GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7008, 3 May 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

The has just beSn interviews again at the Portsmouth Prison. He pressed only a slight interest in the by his visitors that it oonld be Arthur Orton has been -in an *«&;?* •1871- -The Claimant seems indeed to I abandoned all thought of his former enfe? prise. He declares lhat he will not arran J his financial matters till he corneal!! October. It is understood that his «.„? mean to take a public-house for him in fl don. His eldest son has just entered Manchester merchant's establishment sJ his daughters are being well -educated ' In disapproving of the Rev. Ward BeecW going to see Henry Irving and Mis« T.3!_ act, the Rev. Justin Fulton, a BrookS pastor, said in a recent sermon of hi "Place me npon a. Polar iceberg where : verdure meets the eye, where naaght but ♦h white bear's growl can be heard; let me h> where no friend shall cheer me with h -8 smile ; bar me in prison ; bnt do not ob <fo not compel me to mingle with the crowd of a theatre !" a y

The knot or nautical mile is variously esli mated at from 607fi to 6125 feet. Accordb" t-> the standard of the British Admiralty the knot is the iecgth of one minute of lonritnrf!! at the equator, or 6056 feet, 1-1527 statn* miles or 1555 metres. The mean-length til latitude, sometimes reckoned as a kno 4 - ; 5076 feet, l>lsl statute miles or 1852 metre? A marine league is three of these sea miles * " Dr. Shapira, whose name will be remembered in connection with the offering for sail in England of an alleged manuscript o j portion of the Old Testament, has committed snicide in Rotterdam. After the complete exposure of the affair," the Hague correspond dent of the Standard says, "a brief eiamma. tion of the manuscript by the authorities of the British Museum having sufficed to show that the parchment for which Shapira de. manded £1,000,1100 was a clumsy forgery, he came to "Holland, living successively' in Amsterdam and Bloeonendaal, and finally in Rotterdam, where he took a room in an hotel a fortnight since. The attendants having noticed some days ago that Dr. Shapira did not make his appearance, the door of his room W33 forced open by the police, atsd hu dead body was found lying on the floor beside it being a six-chambered revolver. L shot from vihich had penetrated his brain. In the room were discovered several card, bearing the addresses of booksellers and antiquarian agents in London and Jerusalem, and in a. trunk- were several English and Hebrew manuscripts, pamphlets, 4e. One letter was also found giviog unmistakable evidence of mental derangement. £ r . Shapira's conduct had been very strange for some time, and the Schiedam police arrested him recently on suspicion of insanity. He was a naturalised German, and had his home in Jerusalem, where his wife and child are living." Here is a story (says the Pall Mall Badget) for the Society X>t psychical Research, It was told a few days ago by a late manager of a Bhondda colliery, who is said to be a thoroughly trustworthy man, to a Welsh journalist. Sitting one Sunday morning with three comrades ia the lodgeroom at tfca bottom of a shaft, he was suddenly seized by an irresistible impulse to ascend at once, which impulse he told to the other men, who, however, refused to go: While talking & drop of water from the wall above put out the lamp of one of the men, obliging him to ascend. When he returned, the impulse, stronger than* before, again the manager to nrge their ascent, and while talking a drop of water falling into the lamp again, put the light out.' la consternation they gave the signal to be lifted up, and no sooner had they reached the open air than a terrible explosion took place, shatteringthe shaft, and filling it with debris, which could only be removed -after some months of hard labour. This remarkable incident stands by no means alone, forebodings and dreams having warned the same miner at various times of coming danger. Clearly this Khondda manager should be elected a iifemember of Professor Barrett's society.

