GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11843, 21 December 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

A LONDON'' FOG. | S|;^p| It has been calculated by those in » poo!-, *' ? tion :to know that a real November fog costs.; London about £50,000 a day, of which the! gas companies receive a, considerable pro-! - " portion, the total consumption of gas on then' occasion ■of , a , foggy day being about 150.000,000 cubic feet, costing £24,000, oi: ' ' which £8000 may be put down to the fog's account. In addition to the cost in money there is, moreover, .the cost in; life, for aW though fogs are valuable disinfectants, ovf~t ing to the presence of carbon, familiarly de-? ■ .'J signated smuts, in large quantities, there | is no doubt that they act deleteriously upon the public health," especially upon .that of-' those afflicted with asthma and bronchitis. A series of fogs about Christmas, 1881, for ' ;, instance, so increased the mortality in, Loudon that :in the course 6f a few weeks over -4000 people died who otherwise would pro* bably have survived. - AFFRAY IN' A JERUSALEM CHURCH. . • A serious affray occurred in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, between Latins and Greeks, resulting in casualties oa both sides. Five Franciscans were dangerously wounded, including the vicar-cus- • todian, a Frenchman. The'conflict was due : ' to the Latins having repeatedly attempted to sweep part of the quadrangle of th 3 church, which ; duty'the • Greeks claim as an;- ex- ' elusive right. ; Troops had been posted on • the spot for several days in order to prevent a collision, but they were suddenly outnumbered by the contending parties.' ~ REFORM' NEEDED FOR MARRIED HEX. • Married men .stand decidedly in want of reform. They are incorrigible flirts for one thing, and when there are nice girls about the poor bachelor does not stand a chance. I maintain the paradox that if there were not. so many married men there would bo fewer bachelors. . Married men seem to know how to make love better than.the unmarried ; they have so much experience and ; practice to go upon. And they always seem anxious for opportunities of displaying their . skill. - They are like the amateur tenor, who is not i satisfied with bleating for the % wor- - shipping admiration .of - the family circle# but is always yearning to bleat yearningly in other people's - family circles.. So the married man appears ,to weary of home practice of the amatory arts, and to .cultivate them at the expense of those who have no homes in which to practise them. Then the knowledge that he is married, that he cannot be suspected of "indentions," gives; him a courage, a reckless dash that compare with the trembling timidity of the bachelor much to the disadvantage of the latter. True, the bachelor may retaliate, or try to, by whispering soft nothings to the married men's wives. But he lacks the audacity^ and is by nature too moral.—Topical : Times.. THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND THE QUACK.: There is in existence a curious letter written by the great Duke of Wellington to an . unknown quack who had sent his grace a box of salve. The letter is in the duke's handwriting, and is a specimen of ii'ie ela- ■ borate replies which he was in the .lie,bit of sending to letters which less exalted persons would have thrown into the wastepaper* basket. Here is the letter:—"Sir,—l.hava received our letter'and the box of salve, etc., which you have sent me. This -last will be returned to you by the coach on Monday. I beg you to accept my best thanks for your attention. I think that you and I have some reason to complain of the editors of newspapers. One of them thought proper to publish an account of me that- I was affected with a rigidity of the muscles of the face. You have decided that the disorder must be tic-douloureux, for which you send me your salve as a remedy. I have disorder in my face. I am affected, by the lumbago or rheumatism hi my loins, shoulders, neck, and back, a disorder to which many are liable who have passed, days and nights exposed to the weather in bad climates. lam attended by the best medical advisers in England, and I must attend to ■? their advice. I cannot make use. of salves, v; sent to me by a gentleman, however; respectable, of whom I know nothing, and who . knows nothing -of the case excepting what he reads in' the newspapers."'

