NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6936, 9 February 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

China is vigorously preparing for war. A bulldoe in London was recently sold for £5,000. French missionaries are being maltreated by the Chinese. Thirty-six Mormon missionaries have just! sailed from New York. John Wisker, the well-known choes-playei and journalist, ia dead. Rabbits are dying in great numbers from tuberculosis in Tasmania. The projected Kinnerly expedition to1 r ew Guinea is likely to collapse. The death ia announced of M. de Laprcdo. member of the French Academy. ?:• It is understood Mrs. Langtry has alian. doned the idea of an Australian trip. The glowing sunset visible here was noted in Paris on the eve of 27th November. A .Russian newspaper announces the ap« proaohing abolition of the Caspian Fleet. Mr. Clifford Lord has been appointed Under-Secretary of the Interior in Egypt. The traffic receipts of the London General Omnibus Company are about £800,000 a year. Within a short period the Clyde shipbuilders have discharged over 4000 work* men. Colonial wines are to be admitted to England at the same rate of duty as Spanish wines. It is believed that an extra duty of lb. will be placed on tea in New South Wales. It is supposed there are 7,000,000,00£ people now Living who never heard the word of God. Numerous arrests have been made for tha murder of a police-officer by Nihilists in Russia. A contradiction 13 given to the report that M. Grevy will return King Alfonso's visit to Madrid. Earl Grauville has approved the agreement between Baron de Lesaeps and the British shipowners. ■—■ The banking institutions of South Australia have given all their employes a bonne on their salaries. It is stated that cancer prevails among the cattle in Tasmania from one end of the colony to the othor. Baron Maclay, the Kus3ian explorer, ia stated to be about to make a ascend esplora< tion of New Guinea. There ia to be an international competition for the monument to be ereoted to the late President Garfield. The Medical Record says milk heated above lOOdeg. Fahr. is superior to ail alcoholic drinks as a stimulant. It is stated that Dr. Cameron Lee is about to introduce Gaelic services into St. Giles , Cathedral, Edinburgh. The death is announced of Baboo Keahub. Chunder Sen, the well-known Buddhist soholar and propagandist. The Roumanian War Minister has ordered 15,000 Henry-Martini rifles at the Austrian arms manufactory in Steyer. The journeyman tailors in New York com« plain that they have to work sixteen hours a day to earn £2 8s per week. Owing to the strike of sixty spinners at Sir Titus Salt's mills, the whole of the works have fjeen thrown idle, a.nd 2500 workpeople are out of employment. The only persors who are considered as fife for a !long waJk on the high Alps are those who can run a mile at a fair pace. According to the Shaughai correspondent of the Times there has of late been a great falling off in the yield of China silk. The fish caught by English fishermen every year are estimated to be worth £8,000,000, and those by Scotchmen £3,000,000. J Sunday observance, as # affected by news, papers, has lately been engaging the attention of the synod of Glasgow and Ayr. The Queen has sent a contribution of £50 to the fund being i-s.ised for the widows and children of the miners kiJled as Altham. The returns of 1881 and 1882 show that the annual import and export trade of China amounts to very nearly £100,&30,000dol. A new complaint ic England ia " the lawn tennis elbow," which is wrenched and distorted by the irintinual playing of the game. The Dutch sure excessively angry because several vtry fine pictures have been sold out of private collections in Holland to foreign buyers.

Lieutenant Wissmann, the African tra« veller, has just left Hamburg again on on another three years' exploration in tfcfl Congo region. The Egyptian Ministry now virtually consists, of the English officials, Messra. EAgat Vino at, Clifford Lloyd, and ifoncriefF/ anc! Sir IJi'eiyn Baring. ■ Fob about sixty appointments as receivers in biJikruptcy in the variona districts o£ Englund it is stated there have bean above 250,0D0 applications. Thu Post Office Savings' Bank of Canada for tlie month of September, given a return of over ,l; 2,000,000 to the credit of the depoßitors, who iire principally labourers. This Americans are dissatisfied with the posta! arrangements between England and the Sliates, and therefore propose to start a daily mail with a penny postage. It in rumoured that the Emperor of Ger« many has symptoms of apoplexy, and in eonseqtteßce of hire advanced age much anxiety exists to know the bruth. The United States has t;ie biggest oyster fiaheries in the world, this single industry employing over 50,000 people, and yielding oysters to the value of £2,700,000d0i. At the crossing in the Place de POpera, Paris, Admiral Lage has been run over by a cab._ Two of his ribs were broken and hi received a serious wound on the head. The Kev. Dr. McLaren, of Manchester, haa just declined a pressing invitation to deliver a series of lectures on "Preaching" to the students of Yale College, United States.' Two more persons, a major and a Jew contractor, have been sentenced by court-martial at Odessa to transportation to Tomsk for robbing the commissariat during the las 6 war. At a recent meeting of the Dublin Corpora" tion Alderman iieagber was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin, in succession to Mr Dawson, M.P. The new Lord Mayor is a Paxnellite, M. do Giers, brother of the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, has completed the inspection of the administration in Turkestan, smd is now on his way to St. Petersburg. A St. Petersburg telegram to the Cologna Gazette states that three young ladies of the Imperial Court, one of whom is a countess, have been arrested in connection with the revolutionary party. The report of the Central Committee of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives states that the (Jpvernment intends during the present session to bring in a Bill relating to the Belgian reserve forces.

As a result of the recent exposure of the squalor and misery in certain parts of hirer. pool, it is proposed to seek Parliamentary powers to expend not more than a quarter of a million on insanitary property in Liverpool. General Tchernaieff has issued orders at Tasukend forbidding the preparation, impor« tation, and use of opium, haahiah a and kukhhar. The latter article is a strong, narcotic drink, in whioh poppy heads have been Bteeped. A large eteamer on the Volga, which wai carrying 650,0001b. of naptha, was struck by lightning, and was at once wrapped in flame, It burned the whole day and night, it being found impossible to extinguish the fire. Several men perished. It is remarked that, according to the retrims of the late census, every industrial and commercial class in Great Britain has greatly augmented in numbers, excepting only those directly engaged in producing the actual necessaries of life at home. No less than 1400 telegraph and telephone wires, it is said, stretch across Leadenhall street, London. Over Queen Victoria-streel tbey intersect each other at almost every foot. Already nervous persona avoid riding on the outside of omnibuses. A duel with swords has been fought bev tween M. Ignaz Heumann, one of the counsi.l who defended the Jews in the recent famow trial in Hungary, and M. Vay, police com missioner, who was accused by M. Heumam of torturing the prisoners. M. Vay received a severe wound in the-chest. His antaeo nist was unhurt. At the Bacup Town Council meeting, Br Brown, the medical officer, reported that s girl aged seven had died from inflammatioi of the brain, brought oa by overwork a' school. The medic&i officer Btrongly con demned the practice of making younj children do lessons at night. He said i worried them, and made them restless ii their sleep. Few persons have witnessed so magnificen , a meeting as that at the Mansion House t< discuss the Transvaal question in view of tfci demands of the delegates of the Boer Govern rnent. When Mr. Forster declared that born a Quaker, he would sooner fight thai concede the principal demands of .the dele gates, the enthusiasm of the audience knei no bonnds.