NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7222, 10 January 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There are 15,000,000 horses in the United States,

Wooden buttons are preferred by English Tailors.

The local debts of Great Britain amount to £306,400,000.

There are 40,000 retail liquor dealers in New York city. The annual number of births in London exceeds 200,000. >

Tbe Mikado of Japan has created a national peerage. Mule meat is a favourite dish in Paris, and brings high prices. Thirty thousand Polish Jews are now taking refuge in London. One New York firm claims to make 50,000 ladies'cloaks in a season.

A cider mill in Massachusetts uses 300,000 barrels of apples every year. The French Senate baa voted 145 to 117, to abolish the Life Senatorship. At present there are something like 3000 Indiana in Southern California. A young lady in Boston is one of the most skilled lapidaries in the country. There were twenty-seven marriages to ona divorce in Massachusetts last year. There are 10,000,000 envelopes manufactured in the United States every day. The entry of students at the London School of Medicine .for Women numbers sixteen. The Zoological Gardens in London now contain 239S animals. No Mr. Minohin ! Of the 187 towns in Connecticut 76 are now under a license vote and 91 under no license.

Of the 32,000 Indians in the territory ot Dakota, 30,000 speak the Dakota language. Little Belgium has 641 newspapers and magazines, of which seventy are da'ly papers. The music profession in Naples is said to have been entirely broken up by the cholera. The famous Rugby colony in Tennessee is about to turn its attention to vine-growing. The railroads of America, it is said, are worth four times the amount of the national debt.

The National Library of Paris, by a recently completed inventory, contains 3,500,000 volumes.

English noblemen, genuine and bogus, are now so common in New York as to be no longer a novelty, '1 he United States numbers 55 millions of inhabitants, 20 per cent, of whom arc gathered together in cities.

More than 70,000.000 gallons a day are drawn from the Thames for the daily wants of the metropolis. Boston has an apple mission which distributes 4000 or 5000 bushels of apples among the poor every year. Last year it is estimated that no fewer than 6,000,000 gallons of French wine were consumed in England.

Dahlias, whijh are of Mexican origin, were first introduced into Germany by Dahl, and so were named after him.

During the past year 17,402 Germans have been sentenced for endeavouring to emigrata to avoid military service. M. Honigmann, of Aix-la-Chapelle, propels a locomotive without fire and without coal by means of caustic soda.

There are now 312 reformatory and industrial schools ia Great Britain, the total number of pupils being 25,337. Six millions of dollars' worth of silver i> used in America every year for manufacturing and decorative purposes. Some English speculators have bought a tract of land in Mexico, comprising over 16,000 square miles, for £.00,000. Some English bakers are using incandescent electric lamps for lighting an oven heated to 600 degrees Fahrenheit, There is more monty spent in advertising wines in New York than in spreading the announcements of patent medicines. Since the development of tree culture, the forests of Europe has increased from one-sixth to one-fifth of the entire territory. California's wheat crop has for years been more valuable than her yield of gold, which is likely to be soon beaten also by her fruit. Oak pillars are better supports for a built?* ing in case of fire than those of iron. The latter are liable to warp from the effect of heat.

A Phylloxera Congress is being held at Turin, in order to discuss the most effectual measures for preventing the spread of this vine plague. The Chinese Government has paid to Great Britain the indemnity demanded for damages sustained by British subjects in the riots at Canton last year. Voltaire's saying that women lack the talent of inventing is disproved by Swedish women, several of whom have patented most ingenious inventions.

The use of bitter willow in flavouring and colouring tobacco is vehemently denounced by Professor Deschamps, of Paris, as causing softening of the brain.

As there are no hod-carriers in Germany, for the simple reason that a hod is as unknown there as an Irishman is, each brick must be passed from hand to hand. During the last forty years four wars—the Crimean, the American civil war, the FrancoGerman, and the Russo-Turkish—have absorbed 1372 millions of money. The average earnings, according to population, par head is as follows :—United Kingdom, £35 4s; United States, £27 4a ) Canada, £26 ISs ; Australia, £43 4s.

The total number of visitors to the International Health Exhibition since its opening was 4,167,681. The total number of visitors to the Fisheries Exhibition was 2,703.051.

It is stated that a scheme is on foot to build a Government hospital in Dublin on the plan of Guy's Hospital, London, and that the Government will grant £15,000 for the object. There are 560,000 policemen in the British Empire—l to every 571 inhabitants and to every 16 square miles. There are 246 warvessels and 300,000 merchant ships, manned by 270,000 sailors.

The report of the State Geologist of Indiana, just issued, shows that there are 206 coal mines in nineteen different counties of that state, employing 5400 men, producing 2,500,000 tons of coal. In 18S3 Great Britain had 550 war vessels, France 356, the United States 139, and Germany not quite 100. Great Britain had 4980 naval officers, France 6649, the United States 2033, and Germany 652.

It is estimated that 20,000 railway servants are total abstainers and workers in the cause of temperance reform. The directors, managers, and officials of the great companies are steadily giving support to the enterprise. There are 30,000 acres of good land in the county of Essex, England, which are tenantless. The reason is said to be that English farmers are being educated above their business, and desert the farm for the city.

German soldiers in active service are allowed plenty of tobacco, as smoking enables them to endure severer fatigue upon small nutrition and with greater alacrity and confidence than would otherwise be the case.

The aggregate indebtedness of the various borrowing nations of the world is stated at £5,200,000,000, without reckoning municipal debts, or the sum owing by various railway companies to their creditors for borrowed capital. Baked milk is recommended for invalids. To prepare it, put a half gallon of milk in a jar and tie it down with writing paper. Let it stand in a moderate oven eight or ten hours. It will be like cream, and is very nutritious.

The number of failures in England and Wales gazetted during the week ending Saturday, November 8, ISS4, was 74. The number in the corresponding week of tha previous year was 152, showing a decrease of 78, being a net decrease in 1834, to that date, of 5583.

A new clock has been invented, and coming into use in Europe, which is warranted by its manufacturers to run for five years without either winding or regulation. The Belgian Government placed one iu a railway station in 1881, sealed with the Government seal, and it has kept perfect time ever since.

Tho Municipal Council of Paris are considering a project for a monument to commemorate the French Revolution. If the consent of the Stato is obtained, it is proposed to erect it on the site of the old Tuileries, and to inaugurate it at the time of the Universal Exhibition of 1889. The artist will bo chosen by competition. A new species of oyster salad has been de« vised in Washington, which is a combination of every kind of cooking-oysters, excepting frying. The oysters are cooked, seasoned, pickled for awhile, allowed to stand ; then potatoes and a few pieces of dried beef are put in, and with champagne as a sauce, after being mixed up, it's worth eating.

It is said that the sand used in the manufacture of mirrors is now used by a Paris company to make white bricks and blocks, said not to be injured by frosts, rain, etc., and to be very light, the specific gravity 1 being only 1.50 to 1.85 of clay bricks. lha sand is first strongly pressed by hydraulic power, and then baked in ovens at a very high temperature. The bricks are almost pure silica.