NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9217, 3 June 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The world has 3000 lighthouses. Most sheep die before they are a year old*. Women of rank go bareheaded in Mexico. At the Equator the average annual rainfall is 100 inches. A f ull-girown elephant is capable of carry* ing a load of two tons. The oldest coin in the world is an j3sgean piece of the year 700 B.C. There are oyer 4000 South African war medals awaiting claimants. It is stated that 70 per cent, of the peoji'o i of Ceylon live by agriculture. The largest farm in England is at Withcall, near Louth, Lincolnshire. Lord Tennyson makes the 11173 rd person buried in Westminster Abbey. There is a long Persian poem extant which does not contain the letter "a." There are 23,000 species of fishes, onetenth of which inhabit fresh wat;:r. Two educated negro women have started a newspaper in the Congo Free State. A London butcher has made £20,000 by selling Canadian-fed beef as " best English. The Prince of Wales pays ten guineas for the use of a box at the theatre—never more, never less. The ship canal across the Isthmus of Corinth will probably be in operation about next) September. Capital crimes, mainly in consequence of excessive drinking, seem to be on the increase in Russia. Twenty-five ships of war cC various kinds are now in course of construction for the French Government. France has submitted to the United States and Great Britain suggestions to improve shipping signals. A London barber has been fined £15 for supplying beer to people who went to his shop to get their hair cut. There are now 27 royal families in Europe which have about 460 members. Of these 27 families 18 are German. Leeds, England, finds employment for 500 women and girls as rag-sorters. They earn eight shillings a week. J More than 500,000 lizard skins ware 1 shipped to the United States last year from the State of Tobosco, Mexico. Influenza has proved more fatal during the last three years than typhoid fever, small-pox, and diphtheria together. In the Isle of Man there are no death duties, no income tax, and, with the exception of a small duty on beer, no excise. In the manufacture of knives the division | of labour has been carried to suchan extent that one knife is handled by seventy different artisans. A safety envelope just patented is so folded and pasted together that it cannot possibly be opened without being entirely destroyed. England received about 10,057,600 letters from the United States last year. Germany received from the States 5,858,040 letters, ; and France 1,884,040. Everybody in England may be considered i to spend seven per cent, of his revenue on beer, and twelve per cent, of his revenue on beer, wine, and spirits taken together. The consumption of eggs and poultry by the people of the United States is 56,000,606 dollars' worth per annum, which is greater in amount than the wheat or cotton crop. A contemporary with a turn for statistics tells us that the Sultan of Turkey has 306 wives, the Persian Shah 400, the King of Siam 600, and the King of Ashantee 3000. Among the new diseases are listed typewriters' backache, telephone earache, gumchewers' lockjaw, and cigarette-smokers' insanity. A crinoline craze is threatened also. A School of Music is to be started in connection with Edinburgh University, and scholarships founded for deserving students, out of the munificent bequest of General Reid. Sturgeon for their size are the weakest of all fish; they are found in some parts weighing over a ton, bub are perfectly helpless when attacked by a sword-fish the size of a herring. At a priiun in Pennsylvania the authorities are trying the power of music as a help to reformation. A large orchestra has been fitted up, and concerts are given nightly by about 300 performers who never see one another. A collision recently occurred off the East Goodwins between the steamer Meranmo, Glasgow, and the steamer Bavaria, of Hamburg. Both steamers were much damaged, but kept afloat, and no lives are reported lost. ■ i In England the number of women employed as printers increases with every year; but they are still more numerous in America, where about 3000 women are employed in printing offices. In London there are about 200 women compositors. Cliff railways in England grow more and more popular. Clifton has opened a remarkably steep line, cut in a tunnel from the gorge of the Avon to the summit of Clifton Rocks. The gradient is one foot in two feet, and the tunnel is 27 x 18 feet. A company at Naples are preparing a mosain representing the return of Columbus to Spain, for Mr. Furber, of Chicago, who is building a palace in that city to be called the Columbus Palace, and which will be the largest private house in America. The population of Mew York is increased during the winter months by at many as 5000 patients undergoing operations or treatment in the hospitals and at the houses of doctors. They come and go, many get well, some die under the knife, and some linger in hopeless invalidism. Telegraph lines in the Zambesi Territory have but a brief existence, according to present experience. Elephants knock them down, the carriers steal the thick lines for mending purposes, and the Makalala ladies appropriate the fine wire for necklaces and bangles. A negro was executed by electricity in Sing Sing Prison, United States, on 3rd April. The strength of the current, which was applied for one minute, was 1740 volts. Death was instantaneous, and the execution is regarded as the most successful yet accomplished by electricity. At the last Bristol assizes the grand jury returned a true bill against Alderman Ben Tillet for misdemeanour arising out of a speech which he delivered at Bristol on December 18 last, a few days prior to the labour demonstration in that city, upon which occasion the military were called out. In Norway and Sweden there are more blind women than men, and the reverse is true in France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States. The proportion of blind women in Finland is eight times as great as in Holland, and there are nearly twice as many blind women as blind men in Finland ; smoky huts is the cause., In Franco the drought continues to wither crops. Throughout Italy heavy losses have resulted from the unprecedented dryness of the season. Outside of Sicily the damage already done is estimated at £1,000,000. The agricultural districts of Southern Russia are suffering from severe frosts. In Germany the drought is unbroken. The second officer of the New Zealand steamer Arawa has succeeded in taking home a live albatross, which is now in the Zoo. The bird is young, and measures eleven feet from wing-tip to wing-tip, and was sold to the Zoo authorities for £16. Ho is the first albatross ever brought to London, and hi drawing large audiences to the Regent's Park Gardens. . ~ /, Thegorgeous brillianceof a phosphorescent sea is produced by countless millions of globular creatures, some of which are as much as six inches long, and are apparently formed of gelatinous and translucent matter. In the Indian Ocean they often cover a Burface of many hundred square miles, and during the night the appearance is that of one vast field of snow. v ;-«,}*• . ■ Electric railroads between neighbouring townships are now becoming, common -i its the United States, and are said to b« seriously affecting the local , traffic of th« regular railroads. The electric lines main* tain a speed of about fifteen miles an hour, and passengers can frequently mount the car at their own doors without) the trouble of going to a station. ", ; A new kind of theft has been invented is St. Petersburg. 1 * "The owner of ,! a small factory ~ in that ;,. city has been stealing currents of electricity , for lighting his establishment. Next door to him is a placl where they have an electric light installation. The thief bored a hole through » wall, inserted >', wire, and .-j succeeded W " tappiMf" the current.;, For two month*;; the fraud was carried on without being d** covered. .