MEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8156, 18 January 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEWS IN BRIEF.

California sent 3,500,000 pounds of honey to Europe last year. As early as 1251 markets and fairs were held in Birmingham. Concord, a clew Hampshire town, has six Shakespere clubs. Italy has 4,800,000 trees, which produce 1260 million lemons per annum. About three hundred thousand telephones are in use in the United States.

The Russian Government is aboub to abolish the import duty on coal. There are about three thousand solicitors in London and sixteen thousand in the provinces. Four at a birth is reported from Llanelly —three girls and one boy. The latter and one girl died. Prince Haru, the heir-presumptive to the Japanese throne, has been installed as Crown Prince. The fiftieth anniversary of the production of Verdi's first opera was celebrated throughout Italy. The oldest bank-notes are the " flying money," or "convenient money," first issped in China 2697 B.C. Great Britain employed over 10,000 more men in 1888 than in 1887 in its coal, iron, and other mineral beds. The Argentine Republic possesses, roughly speaking, about 20,000,000 head of horned cattle and about 130,000,000 sheep. A Frenchman, M. Didier, has devised a hat that will illuminate the wearer's surroundings for sewal yard? by electric means.

One of the results of " taffy" is that the handsomest equipage on the Bois in Paris is that of the woman who keeps a noted candy shop. Fifty-five French priests delivered electioneering sermons. Nemesis has visited them. The Government has suspended their stipends. The Swiss Government has prohibited the holding of meetings by the Salvation Army and has closed the halls occupied by the Salvationists. The most widely separated points between which it is possible to send a telegram are British Columbia and New Zealand, via America and Europe. Three new ironclads will, as soon as possible, be in Italy's fleet, of 14,000 tons and 20,000 horse-power. Vessels, armour, guns, and all are to be made in Italy. The Board of Trade is compiling a lexicographical index of bankruptcies, which will greatly facilitate searches and be a boon to the public and the legal profession The Attorney-General has, to use his own phraseology, "without becoming an absolute total abstainer, lived for over ten years taking only water or tea as a beverage." The Argentine Republic tenders for sale in Europe 24,000 square leagues of land. It is expected that £4,000,000 will be realised to redeem excessive paper currency. Our great towns are healthy. The, annual death rate of twenty-eight of our" great centres is placed at 18-6 per thousand. The rate in twenty-one European cities is 23.

The present visible stock of China tea, including that announced by telegraph to be afloat, is about 17,000,000 pounds short of the estimate, says the London Financial News.

It is proposed that the surplus, amounting to upwards of £40,000, resulting from the recent exhibition at Glasgow, should be applied to the erection of a museum of art in that city. The dinner party given at Athens by the Duke and Duchess of Sparta is said to have been kept in roars of laughter by the German Emperor's jokes at the expense of the bridal couple. The phylloxera has attacked the Grecian currant, Greece's great staple. The export duty on this article is one of the chief items in the national revenue, and a deficiency is probable. Is there to be another Papal Mission to Ireland? We now hear of Monsignor Satolli being ordered to study the present state of the Irish Question on the spot, and report to His Holiness. The tide of Russian Jewish emigration, arrested for a time, is again assuming large proportions. Upwards of 20,000 immigrants arrived at New York during the year closing 30th September. The jewellery trade is more active than ib has been for years, and there is a good demand for the better-classed articles. From Birmingham it is stated that brilliants are readily sold at an advance of 50 percent.

All the French horticultural societies will observe the centenary of the introduction of the chrysanthemum in Europe, and exhibitions of this flower will be held at Paris, Orleans, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and other cities.

The English statistics give a notable decrease in their convict population durvnothe last twenty years. The total number of convicts under sentence of penal servitude was 6405 in July ; twenty years a*ro it was 11,660.

John Chand, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, was in the midst of a terrible imprecation —in which he cursed his Creator—when he fell to the ground paralysed. With a g-eat effort the unfortunate man succeeded in committing suicide. " Nonconformity and dissent is an idolatory of a similar kind to that of Jeroboam's sin," said a curate of Shrewsbury in a recent sermon, and he added that the Nonconformists, like the Israelitish idolaters, will meet with the just condemnation of God !

Bishop O'Dwyer, of Limerick, has issued a pastoral letter forbidding the clergy of the diocese to graufc absolution to any person guilty of boycotting or pursuing the plan of campaign. The Bishop retains to himself alone the right to absolve such persons. A great scandal exists at Bologna in regard to its staple, sausages, which have lately been fraudulently made of diseased horse meat, mixed with pork. Foreign importers refused to take such stuff, and the city's brand in this speciality now stands below par. A new substitute for tobacco is being introducod. It is a mixture of British herbs —the particular plants are kept secret— and smokers ■who have tried the compound declare it to be deliciously fragrant, slightly exhilarating and withal soothing to the nerves.

William O'Connor, the American oarsman, has sent a challenge to Stansbury, the Australian sculler, to row him in America for a stake of £500 a-side. O'Connor is willing to allow Stansbury £75 for expenses, and the Australian is to have , choice of water.

A serious accident occurred irfa foootball match at the Training College, Winchester. A student named Cheesman was so violently kicked that his spine, it is feared, is injured, and but little hopes are entertained as to his recovery. The college play the game under Rugby rules. To cure a cold, pour about half-a-pint of boiling water over about a drachm of pulverised camphor, and inhale the vapours arising therefrom ten to twenty minutes. Great relief is at once experienced, and after two or three repetitions the discomfort is said to disappear entirely. Statistics that have been collected as to the number of newspapers published throughout the world credit Europe with 20,000 journals. This aggregate is almost) equalled by that of the United States, in which last year 13,319 papers were printed, including 1494 dailies, equalling the daily newspapers of England and Germany combined.

The consumption of food per head in Victoria is in excess of that in America and Europe, and yet the climate of Australia requires that a man should eat less. Ths increase of hepatic and nervous diseases in Australia is thought to be due largely to the amount of meat consumed by its inhabitants. Thus it seems that the cheapness of food has its cons as well as its pros. The influence of the Franco-Italian war of tariffs on the national commerce of Italy is deplorable to both countries. Out of a total amount of imported merchandise valued at 1,714,610,000 francs, but little over 155,000,000 francs' worth came from France, whereas in 1886 the produce imported from that country had been of the value of 311,000,000 francs. Germany and Great Britain have chiefly profited by the struggle. Some time ago Dr. Hammond, of New York, experimented on himself with cocaine, fancying that it aided the mental and moral tone. He found that three grains produced a great disposition to talk, with vivid imagination. Writing was accomplished with great ease, and wonderful progress was made with a medical work he was preparing. On the following morning he found the work to be composed of incoherent sentences, being, in fact, utterly nonsensical. '