A young lieutenant of the Kussian navy and a Russian merchant went in October last to the Gulf of St. Oiga, in Eastern Asia, to visit the lead and silver mines which are worked by the Mantchu Tartars, .Returning from the mines, they learnt with dismay that the last steamer bad left. To return on horseback to Vladivoscock meant twenty- days of hardship in a rugged, roadless country, where tigers abound and rivera are numerous. The two young men therefore decided to return by barge. Twelve Mantchu oarsmen were hired, and they set out. For a few days all went well, but ah autumn storm swept down upon them, and for mere than a week they were at the mercy of the waves. All their provisions, except one box of biscuits, were swept overboard, the oars and the rudder broken, and the sail torn to shreds. The Mantchus fell down in. despair, weeping, crying, and praying. The gallant young lieutenant alone was left to undertake the direction of tho boat; and although one of his legs was frozen, and bis companions were slowly dying of starvation, -he never despaired. By superhuman efforts he succeeded, after a voyage of thirteen days, in reaching a little Japanese port, where they were received with great kindness by the natives. A few days later they were picked- up by a Russian steamer, which, took them back to Vladivostock. The merchant is lond in hu praises of Lieutenant Abaza, declaring that without his energy, unselfishness, and ability thev would have all been lost.

The Birmingham School Board, we learn from a London paper, has issued a circular addressed to-" parents who •wish their soru trained to become skilled artisans." It states that the board is anxious to add to the instruction already given in its schools practical training in the use of the ordinary workshop tools and sound elementary instruction iu those sciences and arts upon which the trades and manufactures of Birmingham are based. It is proposed to lay down a two years' course of study in these subjects, to be commenced after passing the sixth standard, and it is hoped that parents will be willing to keep theit sons at school for at least a year after they have passed that standard. The chairman of the board (Mr. George Dixon) has offered to the board, rent free, the use of commodious premises, which he is prepared to adapt to the purpose of a technical school, at his own coat, provided that a sufficient number of parents will declare their intention of sending their sons for a year at least to such a school. The school-fee will be 3d per week. All necessary text-books will be provided by the board fres of cost to the parents. It is proposed to open the sehool in May or June.

It appears almost incredible (remarks the Pall Mall Gazette) that in Paris no fewer than 30,000 women fiud their living by nuking artificial flowers. "The majority of them are asserted by a too credulous admirer to be real artist?, imitating nature almost to perfection, with exquisite taste and well-developid imagination. The rose, in the workshop of the fieuriste, is the masterpiece. If the ait of making a rose is acquired, the maker is supposed to be able to imitate any other flower, the rose being considered as particularly developing the imagination of young artists.

Mr. Archibald Forbe?, the celebrated war correspondent, is at present engaged, or rather was engaged in the middle of March, in writing a life of General Gordon. So»e idea oi the working capabilities of Mr. Forbes may be formed from the fact that the work, which will be of 250 pages, had to be written within ten days, during the whole of which period, in addition to the life, he was in the Daily News office from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m., writing military matters for that journal. The British Trade Journal says:—"A working model of Danchell's electric railway is on view at Union Court Chambers, Old Broad-street This railway system is designed in the meantime for the carriage only of letters, parcels, and light freights at a high rate of speed, but capable, if the inventors hopes are not too sanguine, of being adapted some day to passenger traffic. The train runs on one rail, and is prevented from falling off by its connection with another rail overhead, which also conveys the electric current to the motor. The construction is designed with the view of reducing friction to » minimum. The extraordinary speed of i-sv to 200 miles an hour is aimed at by Wβ inventor. In these circumstances, til e desire to fully teat the working of the system as a post and parcel railway before adapting it to passenger service will be fully appreciated by all classes of travellers, nervous or otaer* wise- Wβ may, however, look forivaH! soma day to coining iu the morning to bnsiaess in the city from the wilds of Wales, or /rom a, snug villa on the borders of a Highland '**<-• To lunch at Manchester, dine at Newcastle. on-Tyne, theatre in town in the evenm,. and home to a quiet conntry residence "» Cornwall, will in the happy days to come on nothing out of the common." , Mr. Archibald Forbes has just been created an.LL.D- b y the Aberdeen University. ■I" Longman's for April he will publish an article entitled "Howl became a War Comsjxndent." :