NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7020, 17 May 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

. . ..?-..- . -..i. An epidemic exisfa''Sq[ London.- - - : - >- .' -• ■■'-' ■■' '■■■i- : --",-' !-■■'■■■' .' :,r '■ Capital punishment £fl to be abolished" la /; Finland.- •" .■.-•■■,":' :■> ; -■ .^-'.' "•■? -- : ■:.<:'- , The London Times has become ft convert ■ to cremation, : -;• -; " - London newspaper proprietors are erecting handsome buildings. ■'■-- • - ; '• Clear turtle is just now a favourite soup fit London dinners. -- "-'.--' The canal project has been virtually abandoned. ' The members of the staff of the London Times must be barristers. There arS now only 18,000 Quakers in Great Britain and Ireland. In California a considerable (business is be> ing done in canned vegetables. The best American cattle sell in .England for fifteen cents per pound dressed. An Ohio woman has just been arrested for using a hot poker to punish a child. _ Canadian inventors petition for the adoption of the American patent law entire. \ The system of telegraphic money orders is soon to be introduced throughout India. The public schools in Paris are regularly visited once a month by a medical inspeotor. The year 1888 has been announced by M. de Lesseps for the opening of the Panama Canal. " Philip Phillips, the singing pilgrim, has ' sustained a sad loss in the death of his son James. - ' ' ; Sir Samuel Baker severely criticises' the". English Government for abandoning the Soudan. ' ' The London Evening Standard' distributes its editions among the newsboys by the use of tricycles." Dr. Horman Kerr says that the annual mortality from intemperance in Great Britain is 40,500. The Society for promoting German emigration in. America has 490 lodges and about 30,000 active members. - ' ' In the season of 18S2-S3 over 3,000,000 " trees were' planted in Great Britain, two-'; thirds being in Scotland, -.■ One cattle dealer in Chicago has on the ocean twenty vessels, each of which carries 500 head to foreign ports. The interview between the Czar and the Emperor William has been arranged to take place in Jnne, at Darmstadt. - Electric lighting-for the public highways in Boston, the Transcript of that city says, " is more expensive than gas_" On the authority of Mr. Henry George "the experiment of popular government in the United States ia clearly a failure." ' The British training-ship Warspite has rescued 50,400 children from-poverty and degradation and trained them for the sea. - Joseph Cook has commenced a fresh series •' of Boston Monday leotnres, and Tremont Temple is as crowded to hear him as ever. At a recent meeting of the unemployed of Manchester, England, it'was asserted that there are now in that city 40,000 idle persons. A joint-stock company, owning the largest iron foundry in Hungary, has decided to admit their workmen to a participation in the profits. A telegram from New York announces the . death of Joseph Cashing, the first oircus proprietor who took a show to Europe from America. A circular gives the production of wool in the United states in 18S3 as 320,400,000 , pounds, an increase over 1882 of 30,400,000 pounds. ' " France has henceforth a vast entrenched' camp, which can be defended in a week by one million, and in a month by three millions of men. . ' The Sonth Kensington Museum. London, was visited l»st year by 1,093,810 persons, of whom 741,786 came in the'day time on free days. ■■•■■- lh Sweden and other European countries large sums of money are annually devoted to educating the people in the art of batter and " cheese making. ' Malta is mentioned as the place.of the Pope's future residence, in case the property of the Propaganda in Rome should' be sold, ' as contemplated.. One hundred and ninety-seven thousand Burmans have crossed over into British Barman during the past seven months, to avoid service in the army. ' , Prince Krapotkine has asked to be allowed to remain at Clairvanx Prison, because he . can carry oa his scientific researches there, being near Paris. "; "■*_'". The London correspondent of the New York Tribune alleges that the large circulation of Henry George's works in England is due to gratuitous circulation. Prince Bismarck is preparing a draft of a proposed new Constitution for the Empire. It contains a "dictator" clause similar to that in the Prussian Constitution. ' One hundred and thirty members of the House of Commons have now declared themselves in favour of the establishment of a system of proportional representation. - The site of Tothill Field Prison has been, handed over to Cardinal Manning, and steps are being taken for the immediate erection thereon of the Roman Catholic Cathedral for London. In Jamaica the sugar-cane and rum interest is in the hands of capitalists and absentees, it is stated, while the fruit traffic is almost entirely managed by the thriving, improving, ex-slaves. The Bishop of Manchester, England, gives it as his opinion that the services of the Church of England have not become more devout and helpful by the introduction of more music. James B. Eads has been requested to examine the bar and canal of the Mersey and-, make a report on the best means of preserv- " ing the present approach to Liverpool from further deterioration. Bad times during the two past years have told upon the consumption of wine in England, which is now upward of 3,000,000 gallons (equal to, roughly, 30,000 pipes) less than it was in 1873—ten years ago. . . A prison inspector in Pennsylvania has persuaded the authorities to allow the prisoners the nse of tobacco and snuff, urging that the loss of tobacco had caused the health of the men to suffer materially. According to latest news from Persia a new sect has' sprung up there. Its members are called Baabys, "and they profess a religion • which is a curious amalgamation of Christianity, Mohammedanism, and Panthe- - ism.

A writer in the current number of the Century has collected statistics showing that more than. fifteen hundred murders were committed in the United States. last year, while the number of legal executions was only ninety-three. In England there is more land lying idle in C sporting grounds, game preserves, and landlords' parks than the whole Kingdom of Belgium, which supports in happiness and prosperity 6,000,000 people, and sends large • food exports to London.

The Indians are the richest landowners in the United States. They number 237,066, exclusive. of the Alaska Indians, holding 1181,397,783 acres of land. Someof the tribes own 3000 acres per Indian. The average ia about one square mile to each Indian. ■ By the last official returns, 244 per cent, of the births in Nairnshire, Scotland, are illegitimate, while in Aberdeenshire 50 per cent, are of the same kind. In! the county of Wigtown one-twenty-fourth of the births were illegitimate, and most of the northern counties present an unclean bill of health.

Three thousand food inspections ic Glasgow last year resulted in the destruction of 16,000. pounds offish, 3000 pounds of pork, 600 pounds of beef, and other considerable * quantities of food. Among the better class of houses, 263 drains had been inspected, and only seven of them found to be in good order. The oyster-packing business in Baltimore - employs about 65 firms. The largest raw house in the city open 11,000 bushels per day. The aggregate product of all the* packers w £2,800,000 a-year. From 20,000 to 25,000. men and women are employed in annckini? .and the women are said to be expert ' shuckers, and to earn from 8s to 12s a day. ! _ At the recent hygienic dress exhibition in Manchester there were exhibited reformed, [boots, shaped to the foot, with broad points, ;low, broad heels, and'an elastio sole under! jthe instep.' This latter was dove-tailed into. !the"'sole* Detween the front part of theaole land''the heel, "was" made of "a 'specially; jprepared elastio leather,, very pliable, .and jwouid: 'probably;." as ; represented, afford.facility 'in walking by.giving "the foot the; 'natural play. ''" . ,;.;■:-■:.■« ' : Edison indulges in the following preajobon. : -, '—As to the changes which will be effected by Electricity within ; fifty, years iu the city of ; . ;New York, I would say that. I behe're elec- -' itricity will'propel the cars.of .the street and 'the elevated railroads, light.the7city,within;j *and without ;its buildings, furnish pbw'er foiV ij,U l purposes, work 'telephones. and alarms, deliver, the operay; po'nvey, detect and signal fires, operate fire-enginei,'" '■'■' ;and possibly lboornotioaipr's •vehicles. ' ■""' -'■'••-«»».:—-•—.>