COAT, VALUES. | ' ' An interesting table winch Las been pub-' i lished by the Home Office is summarised .by the Coal , Merchant, showing - the ' average price, of coal put on at the pit's mouth and in the London market; also its value at the principal shipping ports of the United Kingdom, for each year from 1873 to' 1900. Last year the average price at the pit's'mouth in England was 10s 6d ; in 1 Wales, 12s 6d;. and in Scotland, 10s lOd. The mean value' for the whole country, therefore, was lis Id, as against 22s 9d in the London market. The average price of seaborne •' coal on the London market last year was, for Newcastle qualities, 22s 4d; Sunderland and Hartlepool. 23s Id, as against 20s 6d, l'7s 9d, and 18s lOd respectively in 1899. ; The highest l price of Newcastle coal was 27s '6d, which it realised in January, and the lowest 195,.which was the figure in March and April. Sunderland descriptions were selling as high as 28s in the first month of the year, .while' in March and April 20s was touched. : For Hartlepool coal 27s 6d was the highest price paid and 20s 6d the lowest. t :

' STEVENSON AS' BIOGRAPHER. .ipT:'; j The unfulfilled ambitions of men of genius are always interesting— least as a revelation of character. It stands recorded • iit the new "Life of Stevenson,'' which everybody is reading just now, that the author of "Treasure Island" and "The Master of Ballantrae" was. ambitious to write three. biographies. The subject in one case was John, Knox, in another William Hazlitt, J and in the other the Duke of Wellington. Doubtless the pride of race and the covenanting impulse that was in his blood turned Stevenson's thoughts to the great champion pf the Scottish Reformation. Hazlitt appealed to him as critic and master of style; the Iron Duke because of his indomitable resource, his independence of opinion, his high spirit of adventure, the militant Boldness which on other fields than Waterloo made . him resistless. But Stevenson, with all his brilliantgifts, had small capacity for research, and he tossed impatiently aside, one after another, these projects, to the loss of the world- • , -v.

THE DEER-STALKER AND THE SERMONS. ' The British Weekly prints a story told " by the Bishop of Stepney in'his recent sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral. '- He was urging Christians to give attention to reading *.nd to beware of neglecting: the intellect. " Only a month ago," he said, " after a-day" upon the hills, I asked an old Highland deer- * stalker, who lived fifteen miles from-human' intercourse through the long winter months, if I might send him some magazines with' which he might employ'the evenings. 'No,' he said, 'I have no wish for' light stuff such as that; but, sir, could you get me a copy of the Sermons of Jonathan Edwards?' " Clearly there are some of the old type of Scotsmen left yet. ' ' " ' '

. THE PRIESTS .IN TKAXCK. '•V'-A It is considered as one of the gravest v-* symptoms that France has decided upon a.' movement against - clericalism . that the Budget Commission lias suppressed all - appropriations fo" the maintenance of religion in nest year's estimates; ' Now every priest in charge of a parish and every assistant receives from . the . State a . salary besides perquisites. All denominations 7 are recognised and treated alike proportionately to their membership. It is expected that if Parliament votes according to the Commission's recommendation the millions hereto-' fore _ given to churches will be applied to pensioning aged working men. The Pope . - will not submit to this new antagonistic act. so close upon the heels of the law against congregations, monks, and 1 nuns, it is thought, but will declare ; the concordat signed by Napoleon abrogated,, and will ! ; ; issuo instructions to all Catholics to oppose : the Government politically ,'until...their privileges are re-established.The Government 5 feels uneasy at the possible conse- ; / -• quences, and it is believed j that,' despite its . anti-clerical convictions, the Ministry will . fight the Commission's project before Parbament. ' t ' ' 'OUTPUT .OF MINERALS. . In his introduction to the . report to the. Board of Trade on the output and value of . the. minerals raised in the United Kingdom in 1900, just,issued, Mr. ; C. Le Neve Foster points out that last year is remarkable from the fact that tho value of the , mineral output, jof \ the " t United Kingdom, ' exclusive of the produce of shallow...quarries, was no ! less "than £135>,957,876, , or : £538,48.7,380 more . than in 1899, which itself shows a gain of about 20 millions compared with 1898, The - , enormous increase is due -partly, to the larger - , quantity, of coal jproduced, but mainly to the . higher average price per ton.-v'"-v ■■■■ :