NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9271, 5 August 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

E<;ypt lias over 2000 obelisks,

Fully 80 per cent, of Russian and Servian soldier* are unable to either read or write.

New York State is said to have more newspapers than the entire Southern Hemisphere. According to .a recent official report, the phylloxera in France has at last been subdued.

Beggars are so numerous in Paris that they support a newspaper devoted to their interests. The safety of the Queen's fine tapestry exhibits at Chicago is guaranteed by a bond of IOO.OOOdoIs. A Bombay newspapar calls attention to the virtues of the castor-oil plant as a means of protection against mosquitoes. Artificial legs*and arms were in use in Egypt as early as B.C. 700. They were made by the priests, who were the physicians of that early time. Experiments have proved that if fish get below a certain depth in the sea they die from the pressure of the water, which they are unable to support. A petition is in circulation in the province of Corunm, Spain, seeking a protectorate from England. Spain is sending troops tc suppress the disaffection. Twenty-four charges of cruelty to horses driven to the races were brought before the Epsom Bench by the olKcers of the R.S.P.C.A. during Derby week. A man who was thrown from an omnibir at the corner of Cheapside, London, has obtained £400 compensation from the London General Omnibus Company. Hyde Park contains 400 acres; l'luenix Park, Dublin, 1700 acres; Central Park, New York, 862 acres ; Yellowstone National Park—the largest in tho world—is 2,288,000 acres in extent.

Nearly £.">OOO has been collected for the development of an engineering laboratory at Cambridge University, and in addition some valuable donations of apparatus have

been promised. The nephew of the Sultan of Johore is about to be married to a locksmith's daughter, with whom he fell in love at Carlsbad two years ago. The union has the sanction of the Sultan.

Suspected persons, as they stand at the paying teller's window in the Bank ot Franco, are instantaneously photographed. A camera is always in position, and is operated upon a signal from the teller. A curious anomaly of the Scotch law is that it declares an infant to be born dead

unless it has cried or uttered some other inarticulate sound, despite the fact that ib may have moved and breathed for hours. There has been considerable discussion as to who invented spectacles and who had the pleasure of wearing the first pair. The honour is generally awarded to an Italian named Salvino Armati, who died in 1:517.

In the medieval and modern languages tripos at Cambridge the first-class was gained by two women and no men, the secondclass by five men and four women, and the third-class by three men and one woman. What is called the " vegetable boaconstrictor," a species of climber which, i is said by romancers, twines about grea trees so tightly as to strangle them t death, is claimed to have been discoverei in India.

Afghanistan has 6,000,000 of populatioi and no missionary ; India, one missionary to 275,000 ; Persia, one to .'500,000 ; Thibet, one to 2,000,000. If 40,000 missionaries were sent to India there would still bo only one to every 50,000. As a donkey was being driven through a street in Paris the other day it turned upon the woman accompanying it, threw her down, trampled upon her, and attempted to bite her. The animal, when shot, was found to have been suffering from hydro phobia. The dolphin is said to bo the fastest swimmer in the seas. It has been observed to dart through the water at a rate computed to be much greater than 20 miles an hour, and is often seen swimming round and round a vessel which is sailing at highest speed. The immense engine " Greater Britain," which has just been built at Crewe on the London and North-western Railway, was tried the other day, and it ran 000 miles in 24 hours without a hitch. The "Greater Britain" will run this season from Euston to Carlisle and back.

It is nob generally known, but still it is a stern fact, that the English law positively discourages the saving of lives from drowning. There is no reward legally payable for getting a drowning person out of the water alive, yet there is a fee paid for the recovery of a dead body Deadly scorpions have become so numerous in the city of Durango, Mexico, that the municipal authorities have offered a valuable prize to be given the person capturing the largest number. Two thousand of the deadly pests were killed at the hospital there recently in one day. The Transvaal is being ravaged by an epidemic of malarial fever, following the subsidence of the extensive Hoods which

have devastated the country. It lias been especially fatal to the blacks, 10,000 of whom ate estimated to have succumbed to it, as well as many hundreds of Europeans. The skirl of the bagpipes carried by sumo of the Scotch regiments on Indian frontier service greatly delights the hill tribes. The Lushalsin particular are much attracted by the music, which they consider resembles the strains of their own native

instruments, notably the snake-charmer's pipe. Ten thousand three hundred and fortynine oxen and 2221 sheep were imported into the United Kingdom during one week recently. The imports also included 04,443cwt of fresh beef, 69,765cwt of fresh mutton, 30,414cwt of hams, lewt butter, 25,lSlcwb chccse, I,UCS,:W2"wt wheat. The deepest borings that have ever been made are those at I'arnschowitz, in Silesia.

They have at present reached 2002 metres, and the hole at its base is seven centimetres in diameter. The works are momentarily interrupted for tliermomctrical experiments, but they will be proceeded with later on. The luncheon provided in (he new dining-cars of the Midland Railway for the convenience of passengers to Scotland will be served in good style at the rate of 2s (id first, and 2s third-class. TaJ>f>' d'hote dinner will be at .'is Gd and 2s (id. Teas, will be served at fid, including pot of tea, roll, and butter. Six armed robbers recently went to the bank at Arkansas, and at pistol-point made the cashier put all the cash and bills in the safe into a sack and carry it into a buggy that was waiting. As the cashier went through the door he noticed the door of tho premises adjoining stood ajar, and rushing in, he bolted the door behind him, and thus foiled the robbers. While a thunderstorm was passing over Delaware recently the lightning struck a large eagle, and it fell dead into a farmyard. The bin! was found to have a streak running from tip to tip on its wings and across its breast where the feathers had been burned, and the flesh was scarred as with a hot iron. The eagle measured— from tip to tip—a little over .iff. A Bombay man has constructed a bedstead priced at 10.000 rupees. It is thus described :—lt has at its lour corners font full-sized gaudily-dressed Grecian damsels, those at the head holding banjos, while those on the right and left foot hold fans. Beneath the cot is a, musical box, which extends the whole length of the cot, and is capable of playing twelve different charming airs. The most interesting Bight in Prague is the old Jewish cemetery. It is in the centre of the city, surrounded by thick walls. There are thousands of ancient moss-covered stabs, some bearing inscriptions of groat antiquity which only Hebrew scholars can decipher. The cemetery is unused, but it is said that no other Jewish burial ground in Europe can compare with it for age or general interest to the antiquarian. A lamentable accident occurred at Naples recently in the parish church cf Torrodell Annunziata. At the evening service a candle set fire to some hangings, and the flames spread to a portion of the woodwork. The church was very full, and a terrible panic ensued. The people rushed to the doors, and a fearful press arose around the narrow exits. Five children and oighb women were crushed to death, a' w ',# number of persons were injured.