NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10419, 17 April 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

As old Roman well has been discorem at Windsor. Statistics show that women marry late* in life than they used to. Eighty-one thousand passengers cross the English Channel every month. Wood for pianos requires to be bepb fortj years to bo in perfect condition. Church bells aro tuned by chipping the edge until the proper note is obtained. Web to tho length of 2| miles bos been drawn from tho body of a single spider. No less than 15.000,000 paper collars are made every year, one firm producing 15,00(1 per day. There aro ten newspaper editors in the House of Commons, six printers, and three stationers. A steamer has been put upon the Jordan which makes the journey from Jericho to Tiberius in five hours. If the whole sky were filled with fall moons, the light would be no brighter than that of ordinary daylight. Policemen have been detailed in New York to enforce the regulation against spitting in tho street ears. An extraordinary tact is, says a prison doctor, that a lartro proportion of criminals can draw and sketch well. Fire in a grain elevator at Toledo, Ohio, destroyed 325,000 bushels of wheat. The total damage was £80,000. An electrical exhibition—motors, products, and marine specialities —is to be held in Newcastle next year. A "green monkey" has just been re* ceived at the Zoological Gardens; the last specimen there was on view in 1841. The entire population of the United Kingdom could be placed in Hyde Park, and that of the world in the Isle of Wight. Mrs. Graham, aged 104, died recently at Johnstone, Renfrewshire. She performed her domestic duties until a few months ago. A Hackney octogenarian has applied to tho local lady guardians for a wifo between 50 and CO, and "of a Christian turn of mind." It is claimed there is a lighthouse to every 14 miles of coast in England, every 34 miles in Iroland, and to every 39 milei in Scotland. The Queen signs on an average three photographs a day, and often a much target number for presentation to her friends al borne and abroad. The Lord Chancellor has appointed IS new magistrates for the city of Sheffield j 13 Conservatives, one Liberal, and one labour representative. About 865 tone of gold ate estimated t<l be in actual circulation as money in England, that being approximately the weight of £110,000,000 sterling. St. Moritz, Switzerland, has tho champion toboggan slide of the world. It is threequarters of a mile long, and has been de« scended in a whiz of 71 seconds. Only one marble statue of the human figure with oyelashei is known. Id is one oi the gems of the Vatican, the Sleeping Ariadne, and was found in 1503. There are 119,000,000 old copper pennies somewhere. Nobody knows what has become of them, except once in a while i single specimen turns up in change. Means have now been found for transforming the whole of wood into gas, tin latter having a power four times greater than that yielded by bituminous coal. In the United Kingdom 293,909 birthi and 177,528 deaths were registered in the three months ended December 31, 1896 The natural increase of population was 116,383.

A bequest of £70,000 haa been refused by St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester. The gift was conditional upon certain changes which, the trustees considered, would cause the institution to lose its identity. An eminent American physician has observed that diabetes ia eovon times oftenoi found among locomotive drivers than in the reat of the community. He attributes it in part to the intense nervous strain. If you wane to make your hall look bigger,, place a long mirror in a narrow frame on the' wall opposite the doorway. On opening the front door the effect will be one of almost infinite space and openness. The battleship Prince George has beei placed in quarantine at Portland owing to an epidemic of mumps. There are cases on board the cruiser Blake also, and the patients have been sent to the hospital, The Liverpool Stock Exchange committee have purchased for extending the Exchange a strip of property adjoining the present building at a price of £227 per square yard,, being at the rate of orer £1,000,000 pec acre,

In order that St. Mildred's Church, Bread-street, London, may not be interfered with by the new City and West End Railway, a tunnel for foot-passengers will be bored 70 feet below the surface of the itreet. The human hair is absolutely the mosb profitable crop thit grows. Five tons of it are annually imported by the merchants of London. The Parisians harvest upwards of 200,(i001b, equal in value to £80,000 por annum. A gold coin passes from one to another 2,000,000,000 times before the stamp or impression upon it becomes obliterated by friction, while a silver coin changes between 3,250,000,000 times before it becomes entirely defaced. The reason tho eye sinks back in thi head when a person is ill ia that the eyeball rests on a cushion of fab, which entirely nurrounds it. When a person is sick and emaciated the cushion of fat is absorbed, and the eye thus falls back. Calico print works use pver 40,000,000 eggs every year. Photograph establishments use millions of dozens, and wine clarifiers use 10,000,000 dozens. Bookbinders, kid-glove makers, and leather finishers use them in abundance. It has now been ascertained that L Company of the Queen's Westminster Rifles, which has already been declared the beet shooting company of the Home District foi last year, is also the best shooting company throughout the whole of the Volunteer Service. The Queen's Coronation-ring is never out of her sight, and is worn by her every evening. It it a band of gold containing i cross in rubies surrounded by white brilliants. A coronation-ring is supposed to symbolise the wedding of the Sovereign with the nation. They have a novel way in Italy of advertising vacant apartments. In place of the placard inscribed " Kooms to Let," or " To be Let," which adorns our windows, a white doth, about the size of a napkin, flatten from the casement, notifying the passersby that the apartmonte can be rented. Hitherto there has been great lots in the manufacture of eoap, because the valuable ingredients in the by-products of the soap lye left over could not be resolved into pure form. A method has now been invented by some thoughtful person to make absolutely pure glycerine and caustic soda from t he refute by means of electricity. There is at least one country in thf world where it costs nothing to die. In some of the cantons of Switzerland all the dead, rich ;n well as poor, are buried at the public expense. Coffins and all other necessary articles are furnished on application to certain undertakers designated by the Government. Everything connected with the interment it absolutely gratuitous. One of the most singular habits of plants is the fact that certain of their number bloom at definite hours in the day or night. From midnight to noon the following named flowers open: White water-lily, poppy, thistle, garden lettuce, and marigold. During the first twelve hours from midnight to noon the following close: Scandinavian thistle, evening primrose, and purple bindweed ; from one to twelve p.m., the red pink, dandelion, water-lily, poppy, orange day ■ lily, convolvulus, chickweed, and thistle. The apparatus used in submarine photography consists of a detective camera in a hermetically-sealed metallic cats, which is fitted with glass windows corresponding to the focussing glasses. The whole i> carried iu a box attached to the divingsuit. The necessary light, which is obtained from an electric battery on the top of the manipulator's helmet, is projected on to a reflector placed in the rear part of the camera, and then passes through a glass in the front part. The most recent developments show that in naval warfare the camera will establish the locatioe of torpedoes, and bombs.