NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6063, 23 April 1881, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Several shocks of earthquake have occurred ■ in the Azores Islands. Fifteen collieries in South Yorkshire, Eng- ■ land, and 12,000 men are idle. Great distress exists. ... Wheeler, who strangled his sister-in-law at San Francisco, was sentenced to be hanged on April 19th. " The recent storm on the coast of Scotland caused great destruction of shipping and a shocking loss of life. Dr. Wild of Canada predicts Co years of war after ISSC, and announces the millenninm to begin in 1935. ' Bodv-snatching from the villa|C churchyards "in the neighbourhood of Montreal ia extensively carried on. A circular is to be issued to the Orangemen in Canada, asking for pecuniary aid for their brethren in Ireland! Tiie Government Secret Service. has arrested fourteen dangerous counterfeiters. More arrests are to follow. The Agenee Russe, of St. Petersburg,- savs that Bosnia and Herzegovina Trill shortly be incorporated with the Austrian Empire. August Schultz, a 15-year-old lad o£ Milwaukee, hanged himself through fear of punishment for having stolen nvc dollars from his parents. It is stated, that Russia has proposed to the Powers that Crete be ceded to Greece instead of the Territory in Epirus, allotted by the Conference. The net cost of the war in Afghanistan, including that of the frontier railways; was about twenty-one crores of rupees or £17,r>00,000 sterling. According to a decision just rendered by the United States Circuit Court at Chicago, a Chinaman cannot become a naturalised citizen of the United States. ■ ;■- —r The South German wine crop this, year proved a failure, of which Italy auuT Hungary, who are sending supplies to Austria and Bavaria, do not complain. Nobody is now admitted into Kilinburgt Castle without a pass from the commanding officer, countersigned by tho fort major, and each visitor must have a guide. Paraell has told Victor Hugo that though Irish iusurrection would be legitimate, yet tlie League had been dissuaded from such ob attempt, as the Irish are unarmed. ■ , ' It is now learned that the Peruvian capital was captured by the Chileans through the treachery of Peruvian officers, .who encouraged the soldiers to pillage and murder. A farmer's dog at West Lincoln, Illinois, set his teeth into tho fellow who was taking a girl out through a window for the purpose of elopement, and held on until the father came. Hearne, lariri agent to the brother of the late Lord Mountmorris, has been fired at by two men near his residence at Baliinrobe, Ireland, and mortally wounded. He received six pistol shots. The French Government has resolved to recall the French representative iu Venezuela, in consequence of the twenty years' bad faith to French creditors by the Government of that country. , ...-.■ .•.;': The great schools to bo. established in England by the Jesuits will notbepermitted to receive English scholars. This is according to an episcopal rule for the protection of English Catholic schools. All apprehensions of au Ashantee ivar have ceased. The King has sont a reply saying that he desires peace, "Ho asks the delivery of fugitives, bnt asserts that ke never intended to make \rar. M. de Lesseps counts on Italian labourers to dig the Panama Canal! They bored the Mount Cenis and Gothard tunnels, and are considered the most steady, frugal, and intelligent iu such undertakings. The London Times Dublin special says: —The prestige of the Land League has sensibly declined. People are beginning to i fear it less. Outrages have almost entirely ceased, and the, payment of rent has (increased. "

Two genealogical tables identified with, the "generations of Adam," Gen. 5, and the " generations of the sons of Noah," Gen. 10, are said to have been discovered by Missionary Crawford, of the Baptist Board, at Tung Chow, China. Even Asia has notescaped.au exceptionally severe winter. In Japan ■Shore have been, snow'storms the like of which arc not remembered to have occurred iu 40 years. The snow is 10 feet deep in the fields and 15 feet on the hills. A new Press bill has passed the French Chambers; henceforth there will be no stamp, no caution money, and no previous authorisation for poeting bills, hawking, or for drawings or caricatures. The Press will be absolutely free. It is now stated that the real cause- of the dispute between von Eulenberg and Bismarck aie the former's dislike of measures tending to Socialism, and Bismarck's desire to have a less scrupulous Minister to manage the approaching election. A strange bill just introduced into the Ohio Legislature proposes to inflict 10 dol. fines and ten days' imprisonment on any landlord or boarding-house keeper who does" not inform his patrons of the composition of the butter set before them. One of the fiercest of fights over the liquor question is now in progress in Missouri. A stringent prohibitory law seems likely to lie passed by the Legislature, the country members outnumbering the city members, who strenuously oppose the measure. The introduction of American street-cars into Rio de Janeiro has produced a great change in the social and business life of the. people. There are two kinds of cars—one for barefooted people, 5 cents ; and.one for ! those who wear shoes, 10 cents. Ship-building on the Clyde was unusually active last year. Two hundred and forty-one vessels of all kinds were launched, of a total of fully 239,000 tons, an excess of 71,000 tons over 1579. Their marketable value represents an outlay of about £6,000,000. Two brothers stole money steadily for tea years from a Detroit bank in which they were tellers, and covered up the crime ivjicu the annual examinations of their books were made by borrowing the money temporarily. At length the sum reached 30,000 dols., and they were unable to raise it. " Mr. Jolin Bell, owner of a private gallery, which had cost £200,000, tried to will his pictures to the city of Glasgow, but he unfortunately wrote his mil in pencil. Under the British law, he might as well have written it in water. His pictures have been sold for the benefit of his heirs, and his good intentions follow him. Bayard Daily, of Logansport, Ind.. shot his betrothed wife, Annie Beekly, last month, because she refused to give him a ditk with which to kill a rival. She was given up to die, but surprised everybody by slowly recovering; and a few days ago, as soon as she could stand on her.feet, she married the man who had so nearly murdered her. The Law Times pointe out that Parliamentary " obstruction" was not'entirety unknown in the last century.'; Onl|o 12th. March, 1771, the miuority divided the House twenty-three times in resisting the punishment of the printers of the debates. Burke said of these proceedings," " Posterity will bless the pertinacity of that day." The body of an e'di.ly weman who wae frozen to death- was found near Rosa by a man named/Stephen Buxford, who, at the inquest, stated that he had no rest all one night through 'dreaming about deceased. He dreamed that he had found her body by means of an iron rod with a hook at the end, which he had in the house, and it waß that dream which caused him to look -|or her body where He found it. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that deceased, died from exposure to the frost and snow, j At the rising of the Court of Queen's Bench, recently, a St. Giles tobacconist whohadhad a verdict against him, exclaimed, " This is a swindle; it is a robbery ; thia is twice I have been robbed;" and.' pointedly addressing Lord Colebridge, said, "I have been robbed, and by you; you are.a disgrace to the bench." The bystanders cried shame, on which the defeated litigant exclaimed. "You are a parcel of lick-spittles." Lord Colebridge left the bench, and the man was removes by the ushers. No bench warrant was issued, but the man will probably be brought before the magistrate. A short time since the funeral took place of William Clapham, an aged costermonger, well known for more than halE a century in the alloys of Turnmiil-street, Clerkenwell. The deceased was a member of several temperance societies, a large number of the members of which attended the funeral with banners and bauds of music. He was a kind of patriarch among the costermongers of Central London. Mr. Henry May hew obtained from him statistics for lVß " London Labour and London Poor,- and .-ija illustration of Clapham. and his doafcey formed a frbntipiece. Lord Shaftasbnry and,. other noblemen have, paid . visits, to ins humble dwelling in Fryingpau Alley. services were commenced at Madiera; M cUs Theatre Clapham acted as one ,oi tue stewards to preserve order, and ior several