NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Holland's; colonies are 60 times us big as the mother country. 'L\i pay and board a British soldier costs the country £4] a year. Two thousand pounds of jet are dug annually from the Yorkshire cliffs. Ihirope uses 383. tons of tobacco a year out of a work! crop of 768,000 tons. Two million miners dig the world's coal; 690,000 are British and 401.000 American,' A first-class telescope costs £20.000 to build, and £18, to house appropriately.. The death-rate is 176 per 10,000 in England, 181 in Ireland, and 184 in Scotland. One thousand eight hundred and eighteen miles ot London streets contain water-pipes.. In 1796 it took sis tons of coal to make a ton of pig iron ; now it only takes two tons. Ireland has 255 poultry for every, 100 inhabitant--. England lias" only 94 per 100! people. Of the British Customs revenue of 20 millions tobacco is responsible for 11 millions. ■ British people spend 9s each yearly on literature: French people, 6s 4d; Russians, 9d. Eighty out of 1000 Germans live to be 8.0 years old, and 108 English live io the same age. Forty-six out of every 100 postcards sold in Germany last year were tourists" pictorial cards.

Good lead ore gives 70 per cent, of lead. It takes 3 tons of coal 10 produce 5 tons of lead. Thirty-nine per cent, of English lunatics recover, 42 per cent, of Scotch, and 48 per cent, of Irish. In 1870 England imported 623,000cwfc of bacon and ham. Last year her imports ware 6j million cwt. 'twelve and three-quarter million tons of coal are used each year to make gas for the United Kingdom. The Duke of Cornwall is to he elected president; of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in succession to the King. Twenty-five thousand people at an average salary of £2 a week are employed by British theatrical managers. A mouth's imprisonment va>*i the punishment bestowed at Nottingham upon a gipsy named Mary Emily Bacon for pretending to tell fortunes. During a football match at Whitchurch Went Grammar School v. Whitchurch Ramblers—Herbert Challoner, the local cen-tre-halfback, suddenly fell dead. . A light railway, nearly 10 miles long, connecting Clifford with the Ormiston branch of the North British Railway Company to Edinburgh, has just been opened. The' cost of construction was £100, An objector to the tipping system in hotels states that there is a certain hotel m Manchester where the head boots pays the manageis £200 per annum for his job, and that he is able to clear between £700 and £1000 a year. Professor iSmedley assert.* that a large number of children, naturally left-handed, who have been laboriously trained to use the right hand, are thereby made defective in speech, owing to the nice balance of the brain being disturbed.

According to a return which has just been issued, the closure was mo% - ed on 44- occasions last session in the House of Commons, and withheld five times by the Speaker. Closure was moved 38 times in commit-tee,-and refused on ihree occasions. . . " ,

The '.Maxim gun is to play a more important part in the Indian army. No fewer than 130 of these weapons of the .503 type tire to be allotted to the various units of the field army, and their despatch is being pushed on with all expedition. ' •

The pathway of Royalty, even when receiving the homage of loyal Canada, is not always strewn with, thornless roses. An Ottawa man has. written a poem of 553 verses, and wanted the Duke of York to listen to a recital of the whole of the effusion.

It is slated that tin American firm will next spring run twelve fast boats on the Thames The boats will be run. by electricity, and have twin screws ; the cabin will be on deck, and comfortably fitted with bent wood seats Awnings will cover the deck forward and aft.

Mr. Hall Caine litis received a. numerously signed requisition to allow himself to be nominated for the vacancy in the Manx House of Keys, caused by the resignation of Mr. J. It. Coivell, the member for Ramsey. It is believed that Mr. Caine will consent, and that he will be returned unopposed/

M. Bergson. Professor of the College de France, now declares that he has discovered " the stuff that dreams are made of. : ' The circulation of the blood in the retina and the pressure of the eyelid on* the optic nerve, lie asserts, cause a colour'sensation. £ The colours assume phantom shapes which stir the memoir. ;

Northern fruimas.ter.s and manufacturer are being asked to support a Bill for a new railway from Barrow to Darlington, Stockton, and Middlesbrough. This would establish the nearest possible connection between the Atlantic and German Oceans, and there is talk of a trans-Atlantic line of steamers from Barrow.

The late President McKinley was, it is reported, insured for no more "than 67.000 dollars. Mrs. McKinley's income from the insurance policy, the 6000 dollars per annum which will be granted to her by Congress, and the private fortune lea. by her husband, will amount to about 13,000 dollars (£2500) per annum.

It is curious to notice trie great number of centenarians who.- rbaths are recorded in the official recur!..-; of Irish rural districts. As an instance of tiia longevity of the Irish peasant it. may be pointed out that the death of pei sous upwards of 60 years of age registered in Comiaught last year amounted to over 50 per cent, of the entire deaths of the province.

London's latest electric railway is to be between the Royal Exchange and "Walthiyn Abbey, by way of Leyton, Walthamstow, and Chingford. On.the line, which will be 14 miles long, there will be 19 stations. Only four miles of the railways Mill be underground, where, for the most part, the railway will be at a depth of 100 ft. Twc million pounds is the estimated cost of construction. In the product-ion of common watch-glass-es the glass is blown in a sphere about a yard in diameter, i ufficient material being taken to give the desired Discs are then cut from this sphere with the aid of a pair of compasses, having a diamond at the extremity of one leg. There is a knack of detaching the disc after it has been cut. A good workman will, it is laid, cub 6000 glasses in a day. There is no doubt that the destruction of birds in France has produced disastrous effects upon agriculture, horticulture, and the grape industry. In the Department of Herault alone it has been calculated the' destruction of birds accustomed to feed upon insects costs a loss of more than 2,000,000 gallons of wine every day. Some birds consume about 600 insects daily, and a single insect-eating species, M. Levat estimates, may be the means of saving 3200 grains of wheat and 1.150 grapes per day.

Sir Thomas Lipton, Avhen visiting Chi- ' cago, was asked to give his opinion on why the Americans had beaten the English in so many lines of commerce and manufacturing. He replied: "The Americans make foreign trade by selling people what they want. Englishmen lose bv forcing upon people things they Want ':■■ people to want. The Americans pay V higher wages, but more than make up.for it by using improved machinery. As a result thoy find a market in England for everything they manufacture, and easily;- ; undersell us ftt'feome;,'-