NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10037, 25 January 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Of every 100 acres of arable land in Francis 29 are under cereals ; in Belgium 32. The Italians have a proverb which says that where the sun does nob enter the doctor does.

Some of tho new headgear for ladies is described as resembling that of a North American Indian. A private cycling track is being built for the German Emperor, who has now fallen a victim to the bicycling craze. Some English ladies are now wearing diamond buttons on their jackets, their gold muff chains being adorned with pearls.

A scheme lias been published in Paris for reducing the time occupied by the journey between London and Paris to five hours.

, There are now eighty ships engaged in the business of carrying frozen meat to Britain. They have a capacity of 2,500,000 carcases.

The Americans are discussing how their rich girls can be kept at home. These foreign marriages must, they say, be put a stop to. The table upon which Cromwell wrote when he affixed his signature to the warrant for the execution of Charles I. was recently sold for £145.

The new farthing on tho Queen's head sido is very similar to the half-sovereign, eo much so that some tradespeople continue to be victimised.

The Sunday closing crusade was renewed in Now York recently, when numerous pedlars and shopkeepers were arrested for pursuing their calling. England has now, for tho firsb time, a larger population than Prance, the deaths in the latter country of late years greatly outnumbering the births. A Paris shoe-dealer is tho authority tor the statement that Madrid ladies have the smallest feet, while tho women of Sweden have the most shapely ones. In Norway tho horses are broken in by women. They make pets of them first, feeding the colts out of their own hands, and teaching them to follow like dogs. The statistics of life insurance show that in the last twenty-live years the average of man's life has increased 5 per cent., oi two whole years, from 41 9to 43'9 years. The automatic machines are increasing in popularity. By their aid workmen can now obtain railway tickets at a London station, thus escaping the crowding at the ticket* office.

It is proposed to pub in forco in Ireland the anthropometric system of identifying criminals, as soon as selected officers have been taught bow to take the various measurements.

The parchments and papyrus used by the ancients seem to have had a special preparation, by virtue of which they absorbed the ink and thus caused the writing to be almost indelible.

One great sensation of the Paris Exhibition of 1900 will consist of a new bridge over the Seine, with houses, theatres, and monuments on either side of it, like ole London Bridge. Hydraulic stoking machines have been introduced into tho Edinburgh gasworks. They do away with mpst of the manual labour connected with" the feoding aud drawing of tho retorts. Bunches of lilies frozen in ice, which recently reached the Queen from Australia, remained in excellent condition for weeks, and presented an attractive appearance when seen through tho transparent ice. ' Belgium is the homo of the racing pigeon. There the sport is a national pastime, and a good pigeon frequently wins for its owner largo sums of money, the prizes being considerable, to which heavy pools are added. A report of the Tenemenb House Committee shows that New York possesses a more densely-populated spob than is to be met with in Europe. Tho over-crowding is such that thore are 626 persons to the acre. Next year will be recognised as the tercentenary of the potato, three centuries having passed since the first tubers pro duced on English soil were grown in i; garden at Uolborn, then a rural suburb of London.

Discoveries of valuable, onyx, which promise to develop into very large mines, have been made near Healdsburg, California. The stone is beautifully marked, and a blast of the face of tho ledge has exposed ib in great qualities. The new marriage law in Belgium purposes to fix the age at which young persons of both sexes can marry without the consenb of the parents at twenty-one years. Hitherto it has been twenty-five for males and twenty-one for females. There are at present, at British railway stations, nearly 3000 automatic machines, the entire rental for tho space they occupy amounting last year to £7244 ; for the same year 6,794,810 packets of chocolate and 5,127,594 packets of sweets were sold from them. , A new game of push-ball has been played iab Harvard University. The ball is Gfb in I diameter, weighs 1201b, and is inflated to ! represenb a monster football. Ib is moved by tho concerted shoulder pressure of the players. The game is played by two teams of eight men each. The Hope diamond, which is an heirloom, bub which the trustees are desirous of selling, still lies at Scott's Bank, London, awaiting a purchaser ab the valued price, ' £30,000, Motlong ago an Amorican arrived to buy it, but as bo would not go beyond £25,000 it was not sold. The law officers of the Crown have decided that the term "labourer" when applied to those entitled to allotments, includes smiths, ploughmen, carpenters, artificers, workers in factories, and others whose work is in the main manual, though knowledge and skill also be required. The following is tho daily ration of wild animals, such as those at the London Zoological Gardons and the Jardin dos Mantes, in Paris : Ten pounds of flesh for each lion, tiger, and bear; seven pounds for the panther, three to sis for the hyena, one pound for the wild cab, two pounds for tho eagle, all of which flesh must be fresh and without bone. A traveller would go round the globe at the Equator in about nine davsab the speed which is promised by the National Rapid Transport Company, in America, for their trains between New York and Washington. The company is promoting a Bill for the making of a new lino on the Broeb rapid transit system, otherwise known as tho bicycle railway. Ab Manchester a few months ago a wealthy dyer, on retiring from business, divided the bulk of his property among his children. He had only one son, and tho son died before his father, both dying within a year of the deed of gift. The consequence is that nob only has the father's estate tc pay full duty, but the son's share of ib hat to pay duty twice. An eccentric lady, widow of a wealthy merchant, late in life married a young farm labourer. She recently died near Carnarvon, leaving most of her property to her husband. By her orders she was buried in her hunting-habit of divided skirt, jacket, peaked cap, and strong boots. She left instructions thab her clothes were to be burned and her valuable horses shot.

As a rflle, scientific men, nob engrossed too much with tho cares of this life, react; to a good ago. Of 19 Fellows of the Royal Society add some foreign members who died • last year the average ago was < 76J years. Two had attained the patriarchal span of 97 and 98 years respectively. Lawyers and statesmen also habitually reach a green old ago, so that evidently intellectual effort does not tend to shorten life. An eminent scientisb declares that the folding of the external part, or margin, of the human ear, which distinguishes it from that of all other animals, is the beginning of a new and happy phrase of human evolution. He believes that' this fold will gradually grow larger and larger until our race shail have mobile lids for shutting out disagreeable noises, just as now," with our eyelids, we can shut out glaring light or 'disagreeable scenes. ,V; • M •; '' Verestcliagin, the famous Russian painter - - of battle scenes, is a much-injured man. .fi The fore finger of his. right hand was deprived of its first joint by the bite of a leopard, while the middle finger bears to - § this day the marks of a shot received on the field of battle. /- The flat, part of the hand is - of an abnormal formation, having scarcely ' any bones in it. The right arm itself was r broken some years ago, while the artist was sketching in the Steppes, on which occasion ■: a clever peasant heated the fractured limb I in a ptinittTf tot tqjry eusseMfalj^ngr