NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5634, 6 December 1879, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A bookbinder at Sydney ha? d scovered that kangaroo-skin is superior to calf for binding purposes. A Mr. Soule, of Elgin, 111., lias gone extensively into the business of "frog farming," and expects to supply St. Louis, Chicago, and Cincinnati with the succulent edible. The International Law Institute of Bras* eels his adopted a motion urging the Belgian Government to bring ab;>ut a settlement of the laws of warfare by means of international treaties. Be'ore the war negroes were practically exempt from yellow fever, now they are subject to it almost as much as the whites. The fact is accounted for by the giving up of their simple habits a d abstemious diet. A theatre is to !».• opened in Calcutta under native auspice*, aud one fourth of the proceeds are t-> be devoted to purposes of public and private charity, socitl reformation, and improvement of literature and art. The French expect that the proposed Sahara railway will open up a country inhabited by fifty millions of friendly and intelligent blacks to the products of their tuaikets. The Minuter of Public Works takes the warmest interest in the matter. A Berlin correspondent says: The national debt of Russia, bearing interest, is enormous. One billion one hnndred and thirty-two million one hundred aud sixty-tive thousand one huulrcd and twenty-five roubles in paper money is now in circulation. The Children's Hospital at Pendlebury, near Manchester, has recently been fitted with a system of telephones. By this means the lady superintendent's room is connected with each of the six wards, the kitchen, and the pantry. The instrument* are in constant use. and give great satisfaction. Carrier pigeons fie** the other day from Penzance to London—27o miles—in about tiv » hours and a hair it is suggested that they be taken by outward-bound vessels and seut home with roports of the These reports might be of great service to mariucrs about to start on voyages. Count liusconi's translation of Shakspeare, which tirst appeared at Padua iu 1544, has just reached an 11th edition at Rome. Prior to this undertaking by the eminent economist who represented Italy at the Paris Silver Congress, Shakspeare was scarcely known to the mas 3 of Count Ruaconi's countrymen.

Don Carlo 3 deni* s that he will consent to any abdication of his rights to the throne of Spain. He declares that his con sin cannot reign for any leugth of time, because all Spaniards are either C.u iisU nr Republicans. Don Carlos ad>led that the Comte de Chambord recognised him only as the rightful heir to the throne of Spain.

A band of American " doctresseß" have recently been visiting Rome, aud creating ip that foreign city quite a sensation. Some of them were remarkably pretty, bright and merry, aud stared saucily at those who stared

at them. They wore black silk and cashmere drosses, were <# uniformed" alike, and only ono wore spectacles. \ It is b.lieved by ur that lie has dia-1 covered the germs which produce puerperal! fever aud uialiguant p istule. The primar£ orgauism which cugeuders puerperal fever ho

describe* as presenting itself in the form of ui itcd to each other in series of two, four or six, and each having an average diameter of two thousandths of a millimetre.

It is a curious coincidence, says a London society journal, that by the deaths of two officers—one in the Cabul, the other in tlia Zulu campaign—the Catholics have gained two peerages. These were I.ord Ossulton and the Hon. E. Wyatt-ISlgell. Both were elder ions aud Protestants, and the second sons arc, as it happens, iu both cases " 'verts."

A German mcchanical draughtsman died recently, and a po.tl mortem examination showed that he had bofn poisoned by arsenic. His colour box wa< tested, and ne.irly the whole o! the colours were found arseuiferouß. The deceased hail bsen iu the ha'iir, when drawing, of placing the pencil, filled with colour, in hia mouth, for the purposo o£ pointing it. The JTambiirger Borsen Halle, has the following with reference to the treaty between Russia auil China relating to the cession o£ Ivulilj > :—" Traffic with all inland markets of Cliini is to be granted to Russian industries, the Chinese government to pay to Russia five million rubles and cede a portion of the Steppes at the sources of the Irtish behind the Saissan Lake."

