NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11056, 6 May 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

China teas art gradually becoming extinct in the British market. The Bank of France is four times as large as the Bank of England. Prussian-blue paint is made from the ashes of the burnt hoofs of horses. The number of bad sovereigns in existenco is supposed to be about 20,000. More than 12,000 people are regularly employed in the London theatres. Forty tour muscles are called into play in the production of the human voice. On the average in Russia there is only ono village school for 12,000 persons. The rag-pickers of I'aris collect more than £300 worth a week on the streets. The P. and O. China, stranded olf Perim in March last, has arrived at Belfast for repail's. It is estimated that about £2.000.000 worth of German toys are annually sold in England. The people of the United States consume about 4,000,000 bottles of pickles every week. The bones of an average male skeleton weigh 2011). while those of a female are about 61b lighter. The Sirdar has consented to become a vicepresident of the Volunteer Forces Benevolent Association. The length of the world's railways is more than 17 times the circumference of the earth at the Equator. Westmorland is the most thinly populated county in England, having seven acres to each inhabitant. In nearly every important town on tho Continent substantial subsidies are granted to the chief theatres. 'Alio largest- known moth is the Giant Atlas, a. native of China, whose wings measure nine inches across. Mushrooms generally consist of 90 per cent, water, but the remaining 10 per cent, is more nutritious than bread. A cigarette-smoker sends into the air about 1,000.000,000 particles of dust at every pull, according to Dr. Atkins' investigations. A fashionable dress-designer in the West End of London is computed to make on aD average between £5000 and £6000 a year. More than £10.000,000 is spent in support of the churches in the United States, and £80,000,000 in maintaining the gaols. The phenomenon of red snow is due to minute red plants which are present in it, and whicli spread in a wonderful manner. _ Addressing the candidates at a confirmation service at High Wycombe, the Bishop of Oxford urged them to confess to their clergy. According to a contract entered into by the Spalding Guardians, children's coffins aro to be supplied during the ensuing 12 months from Is each. It is estimated that an oak of average size, during the five months it is in leaf every year, sucks from the earth about 123 tons of water. In the eleventh century Sandwich was the most famous English seaport. It is now, however, two miles inland, owing to the sea receding. A lighthouse of bamboo has been built in Japan. It is said to have great power of resisting the waves, and does not rot like * ordinary wood. There is a church in the city ■of . Cork, which is famous for the peculiarity of its • steeple, two sides of which are built in, white and two in red stone. ' ,V v

The annual cost of maintaining the poor in the workhouses of London alone is about £350,000, while the outdoor relief amounts to something over £100,000 per annum. Nurse Barker, who was seriously injured in the explosion of ether in the surgery of Rochdale Union Workhouse at Dearnloy, has succumbed. This makes tho second fatality. A very valuable antiquity has.'Just been presented to the Canterbury museum in the shape of a chair, stated to'be the authentic chair used by St. Augustine in the sixth century. Owing to the large number of seamen undergoing training at the Shcerness School" of Gunnery, the Admiralty have given in-', structions for another gunboat to be attached ' ' to the school. Mr. William Henry Millais, elder and only brother of the late Sir John Everett Millais, died at Ward Hill, Farnham, from heart disease. He was also a painter, and was in his 71st year. The London County Council have appointed Mr. William Edward Riley to tho post of superintending architect at a salary of £2000 a year. There were 13 applicants for the appointment. The newest bicycle is made entirely of glass, even the ball-bearings being of this material, which is exceedingly hard. It is claimed that the machine can be used just as if it were made of steel. Some time ago the Vestry of St. George • the Martyr (Southward appointed a female sanitary inspector. The experiment has proved so successful that it is now intended to appoint another lady inspector. Birmingham City Council have conferred the freedom of the city upon Mr. J. T. Bunce, formerly editor of the Birmingham Daily Post. Mr. Chamberlain is the only other living freeman of Birmingham. A German biologist has calculated thai the human brain contains 300,000.000 nerve Cells, 5.000,000 of which die and are succeeded by new ones every day. At this rate we get an entirely new brain'every 60 days. The Compania General of Manila, the largest cigar-making concern in the world, employs over 10,000 hands, and turns out every year 80,000,000 cigars, 40,000,000 cigarettes, and nearly 3000 tons of cut tobacco.

The Kaiser lias expressed his intention of placing in the western part of All Saints' Church, Doverconrtf, ii stained glass windowin memory of'.German sailors interred in Dovercourt Cemetery, at: tljc beginning of the present century. ■. '%■ The parishioners of Kew, with which parish, the late Duchess of Teck was associated very closdJy, have placed in the apse of tho church a stained glass window as a memorial to Her Royal Highness. A brass tablet is to be fixed beneath. The death is announced of Mrs. Cavagnari widow of Major Cavagnari, and mother of hir Louis Cavagnari, K. C.5.1., who, it will he remembered, was, with other British officers, massacred by Afghan troops on September 4, 1879, at Cabul. Liberty for the ladies has followed the British flag into Cairo. The Princess Jfazli i "I" 1 gave a reception the othei night, at which she wore no yaihinak, the thick veil worn by Mohammedan women, covering all the face up to the eyes. This, in the East, is a simply tremendous sign of the times. Some curious statistics have been lately worked out by a well-known scientific man as to the amount of salt held in solution by the oceans of the world. He reckons that 90,000,000,000,000,000 tons of salt exist in the water. These figures, of course, convey no impression, but it would be enough to cover all the land of the earth with a solid layer of salt 1000 ft thick.

The Queen, when she leaves Windsor for Balmoral, is provided with about a dozen copics of a sort of waybill of her journey which contains a list of all the people in the train, and the compartments in which they are, a complete time-table of the whole journey, and an explanation of the gradient. l !, etc., printed in purple on silk. A further edition is distributed among the Queen's at tendants and the railway officials. Of all the Persian crown jewels the peacock throne is the most magnificent. It is entirely of silver, a great camp-bed structure, but modelled in lovely designs. It is Incrusted from end to end and from top to bottom with diamonds. At the back is a star of brilliants that makes you blink. The j rug on which the Shah sits is edged with :;; precious stones, and the pillow on, which / lie reclincs is covered with pearls. ; Its value I§. is about £3,000,000. "