NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14145, 21 August 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

One knot equals a mile and an eighth. Over 800 executions took place in Russia last year. . "

Last year 27,849 vessels entered the port of London.

During April there were 24,231 emigrants to Canada.

Clergymen in England and Wales number about 30,000.

The German Navy League numbers 600,000 paying members. China has ten cities with populations of over half-a-million. Part of the present Tower of London wag built by William I. Most European countries show a steadily declining birth-rate. Consumption kills nearly 40,000 persons a»ery year in England. , In Glasgow over half the population live more than two in a room. About 30,000 letters pass every day between England and France. Dr. Barnado's Homes have dealt with 67,634 children in 42£ years. Over three-fourths of the people in England and Wales live in towns. Unbreakable Bottles, made of paper, are produced in the United States. For last year the total value of the U.S. crops exceeded £1,655,000,000. People offering bribes to Inland Customs officers are liable to a fine of £500. About three-fourths of the world's cotton supply comes from the United States. Over 70,000 persons in the United Kingdom are regularly employed as fishermen. Only seven metals were known in the days of Columbus. There are now 51 in use. ■'./••- :■'

Spanish ladies have the smallest, and Swedish ladies the neatest, feet in the world. -

Over £10,500,000 was spent during the last current year by the London County Council.

Not till the reign of Henry VIII. did any English Sovereign do other than eat with hie fingers.

One hundred and twenty-two miles of wire ribbon are used in the construction of a 12in naval gun. ■■■■£■■

Sixty years ago there were 150,000 children attending school in India. Now there are over 4,000,000. A trout weighing 13£lb has been taken in the New Eiver at Hoddesdon. It was played for an hour before it was landed. The directors of the South Metropolitan Gas Company have decided to reduce the price of gas from 2s 3d to 2s 2d per 1008 feet. ... : -..: '■:■,::...'■,,

After operations extending over three months, the quest for sunken treasure at Dollar Cave, in Mounts Bay,; Cornwall, has been abandoned. ',-'.. Two beautiful silver-gilt goblets nearly 300 years old realised £1180 at Christie's. The goblets, which are only seven inches high, together weigh lOoz 13d ?; 1 In a case at Wymondham (Norfolk) Police Court ,ii- was stated that a man had been unable to obtain a house because: he had a family of nine children. ■ '. Mrs. Emma Louise Wright, of HarleyGardens, Kensington, who obtained a divorce recently, was deserted by her husband twenty days after her marriage.' r A drinking fountain which : has just been placed at the rear of St. Paul's Church, Westcliff, Southend-on-sea, is an exact "replica "of the Well of the. Virgin at Nazareth, '■ ■ . -. -' . '

Mrs. Ellen , Toner has-, died at the residence of her son-in-law at Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, at the age of 105. Until recently she could sew and knit without the aid of spectacles.

Mount Borgasler, a volcanic peak in the Aleutian Islands, has been . swallowed up in an enormous chasm, its place being taken by a boiling lake, from which dense clouds of steam are rising. //' : / --;;'/ The second ascent of the central gully of the Lliwedd, Snowdon, has been accomplished by Messrs. E. H. • Ashforth, •R. Greaves, and T. J. Denton. The climb is the most formidable in Wales. > Boarded out by the North Dublin guardians, a boy named Byrne is employed as a golf caddie, and a theatrical manager who heard him singing has, it is reported, offered to start him in life as a vocalist. ; The 37th Company of the Royal Garrison Artillery, stationed at . Portsmouth; scored twenty-one hits in twenty-one rounds, while shooting with 12-pounders at night, at moving targets 1800 yards distant. -.- ; . • '

During excavations at the site of the new- Hippodrome, Holme-street,' Nelson, some workmen unearthed a human skull. It was about two feet underground, and is apparently that of a male. j The lower jaw is missing. ~,''.

According to a Lancashire schoolmaster, in one- village there are a hundred houses in which bedrooms are used for weaving plush. The rooms are fitted with handlooms, and children have to take their share of the work. Fined 5s and 5s 6d costs at Grimsby, Horace Empson, of Cleethorpes, tendered payment in threepenny pieces, which the police refused to accept. "I am advised that threepenny pieces are legal tender up to two pounds," said Empson, " and I shall not tender the money again." ! ' Rubies are for a time in disfavour with buyers of precious stones. Speaking at the general meeting of the Burma , Ruby Mines, Mr. Carl Meyer, the chairman, said that the failing-off in the demand for coloured stones had affected the company's income.""/''-'-' ■

For the . purpose of permanently endowing a professorship of German, the. wellknown firm of Messrs. J. Henry-Schroder and Co. have offered to Cambridge University the sum of £20,000. It is ": prowsed to connect the name of Schroder with the professorship. The Monitoria, which was launched ; from l the Wear shipbuilding yard of Messrs. Osbourne, / Graham, and." Co. recently, is fitted with wave-like sides, which, it is claimed, will give exceptional speed, and will enable her to carry more cargo at a lessened coal consumption., There is keen competition between the Croydon Corporation tramways and company motor-omnibuses, and in consequence, the corporation has issued and posted on hoardings , an earnest appeal to the residents to support the trams, and get the benefit through reduced rates. , ; A shadow on a blind —the shadow of a woman struggling for life—was described at Leeds Assizes when Mark Green was sentenced to 'ten years' penal servitude for the murder of his wife. A policeman who saw the shadow forced his way into the house, but was too late to save the woman's life. . Advocating the construction of a Forth and Clyde canal deep enough for battleships, Admiral Sir C. Campbell, . at the. United Service Institution, ; said it would be invaluable as a means of moving a t fleet from one sea to the other. The cost, would be about £25,000,000, and there would be no need of Rosyth. , An exhibition is now being held at University College, Gower-street, of . ancient Egyptian articles, unearthed by Prof. Petrie at the palace of King Apriee—' Pharoah Hophra of the Bible-—who was" contemporary with Jeremiah. ; One exhibit is the entire burial equipment of a, lady who lived and died 1700 B.C. A -lift attendant employed at the ;head- ; quarters of the "8.-P." Boy Scouts,/ Vic-toria-street, was descending in the lift when the hauling gear snapped. With great presence of mind he' grasped the guide rope, while the lift, which had no roof,, shot away from under him, and left him hanging in mid-air. He escaped unhurt by lowering himself hand-over-hand. ■'"' •*•'• :',-.' -. ■;■/'/■:. V^.-.:/z////A,z/// /'/' '-■ ■:-'''/ '■'■/-''■■! ::-:"/' : ' '..^.r/^Wvl^';?/^.'^