The Pall Mall Gazelle, remarking on the establishment of the telephone exchange, iu London says :—" Still more remarkable, however, than the communication thus established was the experiment made with the telephone upon a mechanical type-setter. By m'-aus of speaking through the telephone a compl-te series of sentences was set up in type in a composing-stick." The Russian Minister of the Interior, M. Makoff, has dispatched a Commission to Urlnn to inquire into the alarming disturbances that are incessantly breaking out auiong the peasants, who are dissatisfied with the land laws. It was at Urlna, it will be remembered, that the Tchegerensk revolt took place last year, in which 1100 peasants, led by Nihilists, were implicated.

Correspondence from Allahabad states that tho Gauges has risen to an unusual height this year, and that there is every indication of its rising still higher. Villages on the banks between Kalinpur and Benares are in imminent danger of being washed away, the inroads made by tho stream being very considerable. The current at the confluence, Allahabad, is very strong, and even large boati are unmanageable. The river has not risen to such a height since 1575.

Tho committee who are promoting a monument of John Knox have commissioned Mr. Stevenson, A.R.S.A., to execute a design he submitted to them. Fisures of Patrick

Hamilton, George Wishart, George Buchanan, and Andrew Melville are to be placed at the four corners of tho pedestal.

The place selected for the monument iB Edinburgh. It is estimated that the cost of the monument will not exceed £2,000, and over £500 has already been subscribed. The smallest engine in the world is said to be in the possessiuu of Mr. John Penn, of Greenwich. It stands on a three-penny picc?, although it really covers less, for its base only measures three-eighths of an inch by three-tenths. So small are some parts that they require a powerful magnifying glass to see their form. The whole weight of the model is less thai a three-penny piece. It works admirably, and, when working, its crank shaft performs from 20,000 to 30,000 revolutions per minute. lingund has got a wheelbatrow man. Robeit Carlisle, a resident at St. Austell, who has gained somo little celebrity as a pedcitiian, has started from the Land's End on his contemplated walk to John o' Groat's House and back. He drives a wheelbarrow weighing about twenty-six pounds. He proposes delivering lectures in tho principal towns during his inarch on " Lights and ShaWs of a Showman's Life" and "Total Abstinence." He carries a logbook, which, he u" 11 stamped at the various L'oat-officea en runW. lie is conGdent of succeeding in his task.

Tw.-lve sets of heliographs have been sent out t. in the ltoyal Arsenal at Woolwich to Sir tJa ■ ■ ;Ct Wolseley ; the sucoesaful Bignall. in 4 !> nveeii the Lower Tugela and Ekowe having given an enormous impetus to army signalling. Heliograpliic messages have been exchanged betweeu Shooter's-hiU and the Essex Hills, a distance of 50 miles. Latterly a "heliogram" was transmitted from the Crystal Palace to Woolwich-common by moonlight. This mode of signalling ha 3 also been successfully utilized at night by throwing a powerful beam from a reflecting lamp on to the disc.—Electrician. A Yalta correspondent says that the Czar was greatly excited at the receipt of the intelligence of the massacro at Cabul, and telegraphed immediately for General Kautmaun. What tiauspired during the interview at Livaaia betw< en the Czac and the Goveruor-General is a close.secret, but it is observed that Kaufmann is moro radiant than he has been for some weeks past and talks confidently of a speedy return to Tashkent. He i< confident that " 50,000 Russian troops could drivo the British across the Indus aud set Ind'a in flames," a belief appeared to receive the acquiescence General To.U-iben. . . President Hayes delivered fl speectl at a soldier's gathering at Ohio city, 11 . , P i flip doctrine ot tne argued strongly tl. >^ t; d sovereignty ot .n.hvHUKU St Abr | ham en.ior-s.ng the states had ever Lincoln, that none of :Ulddcohiring that PO-aeßScdßoVoreig.i nfc j fch( , qacgtion in the late wax W of the National favour of the s l> p rr , 3i^( , nt ins j 3 ted upon Governmeu . c(}lourec i citizens, aud maintl'o country would suffer ii thoy taineci adding that no public man sh°uld I)"' supported who consented to their violation. The speaker concluded by stating that the settlements brought about by the war in favour of equal rights and national supremacy were wise, just, and necessary, must be faithfully accepted, firmly enforced, tod aever surrendered. '