NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9157, 25 March 1893, Page 9 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Statistics show that the French fight an average of 4000 duels a year.

Hong Kong has a population of some 214,320 natives and 10,500 Europeans. The fur market of England received about six millions of skins from abroad last year. A woman who lives near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, claims to be the mother of 34 children.

Of children of school age in the colony of Victoria, 99 - out of every 100 are being educated.

The mandoline is said to be ousting the banjo from its position as a favourite instrument of the upper ten." The London School of Medicine for Women has amongst its students a Swede, a Parsee, and two Russians.

The old project for the establishment of a Rabbinical college in Jerusalem is again being discussed in Jewish circles. The Queen's Maids of Honour, who have a salary of £800 each, are only required to attend at Court for thirteen weeks in tho year. Some Roman coffins, containing skeletons perfectly intact, have been unearthed at a depth of nine feet in one of the French provinces. Groat Britain has for nearly a quarter of a century maintained a naval squadron on the East coast of Africa at an expense of £4,000,000.

The widening of Ludgato Hill from 47ft to 60ft, and opening up the front of St. Paul's, now being 1 completed, has cost the city £230,000. Among the pupils at the Kentucky State Deaf and Dumb Institution at Danville is a Louisville pirl, nine years old, who is deaf, dumb, and blind. At a Vienna ball Herr Johann Strauss introduced the minuet, danced in old Viennese costumes, "as a protesb against modern extravagance in dress." Last year 3145 fires occurred in London, 254 more than in tho previous year. In all, C 4 lives were lost. There were no fewer than 497 malicious false alarms.

Some persons were drilling for water near Parkensburg, Indiana, when they struck oil, which flowed in great quantities from a depth of 100 ft below tho surface". The Spanish language has a word of nine letters, which, spelled backwards or forwards, suffers no alteration in its orthography. It is the verb " reconocer." It is said that at the Aged Pilgrims' Friend Society Asylum there is an inmate aged 89, whose brother and sister lived with the widow of the great navigator, Captin Cook. - .

The whole length of the nave of tho Crystal Palace has been devoted to a show of cycles. The victory of the pneumatic tire is held to be unmistakably demonstrated.

Treated chemically, a pound of coal will yield enough magenta to colour 500 yards of iiannel, vermilion for 2580 yards, aurine for 120 yards, and alizarine sufficient for 153 yards of red cloth. The Lord Mayor has offered to present to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers a Welsh goat in place of the one accidentally killed on September 15, and the regiment has accepted the gift with great pleasure. William harrier, chief engineer of the Ramegate Harbour tug, who has just died, for 43 years accompanied the tug when it towed the lifeboat out, and had assisted in rescuing 500 people from shipwreck. An insane domestic died at Wood Green from starvation. The girl was said to be a voracious eater, and a doctor mentioned that some lunatics being unable to digest their food, were not nourished by it. During acme excavations near Chatham the workmen came upon a large cavern into which they narrowly escaped falling. Tha cave contained a quantity of human bones, which are supposed to date back to Saxon times.

Large paoks of famishing wolves besieged a town in Russia. They occasionally entered the streets and carried off dogs, cats, and even children. A detachment of soldiers was eventually sent to raise the siege. The gold issued from the Mint last year amounted to £13,697,540, and £16.200,000 were withdrawn. Silver valued at £849,932 was issued, and a fourth of that sum withdrawn. Bronze money issued exceeded £58,000. A shopkeeper was fined for selling cocoa adulterated with 50 per cent, of starch and sugar. Another tradesman, who sold a packet of cocoa containing 60 per cent, of starch and sugar, was let off, because the label indicated that it was a compound. A Spiritualistic periodical gravely announces that it has secured the " exclusive" collaboration of William Shakespere in the spirit world, and that any alleged communications from the great dramatist appearing anywhere else are spurious and an imposture. m At the further hearing of the charge against Wells at Bow-street, a single lady stated that she handed over £18,000 to th« prisoner or. the strength of his promises that she should share in the profits of certain patents which, it is alleged, never existed.

Some buildings in Cornhill, opposite the Bank of England, were put up for auction, and were bought in at £160,000, the highest bid being £157,000. Nos. 25, 26, and 27, Cornhill, with a frontage of nearly 50ft, and occupying an area of 1950 ft, sold for £90,000.

About £20,000 worth of spurious shillings, coined in Germany, have arrived in England, and are gradually getting into circulation. The silver contains 20 per cent. more alloy than the coin-silver used in the British Mint. The Queen's head on these coins is smaller than on the genuine shillings. The aged negress, Mrs. Ricks, who came to England to see the Queen, has since received a portrait from Her Majesty. Mrs. Ricks has written to thank the Queen, and mentions that the portrait will be placed in the Senate Chamber, as she wishes the Liberians to get a glimpse of the friend of the African race.

A householder in London.was sued for three guineas for three tons of Silkstone coals. The defendant paid into court the cost of If tons, and alleged that the remainder was dust. The judge held that) the amount paid into court was enough. The plaintiffs said the average quantity of dust in 3 tons should be 2cw£>.

A wealthy American is said to have offered a workman £50 to procure for him the Panyer Stone, Panyer Alley, Newgatestreet, which for two centuries' has marked the highest point of the city of London. The workman, who was engaged in pulling down the old warehouse in which the stone is fixed, informed the city authorities, and now a guard is placed upon the relic. A sailor lad from Wales is reported tc have been either kidnapped or murdered at the River Plate. A man suspei oi enticing the youth away was captured, and confessed that he had sold the lad, who was then on a vessel proceeding to a foreigr port. Should the kidnapping tale turn ou 1 to be untrue, the man will be charged with murder. ■

At Denver, Colorado, the arrest of serera managers for keeping their, theatres and other places of amusement open on Sundays, contrary to the law, led to a riot. The mob threatened to burn down the hctse of a clergyman who had been foremost 1 the crusade against Sunday opening. The police had to draw their revolvers, rnd many people were wounded before order could be restored.

The Abbe - Icard, who has been asked his opinion of his former pupil, ascribed M. Kenan's defection from Christianity to the influence of his sister Henriette. Kenan, he declared, was obstinate and deceitful, bub of a sweet disposition, and would have made a good priest if the Abbe Le Hir had- taught him less Hebrew, and if his sister had bilked less German to him. Another paper declares that tho Pope, on hearing of Kenan's death, described him as an instrument of God to rouse tho clorgy from their apathy. Sometimes the living man will take greaf> interest in the arrangements for his funeral, down even to minute details as to what shall bo eaten at the burial feast. An ole man was told by Ins wife as he lay a-dying that there would be great difficulty in getting his coffin out of the little closeb in which he lay owing to the scanty room. The old man (he was over 90) managed to crawl out of bed, carefully measured the width of the passage and narrow staircase, and then (knowing his own dimensions) went cheerfully back to bed to die ; there was room,