NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9022, 29 October 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Newfoundland is rejoicing over the catching of 400,000 seals by her fleefa this season. An ancient lake fortress has been discovered on the western side of Croesmere, in Shropshire. The total number of persons of all ranks employed in post office work in the United Kingdom is 125,762. One hundred and six Holloway tradesmen agreed to close their shops early one day a week after September 16. The Jewish synagogue at Brighton, is stated to be one of the few places of worship illuminated by the electric light. The rolling stoc; on the North-eastern Railway consists of 83,500 goods waggons, 3281 carriages, and 1742 engines. The Accrington cotton weavers hare carried a resolution, in the proportion of ten to one, against the reduction in the hours of labour. An East End labourer has been found by the police with a quarter of a million Indian stamps, worth £2000, in his possession. Counb Ito, the new Japanese Premier, has the character of being one of the most popular and accomplished public men in the land of the Mikado. Fifteen hundred boxes of pears, 1200 boxes of peaches, and 308 boxes of plums have just been brought in one ship to England from California. In six years Lord Salisbury has preferred over 200 clergymen to valuable livings, the advowsons of which, at a rough valuation, were worth half a million. A gentleman, who was playing golf with ' his cousin, by eome terrible misadventure struck the lady's forehead instead of the ball, inflicting a frightful wound. Major Vaughan Morgan, of the Boltons, South Kensington, one of the chief supporters of the London Homoeopathic Hospital, lefb property valued at over £119,000. The total amount transmitted in the United Kingdon by money orders and postal orders last year was about £49,000,000 sterling, or £2,000,000 more than in 189091. The Western Morning News has a delightful misprint, according to which a well-known nobleman has been appointed to the Mastership of the Queen's Duckhounds. In the London Metropolitan police district! the population of which is given as 4,595,638. the convictions for excessive Sunday drinking last year were 1623, and for other days 20,926. Probably the largest fruit train that eTer left California did so a few days ago. It consisted of twenty-seven cars, and these were loaded with peaches, plums, and apricots. An ingenious safeguard against balloon accidents has been invented by M. Capazza, a French aeronaut of repute. It consists of an independent parachute fitted as a cap to the balloon. It is estimated that the West Cumberland strike has cost in loss of wages to the men, loss to railway companies, employers, tradespeople, and others, nob less than half a million. Duplicates of Raphael's Hampton Court cartoons are said to have been discovered at St. Petersburg. How they got there is a mystery, bub the owners ask 7,500,000 francs for them. Messrs. Charles Macintosh and Co., of Manchester, have just brought out an indiarubber boat, which inflates with air and is unsinkable. A 12ft boat weighs 901b complete, with oars, etc. The converts and friends of James Turner, who died in 1863, after many years of signal but unobtrusive labours as an evangelist ab Peterhead, have just erected a granite monument over his grave. During last quarter the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board took 750,000 tons of sand from their river. The total quantity since dredging operations commenced ha been no less than 1,000,000 tons. The business of the English Post Office Savings Bank shows a steady advance. The sum credited to the depositors foi interest during the year 1891 was £1,658,148, or £104,703 more than in the previous year. A lady living at Exeter was walking with another lady to the meet of the Dulverton foxhounds, when a wasp became entangled in her hair. She fainted from fright, and as soon as she recovered consciousness fell* back dead. A little six-year-old girl was killed ab Warrington on a recent Sunday by a roller some other children had set in motion. She had been senb to chapel, but found the chance of a game in the cricket field more attractive. Gray's Inn Chapel is shortly to be pulled down. The old stained glass windows, which are of considerable antiquity, will be preserved and utilised in the new chapel, the site for which has, however, not yet) been fixed upon. A boy of eleven, bathing in the Derwent, gob into a dangerous place. His mother, fearing he would be drowned, waded in and succeeded in getting him out of the water. As soon as she reached the bank and found he was dead she dropped dead herself. " He was a lazy fellow, and strange in his ways. He had ideas about regenerating society. He was a kind of an Anarchist." This was the only description a witness could give ab an inquest at Holborn on a German named Hauser, who shot himself. Two West End dressmakers have jusb been made to pay penalties, amounting to £2 16s, for keeping their hands at work after four o'clock on Saturday, June 11. They excused themselves on the ground that soma dresses had to be finished for Ascot. In the United Kingdom last year the total number of post offices was increased to 19,101, and the number of letter-boxes to 23,301. There were 6,790,845 returned letters dealt with, and out of that number 135,914 were re-issued to corrected addresses. The capitation tax that is levied upon all passengers who arrive at the Isle of Man seems in no way to lessen the number of visitors. Seventy-two thousand nine hundred and eight were landed in July this year, as against 67,973 in the same month last year. Mr. Robert Smith, of the London Police Court Mission, writing respecting the efforts made to reclaim Jane Cakebread, who has been 300 times convicted for drunkenness, declares that her power to resist drink is I wholly gone. He describes her as "a i physical enigma." ! The profits of the London General Omnii bus Company for the last six months show I an improvement of £13,569 over the last half year, and £42,895 over the corresponding period of last year, notwithstanding the extra cost of drivers, conductors, horsekeepers, and washers, and the cost of tickets and inspection, which amounted to nearly £40,000. Two young girls, both scarcely sixteen, have been charged at Ottakring with cruelty to animals. To secure the affection of their sweethearts they dug oub the eyes of two little twelve-week-old kittens and bur it them to powder. The powder was pub into wine, which the young men drank. Thin prescription has been regarded as infallible since 1706. Ireland has never had so many English ana Scotch visitors as this year. This is due probably to the cheap rates offered by the railway companies—two guineas return tickeb to Cork, via Holyhead and Dublin. Would-be visitors, who "are afraid of seasickness, can now make the journey with only two hours on the water, going by the Midland line to Belfast, via Stranraer. a Twelve mummies, discovered in Egypt by Mr. Flinders Petrie, have been placed in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons They are exceedingly ancient, their, date "being certainly nob later than the fourth Egyptian dynasty, and possibly as early as 4COO B.C.—that is, coeval with. the Bible age of the world. The skeletons are those of a sail, well-proportioned race, with highly-developed crania, and they - are swathed iin linen bands of 'the. finest texture. The Poor Man's Metropole, which Lord i Rowton is having built for artisans and labourers in South London, will be managed by himself. ;<lb, is said -thabr his lordship means nob only to sib ab his own receipt ol custom, bub to be,his own "chucker oub," should the need for such action arise. Lord Rowton became famous as Lord Beaconsfield's private secretary; as the keeper of a" model lodging-house it seems not unlikely that ha will attain yei greater notoriety.