NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6362, 8 April 1882, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

tL?u n death rU! " ishmOnt for food atlulteraWages are lower and food is ,le--o- ; n Germany than in England. °' m No less than jiO church bazaars were held m I.lasgow in three months. 'I he last winter in America and Eiv'-md was of unprecedented mildness. JjD °- r,aa There arc twenty-live teetotal mnvors reigning in England and Waif, '-^JOia Electric power- is now used in Germany to deliver coal at the entrance of mines The O-Donoghue, M.l'., ha. mad./aa o- or to his creditors of ."is. -td. in the pound. The Russian fortifications in the military district of \\ :irsaw cost 700,000 roubles. Six Mormon elders were recentlv mobbed in London while preaching in the s'tiv-t. The congregation of tliojlev. I >:-. Fraser, year. ' ' •=•-'-• l«-i Twelve female doctors are now oilieiaily engaged in tcuhiiig niedieiiK' to \vome:i ill A publican i;i England Ins li.cn lined l"0 for mixing a solution o; juyar with a quantity 0..\1,e Sret day of the Session of the English Parhame.it application was lod"eJ for ::-J0 private bills. The Dublin Inhibition Palace has been bought from Mr. Cui.iuess by the New Koval Liiiver.sity tor £-27,000. The receipts of the Snr-z Canal company last year were ".1.050.. - !",,)!., or 11, -S.i'.i, -Mjiif. iu excess of those of ISSO. The number of passengers by the elevated steam .street railways of NYw York for one month amounted to 7,1iM.!)(j1. During the past ten years England has spent £!)00,000 annually oil -ronulad.-i ami £070,000 on unarmoured ships. Mr. Charles Chapman Barber, one of the counsel employed \<y the Crown iu the f iehborne prosecution, is dead. A commission of live experts line been appointed to value the French Crown jewels prior to any decision as to their sale. I luring the last half-year the London .Metropolitan Railway Company carried 1'A, 000,000 without a fatalityoccurriii". The' Salvation Army in England have exrende.i £(>(>,OCO, nearly the whole of which was subscribed in pennies and halfpennies. Overjoy at a return of his son from Afghanistan, after an absence of fifteen years, caused the death of an old man in London recently. The water used by the New York Fire Department last year" was :i:!, 102,000 gallons, or a little more than one-third of one day's supply. The Russian expedition to Central Asia and the preparations for the war acainst China cost the Imperial exchequer C 07,000,000 roubles. .Some person set lire to a post-oifice pillarbox at Leicester by dropping iu iigiited matches, and a number of letters were destroyed. In sever.-.l districts of Swit7.erlr.nd the long-continued drought is causing as great a scarcity of water as that which prevailed last nummer. Spain is re-organising her arm}- on a new basis', embodying the ideas of liic King. The peace establishment will comprise nearly 100,000 men. The Mediterranean Squadron will assemble at Athens in April to meet Prince Albert Victor and I'riuce George, who are expected there about that-time. Over £ lit,ooo has been contributed to the Mansion House Fund for the relief of the .lews who have been the victims of recent persecutions iu Russia. In the coronation ceremony at Moscow, the Czar has decided that all possible restrictions in the elaborate and maguiricent ceremonial shall be practised. A scheme has been started iu Ireland for the payment of an cuuual salary of £300 to the Irish members of Parliament who support Mr. Parnell and his programme. Arrangements are being made for placing the whole of the Government Departments in telephonic connection with the ministerial rooms iu the House of Commons. It i.s reported that 4'M vessels, valued at 10,19.j,-210d01., all of which belonged to and. were bound to or from ports in the Uuiied States, were lost during last year. A celebrated gin palace in one of the lowest and poorest dens in London turns over more than £5000 a week, and the proprietor drives his carriage and pair. Mr. Samuel Elliot, a retired builder, residing at Liskeard, Cornwall, committed suicide by cutting his throat with a ra.'