NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7602, 3 April 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Work has been stopped on two French ironclads which were* in course of building. A boy looking at a game at golf at Hoylake, was struck by a ball, and was fatally injured. Mr. Parnell telegraphed a recommendation to the Irish electors in Newcastle to vote for Mr. John Morley. The Pope has had a slight attack from his old enemy, synoope, but recovered before those carrying him reached his chamber. Good news for epicures! The supply of oysters at Whitstable is very prolific, and large purchases have been made at low prices for the London market. The sum of £100,000 ready money is said to be the amount proffered to the Duke of Edinburgh for the sale of his inheritance to the Duchy Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The divorce cases in Lane County, Oregon, for 1535, outnumber the lists of marriages twelve to one. The San Francisco Bulletin is the authority for this assertion. The Lord-Lieutenancy of Suffolk, which ; has become vacant by the death of Lord Stradbroke, is to be given either to the Marquis of Bristol or to Lord Kendlesham.. . The three men who wore engaged in the Netherby Hall burglary, and who were convicted of the murder of a police constable, were hanged in Carlisle gaol on February 8. A successful journey of exploration has been made by Mr. Ney Elias down the Upper Oxus, through Shignan and Koshsn, to Badakshan. Ha was everywhere well received. The county magistrates at Bridgewater have committed for trial John and Emily Winn, for the manslaughter of their daughter, aged thirteen months, by starvation. The Earl of Fife has resigned the -Presidency of the Scottish Liberal Association, cm account of his disapproval of the policy indicated by the leaders of the new Administration. A Canadian national park is to be made in the Rocky Mountains, and a tract of land, which inoludes the natural hot sulphur baths and healing waters at Banff, has been reserved. The Prince of Wales, on February 4, gave a large dinner party at Marlborough House in honour of the Duke of Edinburgh's appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Squadron. An inquest was held at Exeter on thebody of a girl who, on being dismissed from her situation for indolence, poisoned herself with strychnine. The jury considered her to have been temporarily insane. Messrs. Napier and Co., of Glasgow, have received orders to boild for the Russian Government, six engines of ICOO horse-power each. Another Clyde firm has received orders to build two torpedo rams. Sir Henry Allaopp, who has been made a peer, is not the principal of the great brewing firm bearing his 'uame. Sir Henry some years ago ceased to be a member of the firm, although three of his sons are still partners in it. The Queen's Bench refused a rule for a certiorari to quash a sentenoe of deprivation made by the Bishop of Carlisle against the Rev. W. Wenf,worth Woodhouse, rector of Distington, charged with acts of immorality. At Swansea, recently, a girl named Mary Jane Beer wan burnt to death by her dress catching fire, and the father was badly burnt by trying to put out the flames. The mother saw the sad fate of her daughter, being a cripple in bed. It has tvauspired in the course of a breach of promise case at Cheater that the Welsh have no.word, for flirting. They have the practice, however, well developed, and indicate it by adding the letters " io" to the English word, making it " £Urtio. : ' .Servant.galism has triumphed in London. A lady advertises for a cook and housemaid, promising that each shall have the use of a pianoforte and be allowed two nights a week and eviry other Sunday for outings. Or has matfei.f/tmilies taken to sarcasm at 6d a line ? Li'£.; Copperfield's Dora, the people of Vienna seem to think that to " dance tra-la-la" is one of the chief objects of life. Notwithstanding the depression of trade there, the announcements of public bails to be held tins month filled more than three columns of one day's papers. Al telegram from Lyons report a terrible dr*,ma which occurred in that city. A girl who had rejected the advances of a young m/in was shot by him. A number of soldiers w ho attempted to arrest him were fired at, a' nd one was killed. He was ultimately captured and taken to prison after wounding seven persons. The two men who have undoubtedly derived moat benefit from the short tenure ! of th« Tory Government are Lord Halsbury and Lord Ashbourne. The one retires with a pension of £5000 a year, and the other with a pension of £4000 ; but they are both expected to give judicial service in the House of Lords in return for these handsome allowances. Lord Saltoun, one of the Scotch representative peers, died at his London residence on February 7, having left his seat in Aberdeenshire a few weeks ago vo attend his Parliamentary dutie». The deceased Earl, who was sixty-five years of age, is succeeded byhis only son, the Master of Saltoun, late colonel in the Grenadier Guards. A decline either in the purchasing power or else in the wish to purchase pictures of a first class is remarked upon as very noticeable in the American circle of millionaires now residing in Paris. They have not always been quite so careful and judicious" in their fine art expenditure in Paris. Something which has occurred frequently hataught them caution at last. It is said that the next change in American and Canadian railway time-tables will be the abolition of the familiar a.m." and "p.m." and the numbering of the hours consecutively from one to tweuty-four. Representatives of over 100,000 miles of line, including the great Canadian roads—the Grand Trunk, Canadian Pacific, and Intercolonial—are favourable to the new system. At Burnley, an order was made for the destruction of nearly a ton of hams and bacon, in the possession ot Parker Wood, provision factor. The meat had been purchased at a sale in Liverpool, where it was catalogued at having been damaged by poisonous copper ore, to be sold for boiling down purposes. The defence was that the meat was sound, and contradictory evidence wan given. A meeting of Englishmen and Scotchmen favourable to the grant of Home Rule to Ireland was held on February 10 at the Westminster Palace Hotel. The fcarl of Ashburnham presided, and among the speakers were Mr. Cowen, M.P.; Mr. J. McCarthy, M.P.; Mr. W. Blunt, and the Bishop of Nottingham. It was resolved to form an association to promote the object. , Mr. Sclater-Booth is an unfortunate man.

He was to have been Chairman of Committees in this Parliament at a salary of £2500 a year. That official is not appointed until after the debate on the Address, and he continues in office until the close of the Parliament, and does not go out with his party. As the Conservatives have gone out, a Liberal will unquestionably be appointed to the post, and Mr. Bclater-"sooth has lost his ohanoe.

The apartments in Hampton Court Palace which became vacant the other day by the death of Lady Barnard, have been given by the Queen to Mrs. Brook, the widow of the gallant General Brook, who was killed in the Afghan war. This is a very proper choice, as these free quarters are intended for tho widows and daughters of men who have served the country, and not for the needy relatives of jobbing courtiers.

Sedan chairs, that for the last thirty years have been altogether unknown in Bath, are again being introduced. The advantages of hot bathing for invalids are greatly increased if the patient can be carried home "well packed" immediately after a bath. Sedan chairs are found more suitable for this purpose than a carriage or the Bath chairs, that for some years have entirely displaced them. The fatality of thirteen at table has been forcibly illustrated by the death of King Alfonso of Spain— so say superstitious Spanards. When the King visited Aranjuez last summer to see the cholera patients, he lunc?:. 3d at the palace, and thirteen persons sat down to the meal. Noticing the number, the King gaily referred to the tradition, and made his equerry give him a list of the guests, that he might see whether anyone died within the year. Don Alfonso himself was the first of th- thirteen to pass away. A death in a snowstorm is reported from the County Donegal. It appears that at christening festivity which was being celebrated at a place called Fanad, three young men crossed the Glenoila Hills to procure a supply of liquor. On their return, they were caught in a blinding storm of snow, and one of them (the youngest, named Wallace) gave up. The other two bore him along till they came to a eornstaok, in which they made a bed for him. The alarm was given as soon as possible to the nearest house, and help Procured. Wallace, however, was dead efore assistance reached him, and his companions were in a very exhausted condition.