NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8878, 14 May 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Ia is said 400,000 Jews are trying to leave Russia. The theatres in London regularly employ over 12,000 people. London, in monetary value, is worth 2£ times as much as Paris. The flag of Ireland floated over New York City Hall 011 St. Patrick's Day. A big ocean liner uses about three hundred and thirty-five tons of coal a day. The raven is the only bird known to ornithologists which is a native of every country in the world.

A Philadelphia burglar leffa a vest button in the house he had broken into, and it led to his arrest.

A mile of railway permanent way, with two sets of rails, takes up twelve and ahalf acres of land.

An international exhibition is to be held at Douglas, Isle of Alan, and an extensive building is in course of erection. The natives of Dahomey have ravaged the country around Popo and captured 3000 slaves. Trade is at a standstill.

The anarchists in Vienna place dynamite cartridges under the tramways leading to the residences of the wealthy classes. The classes in arts, science, and theology at. the University of St. Andrew's are in future to be opened to lady students. The Daily Telegraph states that the sum of £1,250,000 has been lost in wages through the stoppage of the Durham coal mines. Mr. Foreman, coxswain of the Broadstairs lifeboat, who is retiring after 20 years' heroic sorvice, has been presented with £100.

There are always more people in the earth than on it. Throughout the entire world about 35,000,000 people die every year. The deepest trustworthy sea sounding ever made was 26,850 feet, this depth found twenty-three miles due north of New Guinea.

The Maria Beckmers, which has just, been launched at Port Glasgow, Scotland, is by fourteen feet the largest sailing vessel in the world.

On January 17, IS9I, the wife of Mr. Hausler, of luiinsicht, presented her husband with twins. On December 31st, same year, she blessed him with a separate set of twins.

In one of the great Paris hospitals, out of eighty-three patients who suffered from epilepsy, sixty were found to be children of drunken parents. The King of Italy's visit to England is said to bo in connection with the betrothal of the Prince of Naples to a daughter of tho Duke of Edinburgh. A romantic engagement is reported from Berlin. Prince Ernest of Saxe-iMeningen is to marry the daughter of Wilhelra Jensen, the German poet. In Sweden the aspen forests have been so reduced through the manufacture of wood for matches that now that country has to import its lumber from Russia.

A city merchant failed in 1879, and paid 14s in the pound. Fortune having since smiled upon him, he has recently paid his creditors the balance of 6s, with interest..

A young woman of Troy, New York State, who gave her seat in a crowded car to a crippled old gentleman, has received from him a splendid diamond necklace iu acknowledgment of her kindness. Archdeacon Farrar of London offers £100 for the proof of any one case, either in the Church or out of it, where drunkenness has been cured without total abstinence.

The Virginia Legislature has passed an Anti-Gambling Bill, and Governor McKinney' has signed it. Ib forbids " bookmaking," or betting on horse-racing in that State.

It is on the cards that the Prince of Monaco will positively refuse to permit any gambling at Monte Carlo hereafter, and will convert his casino into a hospital for consumptives. _ Berlin Socialists are carrying on an agitation among bricklayers, busying themselves with holding meetings and distributing pamphlets, and in efforts to inaugurate a general strike.

Max O'Kell declares that in conversation the American woman, and the American woman only, can make a man forget her sex and lead him to treat her as his intellectual equal. The Edinburgh Ladies' Debating Society, which now numbers eighty-one members, recently_ discussed a motion " That selfinterest is the mainspring of human action," when only two voted for the affirmative. The new orchid which is to immortalise tho name of Air. Chamberlain was discoverered by the travellers for an English firm_ in the Merapi mountains. It has received the name of Chamberlainianum.

A Boston woman on a visit to Rome called at the Vatican, and, being informed that the Pope was ill, offered to give him the Christian science treatment, but the offer was declined. Tho Pope sticks to the old school.

Leap year makes ail important difference to the various Departments of the State. Fifty-three weekly pay days fall within the financial year, and this in the Navy paysheet alone involves an addittonal expenditure of £35,000.

In Rome Prince Ippolito Aldobrandini, nephew of Prince Borghese, entered the late Jesuit, order, taking the oath of poverty and humility. He was then just eighteen years old and a millionaire. His money will go to the order.

A movement is now on foot among several fashionable London ladies, headed by the Duchess of Teck, to purchaae the bijr building opposite the Bachelors' Club and run a club on the same lines to be called " The Ladies' Club."

Mrs. Patsy Sears, who lives in Howard County, Indiana, is said to be 10S years old, although she claims to be two years older. She did not. learn to read until she was over 80 years of age, and she has since read the Bible through seven times, and " Josephus' History of the Jews" once. Great preparations are already being; made in Madrid for the Columbus Exhibition next October, in honour of the 400 th anniversary of the discovery of America. The Belgian Government contributes the cradle of Charles V. and the mantle of Montezuma, which never yob have quitted Belgium.

The experiment of the killing of cattle by electricity will soon bo tried at the Aberdeen abattoir, where the electric plant is now being installed. Jf the experiment! proves that this manner of killing the cattle has no bad influence on the quality of the beef, the application of electricity will hereafter be general. The census of Cape Colony, the preliminary totals of which were sent out in April last, is now complete, and gives a grand total of 1,527,224. The analysis shows that the total European population is 367,987 ; Malay, 13,907 ; Hottentots, 50,388 ; Fingoes, 229,680; Kaffirs, 608,456, and all other coloured people, 247,806. A Dublin telegram states that it was announced there recently that the Rev. Dr. Joseph Antony O'Shea, S.F., had seceded from the Church of Rome. He attended a Protestant church on Sunday in the company of a number of other converts. Eight conversions in different parts of Ireland are altogether announced. The amount in the Irish Post Office Savings Banks shows an unbroken series of increases since 1871. In that year the amount of deposits was £745,000 ; in 1891 they amounted to £3,996,000, an increase of £243,000 over the previous year. In trustee savings banks the deposits on December 31st last amounted to £1,966,000, a do. crease of £7000 compared with 1890. A climatological exhibition has been opened at the Institute of Civil Engineers London. It includes a number of instruments which automatically record the changes in the weather, such as self-regis-tering barometers, rain gauges, and sunshine recorders. There are also contrivances by means of which the meteorological elements can be observed from a great distance by means of electricity. The Press Association's Buckingham correspondent telegraphs The Rev. Henry Powell, of Bayswater, London, shot himself dead while in bed at the vicarage, at Padbury, near Buckingham. He had been doing duty for the vicar for the last six Sundays. He came from London on Saturday, and conducted two services on Sunday, retiring to bed before nine o clock. Tho deceased, who was about 50 year of age, and leaves a wife and three children, shot himself through the chest and iu the temple.