NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9503, 5 May 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Male mosquitoes do nob bite. Compulsory education has been in voguiV for ages in China. In the British Navy the annual cost-of maintaining a man is £211. At a recent cat show in London a shorthaired brown torn was valued at £100.

The Empress of China has given birth'to a son assuring the succession of the dynasty. The wine cellar of the House of Commons is 100 feet long, and usually contains about £4000 worth of wine.

The British Museum has no less than 700 theological books written concerning the creation of the world. The foundation of a lady chapel, dating from the thirteenth century, has been laid bare at Wells Cathedral. The petroleum oil discovered in a well at Ashwicb, Somerset, is .very pure, being useable after simple filtration. A couple were recently married in Ireland whose united ages amounted to 155 years— bridegroom 85 and the bride 70. Steps are being taken in England to provide a corps of Lady Medical Volunteers to attend the sick and wounded in war.

The Norwegian Government has decided to present to the United States the famous Viking ship sent to the Chicago Fair. The estimated cost of the proposed London, Walthamstow, and Epping Forest Railway is approximately put at £1,899,600. Grimly significant is the notice set up at) the side of a piece of water in Foochow: " Girls must not be drowned in this pond." A man is said to have recently offered the proprietor of the hotel in Men tone £10,000 for the bed on which the Emperor of Austria slept. A tidal mill on the coasb of Cheshire, England, having about four horse power, is used to run a dynamo for lighting a house with electricity. Over eight/ tons of diamonds have bean unearthed in the South African diamond fields during the last 18 years, representing a total value of £55,000,000.

An armless man is frequently to be seen driving a vehicle in New York. He holds the reins with the toes of one foot and holds the whip with the other footIn some new American churches small rooms are attached known as " babies' corners," where mothers may leave theu children while attending service. A negro in Arkansas is actually changing his skin. The ebony colour has disappeared from portions of his body, and the doctors say he will become entirely white. An international conference is to be held in Paris to devise means for the protection of insectivorous birds, which are threatened with extermination in all countries.

To relieve the poor horses, a tram-starter has been invented. A strong steel coil, when tightened by a lever, stops the car, and another movement set 3 it in motion.

A law enacted in Germany requires that all drugs intended for internal use be pub up in round bottles, while those for external use shall be put up in hexagonal bottles. Alcoholic insanity is twice as common in Franco now as 15 year ago, and the number of persons placed under restraint on account of it has increased 25 per cent, in the last 3 years. It is alleged that the use of the pincenez in the place of spectacles is apt to cause cancer. A gentleman recently died of this disease, brought about by pressure on the bridge of the no«e. Wives are, apparently, cheap in England. A labouring man in a Croydon lodginghouse sold his wife to a fellow-lodger foe fourpennyworth of beer, and received a receipt for his money. A poor English curate, seeing an advertisement recently stating that a lady with £300 a year, and having a living in her gift, desired to marry, responded, was accepted, and a wedding quickly followed. It is now recognised in Paris that the principle incentive for Anarchistic crimes is the inordinate love of notoriety. It is seriously proposed to prevent the publication of the prdceedings against Anarchists. The Comte de Pari"? has - recognised the present hopelessness of the monarchical cause in France by reducing the number of his agents and cutting off many of the subsidies which he has been paying to newspaper editors. The consumption of meat in England laafc year was 161,000 tons less than in 1892. The reason was that the 200 days of hot weather took away one ounce per diem of the normal appetite of thirty-eight millions of flesh-eating people. ... Germany is now the best-educated nation of the continent, yet only one hundred years ago Uerman teachers in many parts of the country were so poorly paid that they used to sing in front of houses in order to add-to their income by odd pence. Something of the misty climate of England may be grasped through the meteorological reports for the past twenty-nine years. They show that the moat cloudless month in all that time yielded- only 60 per cent, of possible sunshine.

A shocking murder, committed by a religious lunatic, is reported from Silesia. The son of a peasant murdered his mother in a ' Roman Catholic church, immediately aftei the celebration of the mass, in the belie! that she was possessed of the d&vil. In one county of Arkansas there is a rate Avar, and the marriage fees are reduced fcc nothing. One magistrate, anxious to outdo his brother justice in the matter of marriages, offers not only to tie knots foi nothing, but to present) each couple with £ turkey. There was a singular boom in the matrimonial market in England last year, whether because of or despite the hard times, is an interesting point for speculation. The marriage rate was highest in Londor where hard times were generally reported to be most felt. A balloon, with a capacity of over 100,000 cubic feet, the largest ever known, has been constructed in London. It will lift a ton in addition to its own weight of ton. It made an ascent at the Crystal Palace recently, and after remaining up for 4A hours, descended at Horsham.

The loug-looked-for . applanation of aluminium to bicycle making is now an assured fact. Its deadness, or lack of flexibility, and its fibre weakness are said to have been overcome, and now the desired qualities will be added to lightness, and bicycles will be light, strong, and cheap. . Wife-selling exist? iu Russia. A peasant recently disposed of his young wife to a bachelor neighbour for 160 roubles. A few weeks afterwards the husband rued his bargain ; but the wife, being satisfied with tho exchange, declined to return to him. He brought an action for her recovery, but was nonsuited.

| It is generally supposed that when a man's [ heart puhtioDS go down to 40 a minute ' death will follow unless restoratives are administered. Parisian doctors are now, it is said, puzzled over a man, in one of the hospitals, whose pulsations have sunk as low as IS a minute, although to all appearances he is well and strong. Van Ambrugh, the daring lion tamer, once bought a leopard at Jamrach's, and when asked how he would like it to be sent, produced a collar and chain from his pocket, opened the cage, . dragged the animal out, pub on the collar, and drova of? with his purchase in a . four-wheeler. There is every reason to suppose that the cabman did nob dispute his fare. ' On one occasion Blondinoffered to carry the Tichborne Claimant across the rope it England, but the latter pleaded another . engagement. He repeatedly traversed his. * rope, however, at the Alhambra, with officers of the Horse Guards pick-a-back. Indeed, the applications to cross became so frequent that he had to charge £5 a* piece in limitation of the number. The cocoanut palm tree 1 alone would sustain man for a long time. Its wood is used for buildings and furniture; its leaves thatch roofs, and cattle will eat them; brooms, brushes, rope, mats, and paper are made from its fibre ; the kernel of • its nul gives man food, drink, and other necessaries; the nub's shell makes useful kitchen implements, and the outside husk- can be manufactured into clothing. .Ib is wonderful to see the marvellous intelligence with which the pigeons, of St. Mark's, in Venice, can discriminate between v residents and visitors in the grand' square of that city, the Piazza of St. Mark. The _ moment a foreigner, shows his face in the J Eiazza the pigeons set upon him in crowds, oping to be fed. ' Thby, do not trouble the | natives, who may be sunning themselves by .•■■■ t the hundred in the square., \ V J ; v - --j*