GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9325, 30 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

* OLIVES. . Olive .culture in California ig nanirn assuming large proportions. There are charda thereof 15,000 trees, and thojl more are being set annually. In that B v-! clime the olive crop is as absolutely sure J anything earthly can be. It is gathered i! December and January, when hefpia pk n 4 and keeps remarkably well. The fcrLa '' set thirty-five feet art, end", are required to bring them from cutting the Waring point, grape-vine,. are set b? tween them. At maturity the i» f .„ yield is £4 worth of fruit per year. ' FRANCE DYING OUT, A medical journal points out France is gradually dying out. D- T neau has predicted that if mattersf'o on 5' at present there will not be a sinrde"Frenr4f man in existence less than five centuri« hence, and. that without the aid of w or epidemics. Statistics of French hon» holds give these results Two million A* per cent.) have no children ; two million ,' i a-half (21 per cent.) have one child million three hundred thousand (■>? J° cent.) have two children ; one million'aJF* half, (15 per cent.) have three; nearlv million (9 per cent.) have four ; five hum) J*i and fifty thousand (5 per cent.) el three hundred thousand (3 per cent) h six ; and two hundred thousand (2 n*r have seven. v P^CviH.) WAS IT A MISTAKE ? Considerable amusement was cau-oH to the congregation of Sefton Park pro byterian Church, Liverpool, th* „,f' Sunday, by Mr. Watson anLn.; that "A £5 note was found last Sun in one of the pews after the special ™n & - tion." '' Perhaps," he added, "it bs X?' intended for the offertory ; if not tVeow could have it by applying to the* chuS olhcer. A prominent member of the con gregation was heard to say as the crowd moved down the aisle, "He should have told us in wnose pew it was found, then we could have judged for ourselves whether it wa3 ever intended for the bag or nob."

THE MOON'. One of the fancies of the Kin°- of Wur tern berg is to ascertain whether the moon is inhabited by causing photographs to be taken of that luminary, and then the negatives a hundred thousand-fold. The pictures produced by this process' shownebula; with little dots, and the King declares the dots to be men and women. c He hopes eventually to get some of them into distinct shape. The cost of this stupid whim is enormous.

a LOVER'S DREAM. Minnie Hannah Adams, aged 19 tie daughter of a fruit salesman, living at y Eleanor Road, Richmond Road, Hackney' died lately under remarkable circumstances.! On Sunday the deceased, her two brothers and a younger sister were left in charge of the house while their parents attended a funefal in the country. In the evening the giri's sweetheart called to see her. As she was alarmed at noises which she fancied she heard, he stayed all night to reassure her. During the night he dreamt he saw tl:e gii* walk past him, beckoning to him to follow, lie awoke, and, becoming alarmed, went into the passage. Having dressed, he went to the door of deceased's room and knocked. Receiving no answer he then woke the others. On the bedroom door being opened the deceased was found lying on the floor with blood issuing from her mouth. Dr. Gibbings was sent for, but on his arrival life was found to be extinct. From the doctor's examination it would seem that the girl died at about the time that the sweetheart dreamt she beckoned him.

FRENCHWOMEN' AND THE KILTS. A person arrayed in full Highland costume caused terrible commotion in a railway carriage at the Perrache station, near Lyons. Two ladies who were in the carriage shrieked as they saw the awful spectacle presented by the entry into their compartment of a man without pantaloons. The Highlander, who was on his way to Nice, nevertheless took hi? seat with Caledonian coolness, whereupon the ladies screamed the louder. It was in vain that the apparition in the garb of old Gaul apologised and explained the situation it. bad French ; and equally futile were the efforts of the stationmaster. Despite everything, the overtimid lady travellers had to be placed in a carriage at a safe distance from that in which the Caledonian stern and wild, had taken up his position. A CONVICT " ENOCH ARDEN."

A romantic story was disclosed in the Birmingham Police Court, a few days ago, on a charge of attempted suicide, preferred against Jane Edwards, being investigated. Many years ago her husband was sentenced to a long term of penal servitude. In the belief, as she alleged, that he was dead, she married a local publican, with whom she had lived seven years, and by whom she has a family. Recently the first husband turned up, and there were passionate scenes. The publican turned her and her children into the street ; and, reduced at length to a shocking state of destitution, she attempted to poison herself. She was remanded.

KEPT THE FLIES OUT. A correspondent writes to Notes and Queries : —When visiting a friend last summer he called my attention to a curious plan for preventing the plague of flies in his house. The upper sash of one of the windows in his sitting-room being open for ventilation, there was suspended outside a piece of common fishing-net. My friend told me that nob a fly would venture to pass through it. He has watched for an hour at a time, and seen swarms fiy to within a few inches of the net, and then, after buzzing about for a little, depart. He told me the flies would pass through the neb if there was a through light — that is, another window in the opposite wall. Though the day was very warm, I did not 6ee a single fly in the room during my visit, though elsewhere in the town they were to be seen in abundance. I suppose they imagine the net to be a spider's web, or some other trap intended for their destruction. My friend mentioned the curious fact that in Russia no wolves will pass under telegraph wires, and that the Government are utilising this valuable discovery, and already clearing districts of the country from these brutes. If this information be true, our Australian cousins might try the experiment of straining wires, and thus protecting their sheep from the ravages of the dingo : indeed, fcho Government should undertake the duty. DIMENSIONS.

The length of England, from Berwick to the south-east of Dorsetshire, is 360 miles; breadth, from the east of Essex to Si. David's Head in Pembroke, 280 miles. The length of Scotland, from Cape Wrath to the Mull of Galloway, is 276 miles; while its breadth, from Buchan Moss to the most westerly point in Ross-shire, is 150 milesIreland is 248 miles long—that is, measuring from the north of Donegal, to the , of Cork Harbour, its breadth from Sowta Head to Slyne Head being 170 miles. YOUNG LADY SHOT DEAD. A painful shooting case has occurred 10 the house of a respectable family in Chat-ham-Street, Liverpool. Mrs Lang, a widow, sent her daughter upstairs to search for a book in an old box. Not at once finding lb, the son, aged 17 years, set about rummaging the chest, and came across a revolver belonging to the deceased's father, who was a commercial traveller. Little thinking the pistol was loaded, he pointed it at the head of his sister Charlotte, aged 16 years, and, pulling the trigger, shot her through the head. The bullet shattered the poor girl's forehead, and in five minutes she expired. THE NEW MISTRESS OF HIGHBURY. Mrs. Chamberlain was (says a Birmingham paper) the observed of all observers in the brilliant audience which met at the Birmingham Town Hall the other night. _ As she entered and took a seat on the right of her husband, all smiles and blushes, at least a score of opera-glasses were levelled at her from various corners of the hall. But the new mistress of Highbury was equal to an ordeal that for most ladies would have been almost as painful as pleasant. She gracefully joined her husband in recognising the demonstrative warmth of the public greeting on this her first appearance in the British political arena. Simply, ban exquisitely dressed, fair and charming" in appearance, instinct with grace in ei 7 movement, she fully justified the remark or a West division voter that Joe can mate love even more successfully than he makes laws. Mrs. Chamberlain has brought moOT of her dresses with her from the Unite States, the most important exception being her Court dress, which is being made in London. The Chamberlain salon ,of the future is to be a novelty in the sense ox not being anything exclusively or even characteristically.