NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8950, 14 January 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

From the famous charge at Balaclava ot 670 British horsemen, only 193 retained. Crowns are still coined, but very rarely. Between 1848 and 1878 neither orowna not half-crowns were made.

'Since the discovery of petroleum 53,000 wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania and the adjacent oil territory. ~ The Monument in London has always been understood to be tha loftiest isolated column in the world. The height is 202 feet. The silver coins honed by the Mint in com* memoration of the Queen's Jubilee repre* sented 3d, 6d, Is, 2ii, 2s 6d, 4s, and ss. A new pattern 8 word has been prepared for the Household Cavalry, and a few have been sent to each of the three regiments for trial.

A hairdresser declares' that, 600 years henoe, man will be born bald and continue so. He says this was the condition in which Adam was in the Gardes of Eden,

The depression at present in the Greenock shipbuilding and engineering trades is greater than has . been experienced for twenty years, and future prospects are most discouraging. The Lord Chancellor has laid the fonnda* tion-stone of the new city of London court, Guildhall. The hew court building occupies the sites of the old court, the Land Tar Offices, and the tap ot the Guildhall tavern. The average journalist is a much better instructed person than the average platform declaimer, or even than the average Cabinet Minister. He has usually a certain amount of historic, political, and economic knowledge. It is computed that the of tha world is 67 a minute, and the birth-rate 70 a minute, and this seemingly light percentage of gain is sufficient to give & net increase of population eaoh year of almost 1,200,000 souls.

Dr. Allen, in locturing the other day at an organ opening in Yorkshire, spoke strongly against mere choral singing, and stated that his choir would refuse to sing anything in which the congregation at Islington could not unite.

Nellie Wells, a young woman, & member of the Salvation. Army, of 74, Milton Road, South Hornsey, was fined 3» and costa at Clerkenwell Police Court for causing an obstruction by holding a, religious service at Newington Green. The Appeal Court has ordered the directors of the Plymouth and Devonport Tramways to make good the loss sustained by Sir Henry Peek, a shareholder, through the untrue statement that the Government had author* ised the use of steam on the tramway. Gunsmiths first began to direct their attention to the walnut in the reign of James 1. The value of the timber increased from that time to the beginning of the present century, and during the Peninsular war a single tree was sold for no less than £600. The first large shipment of (foods direct from Queenatown to the United States took place on November 18, when 200 cases of whiskey were put on board the National Line steamer Italy, which immediately afterwards sailed for Mew York. The whiskey is con* signed to a large firm in .Mew York. Monaignoir Persico has returned to "Rome, and as the result of his recent visit to Ireland is understood to have reported to the Vatican that the Irish bishops have declared themselves unable, even in the interests of the Church, to change their attitude towards the British Government.

At the Terre Haute Polytechnic the othei day, experiments were made to ascertain just what a snail's puce is. Half a dozen of these slowgoers were permitted to crawl between two points ten feet apart, and the average pace was ascertained. It was calculated that a snail can crawl a mile in just fourteen days. In 1885, the first year of the existence of the divorce law in France, the number of divorces pronounced for people living in Paris alone was 1242 ; but it must be remembered that the majority of those cases consisted of the simple transformation of decree of legal separation into decrees of divorce.

One hundred women ride trloyoles in Washington. The smoothness of the streets makes the work easier than it is anywhere else, and the encouragement given by their male relatives in the 'cycle clubs strengthens them to face the public. Most of the women have a special costume in the nature of a riding habit with the train cut off. Susan Singer, an old woman who lived at Erith, was kneeling in front of the fire filling a teapot, when she was seizod with a fit. She fell forward into the fire, and when found she was still in a kneeling position, her head being literally burnt off. Pieces of the skull were among the cinders, and the body was charred down to the breast. A German exoursionist has jait completed his tour round the world. He went from Berlin and back via Brindisi, Alexandria, Aden, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco, New York, and Bremerhaven. The voyage took him 185 days, and his expenses amounted to £180, or little under a pound a day. He says the tour can be done for less, but not comfortably. An extraordinary accident occurred to Mexican Joe ancl his troupe, at present engaged in a Wild West show at Liverpool exhibition. They were driving full speed through the streets, on the Tombstone coach, when it overturned, and the bandsmen and two ladies were pitched into the street. Four were |taken to the infirmary severely injured. All the bandsmen's instruments were smashed.

J. M. Bailey, once famous as the wit of the Danbury News, has faded from the humorous world, and is now an actor in a repeated domestic tragedy. His wife is insane and demands his entire attention. He must dress her and arrange her hair, and attend to all her wants. She is like a child, and he gives her till his affeotion, time, and attention. His devotion is described as something heroic. According to the Times' Vienna correspondent, it is reported from Rome that positive instructions have been sent from the Vatican to the Irish clergy as to their future attitude with regard to the relations between landlord and tenant. The Pope is said to have ex* pressed his entire disapprobation of the law* lessness arising out of political fanaticism, and to have communicated his opinion to the archbishops and bishops of Ireland. The Board entrusted by the Government with the expenditu of £5000 per annum for the encouragement of the breeding of horses has now been nominated. It consists of the Duke of Portland, Master of the Horse; the Earl of Coventry, Master of the Buokhounds ; Mr. Jacob Wilson, representing the Royal Agricultural Society ; Mr. Gilmour, of the Highland Society of Sootlani; and Mr. Bo wen-Jones, of the Central Chamber of Agriculture. Mr. Alfred Em bod, consulting physician of Dorset County Hospital, and one of the oldest practitionern in the county, died under melancholy circumstances. In February last, while performing an operation for cancer, Mr. Emsoct pricked his finger slightly with one of the neodlea he was using. From the punotare blood poisoning get in, and,, lung affeotion supervening, he succumbed. Mr. Emson was seventy years old, And greatly respected. The house in Market-street, Lichfield, in which Dr. Johnson once resided, has just been sold by auoliion at the Three Crowns Hotel, Lichfield. The attendance was large, and great interest; was centred in the proceedings. Bidding commenced at £500 and went on until, £800 was rcaohed, at whioh sum the house was sold to Mr. Brown, o Lichfield, acting on behalf of Mr. G. H Johnson, of Southport and West Lindeth, Silverdale, who wishes to save'the buildin from demolition. The Wild West propaganda oontinnes its aotivity. A youthful inhabitant of Brixton has been detained at Liverpool, having travelled there unprovided with a railway ticket. In his bag were found a dagger, i bowie knife, the inevitable revolver, and several cartridges, Be explained that he had been so much impressed with the feat* of the Wild West troupe that he had deter mined to go to the Far West and do likewiseThis boy is a good, sensible boy, ' He might have determined to start on his adventurous career in the Brixton road. An alarming accident occurred on Nov. 17 at Buffalo Bill's show at the Aston Lower Grounds, Birmingham. The performance had just commenced, and the troops of Indians were galloping round the track, when one of the horses dashed into a wooden railing, and threw his rider to the ground with great violence. The Indian was badly injured, and lay insensible for soma time. The horse galloped aoroaa the meadow with a piece of the wooden rail several feet long and about three inohes square sticking out of a gaping wound iin its shoulder. The poor brute fell from exhaustion, and was examined by a veterinary surgeon, who rrdered it to be destroyed. It wns found that the rail hat. penetrated to n i'tj'Mi of at least 18in. Thfc affair caused gicku excitement ambhfc the I anaefcatort. . "\