnm are Mohammedans. A duel with pistols has taken place at Cherbourg between two nIR ;ors of marines, at which oue of them was killed. The death is announced of Mr. W. It. Cooper, founder cf the Society of Biblical Arolnedogy, and a distimiu'shcd Oriental scholar. A miner out of has died of starvation near Gateshead ; and another workman, also unemployed, has hanged himself in that town. The centenary of Lord Brougham's birth is to be celebrated next April at that town regarding hiru as the founder cf its prosperity. Fifty tons of granite are calculated by tbe Ti'uveUer to have been told io bits to our Transatlantic cousins as portions of Cleopatra's Needle. The Duke of Cambridge has issued a special order directing that the standard height for recruits shall be raised by half-an-inch for engineers and oue inch tor iufantry of the line.

The state ment that Sir Wilfrid Lawsoa intends to introduce a r-swlution instead of the Permissive Bill in the ensuing se-.siuii of Parliament is denied.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. M'Cabe, has, by the almost unanimous vote of the prelates, been selected as a suggestion to the Vatican for succession to Cardinal Cullen.

The resignation by the Kev. A. Tooth of the vicarage of £t. James's, Hatcham, is announced. The patron has nominated the Rev. tl. A. Walker, formerly curate or St. Alban's, tiolbom, as his successor.

The Postmaster-General ha-< determined to open a telegraph office at the Melbourne public offices for the convenience of the numerous persons attending there daily on business. The office will bo situ&ted oa the left baud side of the m.tin entrance.

The Russian budget shows an excess of expenditure over reveuue of fully 405,000,000 roubles. It is proposed to devote an ox:ra expenditure of six miliums of roubles in 1579 to the purposes of naval construction.

Tlie Loudon Examiner says that the Vatican has resolved to start a weekly paper to be inspired directly by the Pope, and it is to be published simultaneously in tive difuereut languages. An infallible journal will be unique.

The arrest of Socialists in Italy cousecjuent on the late attempt on the life of King Humbert have rev. Mcd tin organization and correspondence with foreigu Internationalists much more extensive than had been expected.

At a meeting of the Kxccutive Committee of the City Bank Relief Fund on Nov. 2Sth it was reported that the subscriptions in Glasgow amounted to over £155,000, and that the total amount subscribed throughout Scotlaud is now about £273,001).

Sir Henry Layard has coolly proposed that Britain should become guarantee for a loan to Turkey of twenty-three millions of Turkish pounds, and this at a time when the Turks on their own account have succeeded in borrowing nearly two millioa3 sterling.

India is to have a gold currency, according to a correspondent of the Daily Telerjraplt, who states that the Indian Government contemplates replacing the present silver standard by that of the more precious metal and by making English gold coins legal tender throughout the country.

A fearful catastrophe occurred at Glazier's Bay, Tasmania, lately. The hut of a man. named John Grace caught fire whilst he and his wife were a short distance away, and their three children, who had been left inside, with the door fastened, wero burnt to death. The eldest was four years old.

Government has either suddenly resolved upon summary measures at the Cane, or is in receipt of ill news from that "quarter. The 4th and 99th regiments have received orders to embark at once for the colony, and drafts of the 23rd and 30th regiment 3 are to be included in the despatch. Near Birkenhead, a man about 40 years o£ age was found in a dying state, and two children, aged three and. five respectively, in a similiar condition. A revolver was found by the man's side with three of the chambers discharged, and it is supposed that he had first shot the children and then himself.

A Parisian rumour has it that Germany is so irritated at Switzerland for permitting Socialists to find refuge within its bounds that the Emperor has serious thoughts of proposing that the little Republic should be divided into three parts, presumably for absorption into the surrounding countries. A parcel containing a human hand, a piece of. flesh resembling a kidney, aud a luuip of coal, all wrapped in a newspaper bearing Saturday's date (Nov. 23), was found in Dublin on Monday. It is not certain whether the ghastly bundle affords evidence of another " mutilation" case, or is merely the result of a student's joke.

Kenton's Bauk, an old established proprietary institution in Rochdale, suspended payment on Nov. '2S, with direct liabilities to the public estimated at half a million. The failure is directly traceable to the uneasy feeling created in the miud of the depositors by the suspension of the City of Glasgow Bank, and to the great depreciation iu°the value of stocks in which the funds were largely invested.

Shakespeare is greately relished by the Chinese in California, and Othello has lately been played a Mougolian theatre in San Francisco. Some slight innovations, however, were introduced to suit local tastes; for instance, the plot of the tragedy was made to turn entirely upon the identification o£ Desdemona's handkerchief, which is recognised to slow music in the last act by a four-bittee laundryman.

A warrant has been issued for the apprehension of Richard King, who for IS years has been the manager of the Vetnor, Isle of Wight, branch of wliat is now the Capital and Counties' Bank, and who has left* the town with his wife and a quantity of luggage. It i-i believed the bank will not lose more than £1090, but several persons who entrusted King with money for investment will suffer.

The fortiti.-ations of Constantinople, consisting of two parallel lines of defence, are being actively proceeded with, and when completed will bo armed with SOO guns of large calibre. In other re.--p;cts also the Porte is preparing for whatever may betide in the foro: of hostilities. Since the armistace 29 vessels leaded with rifles nnd cannons have arrived at Constantinople, principally from America. Several suggestions from Hobart Pasha, as to the re-or-gauisatior. of the navy, are a'.so to be carried out.

A singular development transpired at Fort Lincoln on November 2S. .'Wrs. Sergeant Noonan, who died the night before, turns out to be a man. Mrs. Xoonan was a laundress at the post, and a most popular midwife. She had beeu married three months, and was one of the widows or the Custar massacre. Her husband is a member of the Seventh cavalry, now in the field. There is no explanation of the unnatural union, except "hat the supposed woman was worth 10,000d01., aud was able to buy her husband's silence. She has bt*a with the Seventh cavalry for years.

The microphone as a thief c.itoher ha 3 proved very useful to an English resident in India, who round hi.? sture of oil rapidly and myiterouiiy uimishing. He fixed a microphone to :he oil cans, carried the wire up t j his bedroom, and after the house had been closed for the uiglic. sat up to await the result. Very shortly he heard the clinking of bottles, followed by the gurgling sound of liquor being poured out, and running down s.airs he caught Ilis bearer in the act of filling small battles with oil for easy conveyance from the icemises.

An ingenious Russian gamijg house was recently •'■cjucedupon by the police near Moscow, '■'* the in'J'. who had iosi so largely a; t- suspect fcul play having informed the autlior-ties. <'n examining the rooms it was iu'jnd that the ceilings tvera covered with myersreprtsontingastarrysky. Holes were pierced in the stars, through winch a m:.n lying r>:; "he door o: the upper room coulil see t::'- .ards of tin 1 players, and-by means of v. ires runn.ng ri/.vn the walls he could comm-aniease wirh the boot of his accomplice?., rt :i;i indicate their p'.-y bya code of taps.