NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14465, 3 September 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Mountebank was the term applied of old to the patent medicine vendor who mounted a bench to proclaim his wares. Corsica is suffering from a plague of grasshopers. In two days 30 tons of tlio insects have been buried by the people. In the British Isles alone the decline of the birth-rate in the last 30 years gives a shortage of over 200,000 infants in the year. A Chinese publisher is about to start the first evening paper in Pekin. It will be printed in red, which is symbolic of happiness. The amount of the people's savings held by the British Post Office reached, at tha end of last year, the enormous total of £164,596,065. Spain gets more sunshine than any other country in Europe. Yearly, its average is 3000 hours, while in England it is only about 1400 hours. Napoleon cherries from Kent realised 14s a basket, or £2 16s a bushel, at Covent Garden. Last year similar fruit fetched only one shilling a basket. "People sleep in church," stid a medical witness at the Westminster County Court, " because the continual breathing of carbonic acid gas makes them drowsy.' The most valuable statue in the world is that of the god Daibutsu, in Yokohama, Japan. It stands 63jft high, weighs 450 tons, and contains 5001b of pure gold. The French Court of Appeal has just decided that a person of weak intellect, or even a certified idiot, if not otherwise legally disqualified, is entitled to his electoral rights. The Valuation Committee of the Kensington Council is now able to report that the new valuation list shows the gross value of the borough to be just over £3,000,000. Mile. Elise Paumier was saved from disfigurement in Paris by her large " Merry Widow" hat, which shielded her from a quantity of vitriol thrown at her by a former sweetheart. Dr. C. Paddock, medical officer of health for Bethnal Green, reports that two children, aged nine months, died from intestinal trouble after being fed on fried fish and sheep's brains. A constable caught two men breaking into a shop at Pinchbeck, near Spalding, and handcuffed one to a telegraph pole while he went after the other man, who was subsequently arrested. Transvaal oranges realised 13s a case at Covent Garden recently, and Portuguese apples, which fetched only 5s a case last year, sold for 14s on account of the scarcity of the English crop. Mrs. E. L. Ford, whose husband was killed by a motor-romnibus, has been awarded £375, and her children £490, damages against the London General Omnibus Company in the Law Couvts. Colonel Seely admitted in the House of Commons recently that in certain native courts in Southern Nigeria fines had been received in gin, although the practice was abolished by law in 1901. An estate shortly to be offered by auction will include the ruins of the famous moated castle of Hurstmonceaux, East j Sussex, which was erected by Sir Roger de Fiennes, Treasurer to Henry VI. The first Sunday passenger train since the opening of the line, 49 years ago, started running recently between Barnard Castle and Penrith. The original promoters of the railway were Quakers. One of the largest- and most cumbersome forms of money is found in Central Africa, where the natives use a cruciform ingot of copper ore over lOin long. Ib is heavy enough to be a formidable weapon. The office of Governor-General of the South African Union—Viscount Gladstone's new post— added to those which, according to the King's Re>p "... ions, en- 1 title the holder to an artil . = salute of 19 guns. The banns have been published at Norwich of a blind couple, Ethel Gibbs, a Yarmouth girl, who has learnt to typewrite and massage, and Ernest Hall, who enjoys a small pension, but is employed as a mat-maker. The famous Stavelot tryptych, recently deposited in the British Museum by Mr. Pierpont Morgan, is now on view in tha Mediaeval Gallery. It contains relics of the True Cross, and was made in 1180 bj Godfrey de Clare. Sarah Brown, an inmate of the Paddington Workhouse, who was 105 yearf old recently, received letters from both the King and Queen-Mother, which werd framed and hung over her bed. She had 'a tea party at which the guardians attended. A man named Toth, of Brebenz, Aus< tria-Hungary, has discovered that an old violin which he possesses is probably a genuine Stradivarius. Inside it. is inscribed " Antonius Stradjuarius, Ciemonensis, faciebat anno 1724," and A.S., tha famous maker's mark. A well-known South African has promised £200,000 for the opening of a fund to establish a central South African residential teaching university at Groote Schurr, and thus fulfil Mr. Cecil Rhodes's idea of 20 years ago. The Union Government is supporting the movement. " Nine persons were injured during a short spell of freedom enjoyed by a leopard who escaped from a menagerie at Vega, Portugal. The animal, after mauling two women,, made off with a child in iib paws, but dropped it when the chaso came near. The child was scarcely injured at all. Dr. Bertillon, head of the Anthropometrical Department of the Paris police, has invented a new method of identifying criminals. For the future not only will a record be taken out of the finger and thumb prints of every convicted person, but the' colour and texture of the hair will be noted. Up Elgin way recently a porker tame into this world equipped with eight legs and nine feet. Three of the extra legs grew behind the hind ones, while the fourth grew near the tail and curved up sharply towards the back. This leg possessed two distinct feet. Unfortunately the pig did not survive. A token, inscribed " Tunstead and Hopping 1312. One halfpenny. Payable at the Corporation House,' which has been found at Barton, Norfolk, is a relic of the " wet harvest year," the worst ever known, when rain fell incessantly, for three months; and these tokens were issued to the starving poor. Furs will cost less next year if the anticipation made by Lord Strathcona at a meeting of the Hudson's Bay Company prove correct. Ho said that there will-probably be a further increase in the present year in the fur collection, which would have the effect of reducing the enormously high prices which, had prevailed in the fur market. It has just been found that two Rembrandt a Muril'lo, and several other old masters, have disappeared fron the famous Hermitage Gallery in St. Petersburg, clever copies having been substituted. Some time back one of the directors of the museum was convicted of replacing the brilliants and jewels in the Imperial collection with imitations. Mr. Herbert Samuel, the PostmasterGeneral, made a joke in opening a new central post office at Margate. He announced that, as that was a special occasion, the stamps would be 13s. With an eye to business, an enterprising lady de* manded a shilling's worth, and Mi. Samuel handed her eleven penny stamps and two halfpenny ones. What is said to be the first lighthouse built for airships has just been erected on the top of a small railway building at Spandau, Germany. It consists of 38 powerful electric lamps, which shoot a glaring light, skyward. Its purpose is to guide the dirigibles of the German amy at night. One of the great gun giants of Geraany; is located . . . at S£*wig-Hj| ' ... - : ' ■