NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8842, 2 April 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The entire coast-line of the globe is about 136,000 miles. The population of London increases ab about the rate of 100,000 per annum. The London Temperance Hospital haa treated upwards of 40,000 patients without alcohol. The Queen has sent a donation of £100 to the fund for extending the buildings of. Aberdeen University. The next International Congress on the abuse of alcoholic liquors will be held ab the Hague in September. Seventy-two and seventy were the respective ages of a groom and bride married at Wilkesbarre a few days ago. Captain John Jennings Ball, R.N., inventor of the jury tiller, and a well-known navigator, died recently, aged 78. Twenty-three thousand travellers received hospitality in the snow-bound convent ol St. Bernard during the past year. The new German tent is divisible into two portions, each of which can be converted into an overcoat in case of rain. Insanity is reported to have increased in France to such an extent that the asylums are no longer able to hold the lunatics. The Queen's bounty of three pounds has been forwarded to Mrs. Williams, of Albertstreet, .Northwood, who gave birth to triplets. Paris, with a population of 2,500,000, has tower than 100 negroes within its limits. Ib is claimed that the coloured population of all France is less than 550. The marriage between Captain W. Evana Gordon arid Julia, Marchioness of Tweed dale, was celebrated quietly at the chinch of St. Saviour's, Walton-street. The professional golf match ab Machri* hanish between Willie Fernie and Hugh Kirkcaldy resulted in the victory of the latter by five up and four to play. Modern London only occupies an extent of surface not exceeding the half of that on which the great city of Nineveh, the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire, was built. It is stated, says the Standard, that considerable complications are likely to arise in the Liberal party, owing to the demands put forward by tho labour section of the party. The fashionable form of entertainment in New York at present is the "character dinner." Each guest is expected to dresa in character to represent some epoch, book, or play. Colonel Ingersoll now praises the Unitarian Church for having done " more than any other Church, it may be more than all other churches, to substitute character for creed." Over 100 tons of coals were distributed in a fortnight on the estate of Lord l)onnington, in Leicestershire, "in memory of Edith Maud, Countess of Loudoun, Baroness Hastings." At Haranb, Hayling Island, a woman named Richardson put a quantity of paraffin on her clothes and then set herself alight. The woman next morning succumbed to her terrible injuries. It is announced that the Czar has conferred an order upon tho French workman who denounced the Englishmen, Cooper and Bednell, for attempting to obtain a pattern of the new Russian rifle. At the inquest on Glenny, the Oldham football player who told his wife that he had been kicked in the stomach, a verdict of accidental death was returned, and the jury added a rider condemning rough play. The cause of the shortage of crops in Russia, as reported by the American Consul, was owing to excessive heat, followed by hailstorms, nob to the unsuccessful methods of Russian farmers, a® previously reported. Advices from the Argentine Republic to the Bureau of the American Republics show that the value of agricultural and pastoral products in that country during the present year will exceed anything ever before known. A Berlin correspondent communicates the important intelligence that on every Thursday the young Kaiser insists upon having a dinner of " mashed peas, smoked beef, and sauerkraut, to be eaten together in one mess." In one house in Jackson, Michigan, where three children died of diphtheria, ib was found that the brothers and sisters of the first victim were taken in to kiss their dead brother. This act cost two of them their lives. Earl Spencer has consented to accept the nomination for the chancellorship of the Victoria University offered to him by the Committee of Convocation. The vacancy was caused by the death of the Duke oi Devonshire. The steamer Rhynland is now carrying to Antwerp, from the United States Fish Commission, 500 Catfish, consigned to the Belgian Government, which will attempt to propagate them in the sluggish waters that abound in that country. A ridiculous fashionable craze threatens to manifest itself in London next spring, viz., the holding o! dogs' garden parties. Ladies are to bring their pet dogs to a canine conversazione and amuse the poor things with romps and dainties. Despite the number of deaths amongst the possessors of titles in 1881, the longevity of the upper and middle classes in England was really remarkable, for out of the 6527 deaths recorded in the Morning Post no less than 1086 had attained the age of eighty years and upwards. A young lady of good family of St. Petersburg was driven to insanity by Tolstoi's " Kreutzer Sonata." Having read the book she threw her windows open, and crying, " Dissipation, dishonour everywhere !" she attempted to jump out. Her maid-in-waiting prevented her. Tho latest news regarding the great earthquake of October 28th in Japan shows that the number of dead is 7560, and the injured numbered 10,120, with 89,630 buildings wholly and 28,625 partly destroyed. Over 440,000 people have been rendered homeless and destitute. The love of dancing is on the wane, in the opinion of two ladies' journals. One writer attributes the decline to the influence of " higher intellectual pursuits," while the other thinks it is due to the provision of greater variety in the way of athletic exercises and open-air recreation." The Commander-in-Chief has awarded the silver medal for long service and good conduct to 156 non-commissioned officers and men, 20 being given to men of the Cavalry, 39 of tho Artillery, 11 of the Engineers, 68 of the Foot Guards and Infantry, and 18 to men of various departmental corps. The statue of the Queen which the citizens '" Malta had loyally decided to erect in commemoration of Her Majesty'j Jubilee is at last set up in Valebta. It is the work of Professor Valenbi, of Palermo, is executed in white marble, and represents Queen Victoria seated on a throne. The new manual of the Tabernacl# Congregregational Church, Hanley (Rev. A. Holden Byles pastor) states that at the close of 1891 the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Society had 1725 names on its register. The church has a membership of 388. The ncome for the year was £1060 10s Bd. Orders have been given to the directors of Russian railway companies to decrease forthwith bhe number of their employes professing the Lutheran religion. Some years ago similar regulations were issued for the compulsory retirement of Catholics and Jews, and of employes who were nob Russian subjects. Professor Lundsberger, the well-known sculptor, has been commissioned by the College of Agriculture to make a statue of the celebrated Knglish racehorse St. Uatien, which, it will be remembered, was bought some months ago by Count Lehndorff for the sum of 280,000 marks (equal to £14,000) for breeding purposes, and is now in his stable at Gradibz. A curious ro-y lighb overspread the tky above Berlin from nine till eleven o'clock one evening lately, and made many people think that a great fire must have broken < <ut somewhere. Early in the morning th* Emperor telephoned to the central fire brigade station to inquire what had happened, bub received answer that the effulgence was a natural phenomenon. Without doubt, the cleverest com ; c singer in the world is Paulus, who is having a grand success in New York, as K deserves to, from his immense talents in his own particular line. Paulus has bet"i singing to delighted audiences at the Alcasar, in the Champs and other places in, Paris for many years now ; but he never tires one, and is always fresh and amusing.