NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6213, 15 October 1881, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

During thelast ton years -18,619 (Welling houses have been dumantled in Ireland S ' H,??"? f S !V y T £70 ' 30S ™* Scribed to thefunds of the American Tract Society. Forty people w,,e kiHeil , Mt -rf "{•? , 3 ' an , J ? !1 ], y thtir imprudence. The Mikado of Japm haa ordered 100 (.Toveriiment racecourses to be constructed this year. A fund is being rais«a in Boston to give poor and infirm persons street-car ridea on pleasaut days. During the last twenty years there has been an increase in English foreir'u trade £100,000 per annum. An aged Irishwoman, 102 years old, HvW in county Londonderry, walks to and fro market ten miles every day. Iu the code-book of naval signals, 10,000 sentences can be indicated by differently arranging three or four flags. The personal estate of the late actor, Mr. K A. Sothern (Lord Dundreary), has been sworn in London under £10,000. An American cioekmaker has made a working steam which weighs only lopx., and can be covered by a thimble. Miss Elizabeth Fleming. a favourite in girlhood ot Sir Y\ alter Scott, has just died in Edinburgh at the ago o f seventy-two A popular belief anion- the Egyptians i 3 that a grandson of the Empress of ludia will be soon appointed as Viceroy of their ancient country.

Three boys who surreptitiously took a tradesman's cart and drove to Epsom races have gone for four years to a reformatory to expiate the enormity. The new Royal Gjfrts of Justice in Loudon coutiiin npwarni of 700 rooms r.ucl 21 courts. There are 42 staircases ami 2S entrances, and the corridors extend over two miles. A leading Jewish congregation in New York has decided to hold its religious services on Sunday, as business men cannot or will not attend on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. The Schillinger pavement—a Xew York invention—may be moulded into any shape, and any hue can lie given it. It hardens after 24 hours, and in live or six days becomes like solid granite. The company appointed to revise the authorised version of the Old Testament finished their "Sth session on July S. Tho second revision of Isaiah was continued as far as ch. xxvii G. "Evans's," the -well known house in Coveut Garden, London, where Thackeray's Colonel Neweomho was scandalized by a song, has been turned into a private club termed the Falstali'.

The one hundred and seventh birthday of a Mrs. Jane Piukcrtoii, a native of PaisL-y, Scotland, was celebrated at Manchester, England, June loth. She has a daughter ayoil To ; another, To ; and a son aged 70. Woman's aspirations are the car.se of her oppression. Sarah Winnemucca, the educated Princess of the I'iiites, has been sent to jail at Winnemucca, New, fur challenging the editor of the Silver Suite to light :i duel. A company of New Vork capitalists is preparing to tunnel Broadway, Fourth Avenue, and other streets, for the purpose of building a system of underground railroads to facilitate rapid transit between the eastern ami western shores of Manhattan Island. Comet or no comet (says an American paper) this year starts in riuht to become famous for mnrdcrs, assassinations, shipwrecks, tornadoes, floods, scandals and other scujatioiis. Deviltry seems to move with the speed of an train. It is significant of the attractions which the Australian colonies oiler at present to emigrants that whereas 51,732 person? emigrated in April from Liverpool to the United States, 13 went thence to Australia, British North America got 0000, and the West Indies IC. The deck-load of timber which was instrumental in saving the lives of the passengers of the Kuro was intended for the Northumberland lighthouse, and as the bulk of the timber was washed ashore close to the site, the contractors took delivery o£ it direct from the sea. The officers of the Engineers have offered £500, in addition to the Government reward, for the murderer of Lieutenant Roper, the young oflicer who was shot down last February on his own staircase, in a well-sen-tinelled barrack-yard, within a few minutes of his leaving the mess table. California has been in American possession bat thirty-one years, and its exports and imports are this year more than twice as great as those of the twenty-seven states and two territories which compose the Mexican Republic, though California's population is less than one-twelfth and its area not more thaa one-fifth of hers. The St. Petersburg Novoc Vremya, discussing the prospects of war, says that neither the Russian people nor the Russian Government wish Mar, because the bad financial condition of the Empire enjoins peace; but every day and every hour the conviction deepens that a great struggle is about to break out. The theatre at Epidaurus, the oldest theatre in Greece, has been now thoroughly uncovered, and found to be in a perfect state of preservation ; it was constructed in the fifth century before Christ, and was the largest building of the kind in Greece. A colossal statute of zEsculapius has been discovered on the stage. The British Society for the Propogation of the Gospel among the Jews reports its receipts for the past year of £G357, and expenditure of £0547. It wa3 stated that in results it has been the best year iu the history of the Society. The anti-Semitic agitation of the Continent was severely condemned at the annual meeting.

At Stepney, London, the crowd were so furious with the grandmother of a girl who committed suicide because the old lady would not let her wear her new clothes, that the police had to iuterfere strenuously to prevent the mourning coach containing this Spartan ancestress being overturned; All sorts of refuse was flung at her windows. The petroleum springs recently discovered in Hanover are yielding well. From one of three borings made near Reino, 783 barrels flowed within seventy-two and one-half hours. Older borings not far from these, which have been yielding oil for some time past, are supplying fifty barrels a day. A refinery ha 3 been built, which is nearly ready to commence operations. The recent laying down of the cable between Berlin and Stettin completes the subterranean telegraph system in the German Empire. These seven-wire cables cover 3,420 miles, cost £1,510,548, are laid under all the principal rivers, and give direct telegraphic communication between 221 German cities and towns, the whole work having been accomplished within five years. The police in Coventry, England, are utilizing the tricycle in the outlaying districts of the city, and seriously interfering with operations of burglars and other evil-doers. One constable has succeeded, within one month in capturing three fleeing burglars by means of his tricycle. It is the first instance of utilizing for a good purpose what is generally looked upon as an unmitigated nuisance. Count Czarnecki, a Polish nobleman of Ultramontane persuasion, was indicted recently at Posen, on the charge of having unfurled over his mansion two flags with the inscription, "Death to the Germans," and, upon trial, was convietcd and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. A poor slater who helped hhn to run up his revolutionary banners was also condemned to prison for a fortnight.

AVlien men spend large sums of money for an object, we may be sure they are in earnest. Those who seek to put down the opium trade of India with China, are decidedly in earnest. Mr. Pease, the member for South Durham, has put down £1000; Mr. John L. Wilson has put down £1000 ; Mr. Arthur Pease, the member forWi itby, lias put down £500 ; Mr. William Fowler, of Cambridge, Mr. Hugh Mason, and several others, have promised £250. The first watch was about the size of a dessert-plate. It had weights, and was used as a "pocket clock." Tho earliest known use of the modern name occurs in t!ie record, of 1552, which mentions that Edward. VI. had one larum or watch of iron, the case being likewise of iron gilt, with two plummets of lead." The first watch may readily be supposed to have teen of rude execution. The first great improvement—the substitution of a spring for weights—was in 1500. The earliest springs were not coiled, but only straight pieces of steel. Early watches had oniy one hand, and being wound up twice a day they could not be expected to keep the tiiiie nearer than within fifteen or twenty minutes in twelve hours. The dials were of silver and brass. The cases had no crystals, but opened at the back and and were four or five inches in diameter. A plain watch cost more than £300, and after one was" ordered it took a year to make it.