NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6566, 2 December 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Train- service between Cairo and Alexandria has been resumed. About 10,000,000ga1. of wine are produced annually in California. The Russian Imperial Court lias been established at Moscow. Spain is ucable to arrange a treaty of commerce with England. The late cyclone did considerable damage to the tobacco crop in Cuba. Last year 935S mites of railroad v.cre laid down in the United States. Children in Austria will hereafter bo obliged to attend school for eight years. President Soto, of Honduras, advocates a Central American Confederation. Russia and Montenegro are said to have concluded an offensive and defensive alliance. By the death of Sir George Grey a political pension of £2000 reverts to the British Crown. The Chinese ships of war which have been dispatched to the Corea are officered by Englishmen. Mrs. Burton recently died at her residrnce, Whitecross-street, Barton-on-Humber, r.jed 100 years. There were 1500 candidates at a went examination for clerkships in the London Post-office. Two convict jniards at Darrington, Texas, shot at each other with pistols uiitil both were dead. It is stated that 25,000 copies of Cotev.ayo's portrait were issued to the trade by one photographer. A woman has been shot in Ireland by a process server. She was resisting the seizure of her cattle. Negotiations are proceeding between Spain, Sweden, and Norway for conelutliiv; a treaty of commerce. Since the beginning of the year, 45 000 emigrants have settled in Manitoba and the British North-west. Nearly a hundred steamboats on the Mississippi river and its tributaries now employ the electric light. It is thought that the state of sioc in St. Petersburg and other Russian towns will be prolonged for another year. Upward of 300 people have lodged claims, amounting to £600,000, for losses *ft«:r the bombardment of Alexandria. At the recent National Conference of Miners at Manchester, England, the delegates present represented 'J75.000 men. ° An electric railway is to be run under the Thames from Charing Cross to Waterloo station, a distance of about a mile. For the last five years France has consumed 33,000 tons of tobacco, bringing in a revenue to the state of £10,000,000 a year. Since the first oil well "began to Sow £300,000,000 has been udded to the wealth of America by the product of petroleum. Three adventurous persons recently ascended to the highest peak on Mount Ararat, which is 1G,916ft above the level of the sea. The monument erected to the of Thomas Carlyle at Chelsea was unveiled" recently in the presence of a lai-jji; assemblage. In England alone there are 200.000 places for the sale of intoxicants, an increase of fourfold since 1559, while the ponu'ation has not doubled. A 3treet railway has been laid between Athens and the Pineus, which serves the whole city, passing by the Parthenon asd the Acropolis. Mr. Parnell advises the maintenance in Ireland of hisi original programme of the übolition of rack rents and the creation of a peasant proprietary. The London Times says that the organisation of a permanent force for the maintenance of order in Egypt must proceed under English direction. In a Canadian court a man was fintd and imprisoned for patting a juror on the back and addressing him in language calculated to influence his verdict. Overdank, the Austrian socialist, declares that the explosives he was manufacturing were intended as a greeting of the youth of Italy to Austrian imperialists. A captain of the Salvation Army at Chippenham has been committed to prison for a month in default of payment of ;; tine for obstructing a public highway. Petitions in favour of a duty on vegetables and an increase of the duties on corn and cattle have been forwarded to the Government from all parts of Germany. The Corporation of the City "of Dublin has passed a resolution declaring that the power exercised by Judges of punishing for contempt of Court ought to be limited. According to a recent return, then: are 83 convents, with 2020 nuns and 54G m< aks, in Switzerland. The property of these foundations is estimated as being worth £SOO,OCO. A mysterious sickness has broken out in the railway camps in British Columbia resembling typhoid fever, and which the physicians say is caused by drinkiDg bad tea. The jury of the International Art Exhibition ot Vienna have conferred 30 cio'd state medals on artists of all nations. Mr. Joseph Boehm, the sculptor, is the only English medallist. The Government actuary estimates that the population of the United States on the Ist June, 1890, will be 04,476,000 ; l>y ISOO, 81,529,000 ; and on the Ist June, 1910. 101,310,000. Concerning the eating of snails in Paris there appear many articles in American journals. Perhaps it is not generally knn-.vn that snails are served in some of the restaurants of New York. The largest diamond-cutting house is in Amsterdam, employing 400 persons, where the Koh-i-noor was cut. The trade is difficult, and the wages are from £1 Ss to £2 2s, aDd even £2 16s a day. The average consumption of oysters in New York from September to April, inclusive, is 20,000 bushels, of say 300 to a bushel, or 0,000,000 oysters, an average of six per capita of the population. A striped hy;ena, which escaped m June last from a menagerie at Tula, in Russia, has been making havoc in the neighbourhood of that city. It tore to pieces in August a shepherd and several children. In consequence ot some recent scenes in the House of Commone, a proposal, it is said, will be made, giving the Speaker power to deal with members who are "evidently" under the influence of drink. Mr. Bradlaugh has issued another address to the electors of the country, calling on them to compel their representatives to allow him to take his seat in the House of Commons, his unlawful exclusion from which, he asserts-, infringes the right of every voter. The Spanish Minister of Finance, Senor Camacho, recently received a large packet from Barcelona, and on his proceeding to opea it personally, his suspicions respecting its contents were aroused, and it was found to contain dynamite. The authors of the outrage are unknewn. Several of the Paris papers gratcly explain to their readers that Arabi and his troops were defe.-.ted by the jower of B::itissh gold. British steel and valour had, of cou :s?, nrthing to do with the matter. For a " consideration" the venal Egyptians allowed themselves to be hacked to pieces. The larg23t locomotive ever built has juat been completed at Paterson, >!. J., aad is one of 25 ordered by the Central Pacific Railroad. Its weight, without the tender, is 62 tons. The size of the cylinders is 20 by 30 inches. These engines have eight drivers aud a four-wheeled truck. Low Foo, a Chinaman, when converted at Canton, sold himself as a slave in order that he might £0 to Demerara and preach the Gospel to his fellow-countrymen there. And this he has done so successfully that he now has a church of 200 converted Chinamen, who are supporting missionaries among their own people. A Parisian rjiotographer accidentally set fire to a house ou the opposite side of the street with a lens recently. He had left his camera open on the terrace, and at a favourable angle, and the rays of the mid-day sun passed through the lens and were concentrated on his neighbour's blinds with the result that they took fire. The great Cathedral at Cologne does not appear to be completed after all. Anothei step tov.-ard the entire and final compietiOEof the Cathedral has just been taken. The iron scaffolding for use in putting oa the roo! is in plr.ee, and the men are about to begin the work of laying down the wooden plates. Great care will be brought to bear upon thiu work, as the plates are expected to last for many scores of years. Lc MOnestrel states that the electric light, the use of which it was hoped would materially reduce the danger of fires in theatres, nearly caused a conflagration at the Paris Opera recently during a performance, The current being too strong, the wires became r«d het, and their gutta-percha covering beiDg quickly destroyed, the adjacent inflammable material began to smoulder, and services of the firemen had to be called intt> requisition.