NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7656, 5 June 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

i Japan, according to the new census, has ft | population of 38,500,000. t 1c is discreditable in New York to have the acquaintance of an alderman. Europe is stated to have an available military force of 9,000,000 soldiers. , Twenty cases of cholera are reported in the vicinity of Auclierm, in Finisterre. Messrs. Moody and Sankey, the famous ' evangelists, will visit Chicago next month. A Tampa, Fla., Judge fined a man £1 recently for eating peanuts during the session , of the court. The Berlin Rowing Club has decided to | send a boat and a picked crew to "Henley Regatta in July, The forests of Sweden are carefully looked after. There are 30,000,000 acres of timber land in that country. Nothing flatters a, man so much as the happiness of his wife ; he is always proud of himcelf as the source of it. Twenty-four ton of snuff were thrown into the River Liffey at Dublin, recently, because the duty had not been paid. A saloonkeeper in Sharon, Penn., is to be tried for manslaughter because one of hia customers died of alcoholism. The turban, which was a fashionable headdress with the ladies several generations ago, is coming into vogue again in Paris. Mrs. Bartlett is suffering from prostration an a result of the strain which she has undergone, and is now under the doctor's care. At Hartlepool, Robert Watson, a young labourer, was fined 6s 6d and costs, for going out of doors while suffering Jfrom smallpox. The Hull police force contains a large number of members who frequently hold evangelistic services in the town and neighbourhood. At the Congregational Church, Edithgrove, Fulham Road, on April 17, Sir Charles Dilko delivered a lecture on "Madagascar and Great Britain." A man named Milburn had the end of hia nose taken off by a pet bear at San Diego recently while making himself too familiar around its cage. The French Minister of War has cut short the beard controversy by issuing a peremptory order for all soldiers and officers to raise beards immediately. French styles have been boycotted to such an extent in Berlin of late years that only a dozen Paris modistes and cooks are now doing business there. The Belgian State Railway is to reduce considerably the cost of transport of coal in consequence of the growing competition of German and French collieries. It in discovered that ex-Commander Sandrl, of th' 3 arsenal at Venice, has been Belling important State documents as waste paper, to keep up a supply of small change. A lady in St. Louis discharged a servant, was boycotted by the servants' organisation in that city, and was finally compelled to take back the girl she bad discharged. The New York Legislature has passed resolutions congratulating Ireland on its progress toward Home Rule, and Mr. Gladstone on his broad and generous policy. During the last ten years there has been an increase of 300 per cent, in suicides in Russia. Intemperance, higher price of food, and pessimism are given as the chief causes. The total coal output in Great Britain last year was 159,351,415 tons, with 520,632 colliers employed, against 160,757,779 tons and 520,360 colliers employed the preceding i year. TJje Queen intends to place a bust of the late Principal Tulloch in the hall at Balmoral. The work is to be executed by Mr. Hutchinson, R.S.A., by command of Her Majesty. A kennel on a large scale is to be started in Nashville, Tenn., by business men of that city. It is intended to breed all sorts of pure fancy animals, A specialty will be made of mastiffs. In response to a petition from agricultural tenants on his Tregynon Estates, North Wales, Lord Sudeley has granted each a small holding sufficiently large for the keep of a cow 15 It has neen at last definitely settled that Francis Scott Key, who wrote " The Star* spangled Banner," is to have a £3000 monument in Baltimore. The State of Maryland will erect it. The American coal companies have completed arrangements for an output of 33,500,000 tons of coal in 1886, and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company has assented to the scheme. Lady Haberton, President of the English Reform Dress Society, gives a highlycondensed summary of its objects. They are "to encourage the freedom which the petticoat restricts." London Tit bits offers a priz9 of five guineas for the best article on " Life in Australia," written by an actual resident in Australia or New Zealand. All contributions must reach the London office by September 31. The Italian railway directors are almost offering an inducement to their countrymen to be bitten by mad dogs by abating 75 per cent, of the fare for persons travelling to Paris to undergo M. Pasteur's treatment. In acquiring Burmah, England has got possession of vast forests of teak, whioh, never plentiful in India, was becoming commercially very rare. Of all the woods grown in the east this is the most valuable. The receipts on account of revenue from the Ist of April to the 17th were £5,160,077, against £5,546,380 in the corresponding period of the preceding financial year. The net expenditure was £6,814,175, against £6,969. In a billiard match with William Cook, John Roberts compiled breaks of 506 and 365. The first-named number is a best on record at the spot-barred game, the previous best being 451, made by the same player in December last. M. de Lcsseps says the building of the Pyramids, which occupied 30,000 men ten years, was boys' play to building the Panama Canal. He estimates the power of the machines employed as equal to the labour of 500,000 men. The General of the Jesuits has published the statistics of the order, showing that it counts 2500 missionaries, and that it can boast of having had 248 saints, 1500 martyrs, 13 popes, 60 cardinals, 4000 archbishops and bishops, and 6000 authors. The British flag still proudly flies supreme as regards the traffic through the Suez Canal. The total of British tonnage for the past year was 4,864,048, while that of France, the nearest competitor, was only 573,645. Hoiland is third on the list, with 252,145 tons. The last survivor of Waterloo in Chelsea Hospital, who fought in the ranks of the 42nd Highlanders, enjoys excellent health, and is generally in good spirits. There is, accord, ing to the Army and Navy Gazette, little reason to doubt that this sturdy Scot is 103 1 years old. M. Pasteur has received a telegram from Dr. Davidoff, of Smolensk, announcing that the wolf-bitten Russians who recently ■returned to their country arrived in excellent health, and full of gratitude for the kind attention they had met with at the great savant's hands. Hereafter women deaconesses of the Church of England are to be specially oonseorated to the work by the laying on of hands by the Bishop. This is according to the recommendation of the Dean of Chester, who, in a report from a committee appointed to investigate the question, considers their work of peculiar value. At Portsmouth Convict Prison on April 21 a convict named Michael Colquhonn received eighteen lashes of the " cat." The prisoner sb .uted piteously during the punishmen, and seemed very enfeebled when the full number of lashes had been inflicted. The punishment was given for a violent assault on a a warder. In the United States the initial rate for liquor licenses of every kind is fixed in Congress, and each State adds what it thinks fit for local taxation. Thus, in Chicago, with its 12,000 saloons and drinking bars, the revenue of the town is increased by £250,000 per annum, as the authorities have fixed a local rate of £20 per annum at eaoh licensed house. A letter from General Tcbenajeff contests the military or commercial value of the Trans-Caspian Railway, and declares the proposed continuation of the line from Merv to Bokhara to be impracticable, owing to the sandy deserts lying between these places. The General, however, lays stress upon the necessity of establishing a regular and efficient steamship service on the Ama Daria. A petition, signed by upwards of 500 of the inhabitants of Oxford, including many of the most influential members of the university, has been presented to the Bishop of the diocese. The petition prays that, in' the interests of the sanctity of marriage, Church and State will co-operate to expendite a system whereby women may be enabled to call in, as medical attendants, duly qualified female dootors.