NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11650, 11 May 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

V pFMVRKvm.E wave of Methodist revival is reported to be " sweeping over West Cornwall."

Over £12.000 .1 vear is spent in clothing the employees of the London County Conned 'in wear uniforms. The "self-denial week" receipts of the Salvation Army (£19.155) show an advance of some £-1000"upon those of last year. A wealthy F.nglishman is reported to have left a hand's,, fortune to si housemaid 1U a Norwegian sanatorium where lie greatly benefited in health. In taking the census in London instructions were" issued to constables on duty oil the Thames Embankment t-o take account of any persons found sleeping out. A proposal that as the House of Keys was useless it sh mid be abolished and the islanders represented in Parliament was applauded at a meeting in Port St. Mary, Isle of -Man. Calico printing in Scotland is shirker than ii has been for' the last 22 years, and the works at Busby and Barrhead, recently taken over by the calico combine, are to b» closed altogether.

A Sussex farmer got a couple of hours of compulsory labour out of a number of lusty vouths the other day. Caught trespassing, they accepted the "farmer's- alternative of work to prosecution. Cork intends to follow Glasgow with an Industrial Exhibition in 1902. ' Lord Cudogan has signified his intention of subscribing £250 towards the fund, which has already reached £5000. At the request of the Irish Literary Society, Lady Russell, of Killowen, has allowed the "society to plant by the grave of the late Lord Chief Justice four Irish yew trees—one from each of the four province;' of Ireland. The new scale of County Court fees has come into operation. The charge for hearing of undefended cases will be. reduced from 2s to Is in the pound, and a. reduction ot! the 7k per cent, fee on the issue of executions and warrants will also be made. A sealed bottle of water ft out St. Patrick's Well, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, was forwarded by the Rev. 11. S. Patterson, vicar ot Peane, Bolion-le-Moors, Lancashire, to the King and Queen for watering tin shamrock worn bv their .Majesties on St. Patrick's Pay. Mr. T. Harrington, M.P., has been installed as Lord Mayor of Dublin. When passing Trinity College the students threw soft oranges at his carriage. For this behaviour two of the students were fined £2 each, and ordered to give bail to be of good behaviour for two years. The Caledonian Railway Company have ordered 20 steel cars of large carrying capacity from the American Car and Iron Foundry Co. The cars will be the first of thekind despatched to Great Britain from tho United States. This is one of the first results of the steel combine. Charles Westerdale, a. commercial clerk, of 8, FemelifT Road, Dalston, in passing through Stepney Green Recreation Green Wilis seen to stagger and fall to life ground. When a doctor came he found life extinct and a plate with two false teeth impact in the man's throat, thereby causing suffocation.

The King lias consented to continue the patronage of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and to oiler, as was done by Her late Majesty for over 50 years, an annual Royal Gold Medal, to be presented on the nomination of the Royal Institute, to a distinguished architect or architectural writer of any nationality. A day has been set aside throughout all Italy for the planting of trees by the youth. of the public schools. The Minister of Public Instruction forwarded the idea, and the Queen smiled upon it. And now Rome has had its Arbor Day, the place selected for the planting by the Roman schools being the land adjoining some old tombs. The sad death of Mrs. Binfield, at Eton, was the subject of an inquest. On census Sunday her husband was tilling in the census form, and he asked her age. " Sixty-one," she replied. "Born in 1840." Then she suddenly expired. The doctor said death was due to apoplexy, and the excitement of filling in the census paper may have brought it on.

It is estimated bv a competent foreign authority that only 900 persons out of 1,000,000 die from old age, while 1200 succumb to gout, 18,400 to measles, 2700 to apoplexy, 7000 to erysipelas, 7500 to consumption, 48,000 to scarlet fever, 25.000 to whooping cough, 30.000 to typhoid and typhus, and 7000 to rheumatism. The averages vary accord-, ing to locality. A mammoth's tooth has been found by workmen digging on the site of the old Six Bells Inn, King's Road, Chelsea. The tooth, which has been examined by South Kensington Museum officials, is about 15 inches broad, nearly a foot long, and weighs nearly 161b. It is in a perfect state of preservation, and though a workman's pick' split it in two, the parts join easily. While repairing a bridge between Hogsthorpe and Chapel St. Leonard's, in Lincolnshire, the workmen state that on reach-, ing the centre of one of the concrete walls, which are 18 inches thick, a living toad was found sitting in a small hollow away from all light, and air. The bridge was built 56 years ago, and how the toad got there is a mystery. It was covered with large white carbuncles.

'" Hot-water lamp-posts," with which Liverpool is already familiar, are to be erected shortly in four different parti of London. A gallon of water, boiled by the heat (if the ordinary gas-lamp, will be supplied,, day and night, for a. halfpenny, on the penny-in-the-slot principle. A cake of solidified tea, coffee, or cocoa, with the use of a metal mug, may also be had automatically for a penny extra. The servants at Clarence House, Matlock Bath, found their master, Frederic George Brooker, dead in the billiard-room. On the table was a. letter from deceased to the coroner, saying that he had taken carbolic acid from the bottle. Mr. Brooker, who leaves firm- children, has been despondent since his wife died last November. -At the inquest the jury returned a verdict of "Suicide whilst temporarily insane." Some little flutter was caused in Glasgow, lately when the news leaked out that Mr. dames Wilson Dick, formerly a magistrate of the city, and an ardent temperance refor-. mer, had been arrested on a charge of soliciting and accepting a bribe of £600. A second; indictment charges him with having solicited a bribe of £500, both cases having arisen out of applications for public-houses licenses. Mr. Wilson was liberated on bail of £200. A curious source of wealth is reported by the French Consul at Mengtze, in Upper Tonkin. It lies in the wood mines. The wood originally was a, line forest, which the . l arl.h swallowed in some cataclysm.. Some of the trees are a yard in diameter. They lie in a slanting direction and in sandy soils, which cover them to a depth of about eight yards. The wood furnished by thesa timber mines is imperishable, and the Chinese gladly buy it lor coffins. Among the architects to be invited to send in designs for the architectural suri roundings of Mr. Brock's statue of the i Queen are Mr. T. (1. Jackson, R.A., Mr. I Aston Webb, A.R.A., Mr. Ernest George, | F.R.1.8.A., and Dr. Roland Anderson. j These gentlemen, to wham must be added I Sir Thomas Drew, of Dublin, have now j been invited to send their designs to the ; Office of Works. The National Memorial Fund at the Mansion House now stands at £55,000.

America lias sent to the Glasgow International Exhibition a miniature railway, representing the U.S. railway system. The train will be made tip of an engine, tender, and ten cars. The engine is sft 4in in. length, and 18in in width, and the height from the rails to the top of the funnel is, 28m. The cars, which are sft long and 22in wide, will each seat two adults. Tho • tram will run from the Canadian building; to the Queen's rooms, returning by the Rus- i . sian section. A snecd of 10 miles »" hour' ' can be. attained*