.or whilst labouring under religious excitement. It is said that omTof the singular superstitions which prevail among miners in the great Pennsylvania coal-tields is that if anyone whistles in a mine, disaster i≤ sure io follow. Stephen Ellis, a convict at Chatham, under sentence for life, made a desperate attempt lately to murder a warder, and was only prevented from doing so by another convict. The London Times has been severely criticized by some of its contemporaries on account of the number of stupid and astonishing mistakes recently niude in its columns. A little bo}- named .Small was found hanging by the neck dead, in a house at 'Wolverhampton. He had evidently been swinging, and the ropo had accidentally twisted round his throat. The number of railway passengers carried in Giv-at Britain exceeds by four to one the number carried in the United States. There is the same proportion with, regard to the freight trafiic. During the year ISSI, there was a net decrease in the principal aud interest .of the public debt of the United States of 10i',(!11,777d015. and the cash in the Treasury increased 31,078,2-Udols. The penitentiaries in the Uuited States are beginning te rank among the most flourishing institutions. The warden of lowa prison has just paid into the State Treasury 20,000 dols. of surplus earnings. The rector of Spitalfields told an audience at Cambridge recently that he had 0000 Jews in his parish ; that they were remarkable for sobriety: and that he had never seen one of them the worse for drink. In Great Britiau, at the cud of ISSI, £0, <.HO,OOO had been expended in the construction of tram lines, upon which the net receipts amounted to toou',ooo, giving a return of about 5 per cent, upon the outlay. At the Leeds Assizes a woman who said she had gone through the marriage ceremony with her deceased sister's husband, sued the Midland Railway Company for damages for persouai injuries. She got a verdict for i'-tSO. At Glentanar. Upper Decsiue, the estate of Mr. Cuuliffe Brooks, M.P., one of a shooting party, while shouldering his gun. caught the trigger with the collar of his coat, c.ineiug'it to go oft One of the keepeis waa , killed. The London Times makes fun of Americans for calling lutrgagc la.'gage. It is not lugged, and should not be luggage. It is no't bai'ged. and should not be baggage. Truukago is the right word—truukagc and washage. At 'the Leeds assists a Bradford man, named Johu Tobin. was .sentenced to seven years' penal servitude for having, with others, "conspired to depose the Queen and subvert the constitution, by being a member ot a society having those objects. \ man named Leiiton, SO years of »ge, livln.' at the village of Foleshill, Warwickshire, while standing uear tiie lire in his hoi'so accidentally fell upon it, and, l.eiii" too feeble to extricate himself, was literally roasted, ::nd died from the eilccts of his injuries. At Leicester a man's paramour who came to keep the house while the huicual of Ins wife took place was seized by a largo crowd of people, pelted with ruddle, flour, black lead &c, and her clothes torn into iihreds. The'orowd hooted the husband as he left for the funeral. Mr. Labouehere has given notice in the House of Commons of the following motion : — '■In Committee of the whole Huih to move. That the Chairman be directed to move the House that leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the law relating to parliamentary oaths ond affirmations." The nationality of the vessels which passed through the Suex. Canal in lftSl was *s follows:—Knglish, -2-23G : i'roueh, 100; Dutch, 70; Austrian. G5 ; Italian, ul ; j>r. im " ish, 16: German, -10: Russian, -0: Belgian, 14; Danish, 13: Egyptian, 11 : Turkish, II j Norwegian, 10 : Chinese, -1 : Portuguese, -i, Liberian, 1 ; Siamese, 1 ; Sarawak, I. In the Contemporary Review recently, -U~ M. G. Mulhall gives some interesting as to the average wealth o tnc .Urinal. nouses, rat <- t better lodged than ? UC , S Qrn n The average rent of ,ach = housc is £4- S pe O r' annum in London, £15 in the rest of WMW nearly £)5 in Scotland, and a little nJer £4 " Ireland. He rinds that each •nhabitant was worth £ISO in 1 SCO, nearly S!#ta ?S7O, aud about £250 in.ISSU. The ratio of paupers was 1 per cent, iu li>7o, and 3 per cent, in 18S0.