General News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 376, 26 April 1879, Page 8

General News.

It may (say Truth) interest those possessing diamonds to know the result of the yield from the South African fields on their value. Yellow diamonds have depreciated about 50 per cent.; white diamonds, of average size, about ten per cent.; large first-class diamonds have suffered no depreciation, and are becoming rarer and rarer every day. The principal, indeed almost the only, purchasers are the Americans. The will of Miss Lisetta Rist, late of Forest Lane, noar Stratford, Essex, has just been proved, the personal estate being sworn under £ISOO. The testator provides for the purchase of gravel and sand, to be applied in gravelling or sanding, when ceitain roadways iu the CHy aud East End shall be slippery, to enable horses or other animals to better keep their footing. The population of the United States is about forty-four millions. Last year, accovdhig to the report of the Commissioners of Federal Taxes, they smoked two thousand millions of cigars, and, deducting one-half of the population for women and children, this is an average of ninety apiece. The cost is stated to be thirty-eight millions sterling, ami to this is to be added three millions more for twenty-five million pound weight used for chewing or pipesmoking. Within the same period, the Commissioners state that a hundred aud twenty millions sterling have been spent on intoxicating drinks. A hundred aud sixtv millions sterling on these two articles alone !

The London News says :—“ The American Consul at Manchester, England, has sent the State Department an account of a trial at that place involving the manner of manufacturing and packing cotton goods for the Chinese market. A contract was made for the sale and shipment of a large amount of gray cotton shirtings. When they arrived at Shanghai, it was found that more than half the pieces were affected by * mildew,’ produced by the sizing used to make the cloth heavier and thicker. The sizing is composed in part of chlorate of magnesia, chlorate of zinc, glue, and china clay. The sizing is added to give the cloth weight, as it is sold by weight, four pounds of cotton being made to weigh eight and one-fourth pounds. The ‘ mildew,’ it was claimed, was caused by the addition of salt to increase the weight, which produced moisture.” Up to the beginning of September the quantity of coffee shipped during the year from Pernambuco to the United States and Europe was about 13,000 tons, despite an unfavorable reason. The prospects for the coming year, The Times remarks, are very good, and it is calculated that not less than 25,000 tons of coffee will be exported from Central and South America to foreign countries. The Liberian coffee, which is said to be proof against the ravages of the leaf disease, and which will grow at a much lower elevation than the Coffea arabica, is being tried in Guatemala, where, however, it is not much . valued. It is said to be inferior to the ordinary coffee grown at an altitude of 3000 feet to 6000 feet, as regards both delicacy of aroma and abundance of yield.

“ Who Is Ismael ? He is the Khedive of Egypt. And what is Ismael ! He is an unmitigated scoundrel. For long he obtained money by torturing his subjects and by borrowing it of Europe on false balance-sheets. The plea was that much was required for tho service of the State, but no sooner had money been paid Into the public treasury than Ismael stole it, hid some away, and bought estates with the remainder. When at length he had reduced Egyptian credit to the lowest ebb and he feared disclosures, he invited his confederate, the late Monfettish, to accompany him in his carriage to his palace ; from thence the poor creature was conveyed to a boat on the Nile, where he was murdered. Then the Khedive called heaven to witness that he, good, innocent man, had been the dupe of a designing Minister, and that if only he were given another trial, he would do nothing without the advice of the European Ministers that had been found him by England and France. But a congenital knave cannot change his nature, any more than an Ethiopian can change hiß skin. So it is with the Khedive ; the man has lied and tricked so long that lying and trickery are a part of his nature. He should be suppressed. Were strict justice dealt out to him he would be hanged ; but it will be sufficient if he be informed that on the first appearance of any double-dealing he will be turned out of the Khedivate.”

The King of Spain, says an English paper, who before his accession to tho throne was a student at Sandhurst, is reported to be unremitting in his exertions to raise tho standard of professional knowledge among the officers of his army. Some time ago conferences or meetings, at which papers on various military subjects aro read, were ordered to bo held periodically in every regirvent of the active army ; and now, by a recently issued decree, courses of instruction very similar to the garrison courses of instruction in our own army have been established in each of the fourteen military districts into which Spain is divided. Two of these courses are to be given every year iu each district ; the one continuing from the Ist of February to tho 30th of June, and the other from the Ist of September to the eud of January. The course is to be superintended by a brigadier-gene'al or staff officer, and the instruction is to be given by staff officers or captains chosen from among those quartered in a military district. Two or three captains or subaltern officers from each regiment of cavalry or infantry stationed in the district will be ordered to attend each claßß, and a lieutenant from each reserve battallion may also be granted permission to join. At the end of each course an examination will be held ; and those officers who pass satisfactorily will, if they belong to the infantry, be transferred to rifle battalions, or, if they are in the cavalry, to regiments of hussars or

mounted rifles ; and in both arms of tho sorvice will be appointed adjutants as vacancies occur. The course of instruction in each class will comprise the elements of geometry, topography, field fortification, and military art, history, and geography. From a statistical table recently constructed by M. D. Malarce, and published in “ Comtes Renduß,” it appears (1) that the decimal metric system of weights and measures is now established legally and obligatorily in eighteen States, comprising a population of 236 6 millions of inhabitants (these States are France and colonies, Belgium, Holland and colonies, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Roumania, Greece, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chili, and the Argentine Republic); (2) that it is made legally optional id three States, having a population of 75'6 millions (viz., England, Canada, and the United States) ; (3) that it is admitted in principle, aud partially for customs, in five States, with 343’6 million inhabitants (viz., British India, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, and Hungary) ; (4) and that, altogether, the system is established obligatorily, or optionally, or in principle, in twenty-six States, comprising 655 million inhabitants. Four Slates have different systems, decimal as to multiples and divisions, but based on another unit than the metre. They comprise 471 million inhabitants, and are Switzerland, Mexico, Japau, and China. To these may be added some mediocre States, with various systems, non-decimal and non-metric. It appears, then, that iu 1879 more than half the population of civilised States, comprising 11S0 million inhabitants, legally recognise the decimal metric system of weights aud measures. A largo part of this progress is in these recent years.

It has been the fashion for some of our newspapers (a correspondent of an Euglish paper writes) to speak of the Ameer Shere Ali as a man led away by his evil genius into a course of conduct at variance with his own perception of what should be dictated by self-interest. A sort of madness, it is Baid, which possessed him will alone explain his presumption and folly in quarreling with the neighbors whose power he was so well acquainted with and so fully appreciated. It is, however, by no means so certain that Shere Ali had really formed the estimate of us which we have been pleased to attribute to him. On the contrary, a wellknown British officer, now dead, who was in constant attendance on him during his visit to Umballa, and with whom he was unusually frank, declared that the Ameer used to amuse himself on his travels by poking fun at everything English, constantly making invidious comparisons between his own stalwart Afghans and our Sepoys, and declaring that the 93rd Highlanders were the only troops he had seen on his tour which were worth looking at. Ho could speak English well, having learned it when a prisoner at Loodiana, but was ashamed of this accomplishment. Yet, notwithstanding these prejudices, he struck everyone as being a remarkably shrewd and intelligent man. So far our correspondent. The opinions of a semi-barbarous chief like the ruler of Cabul may not be regarded as authoritative, and our good or bad qualities will not be increased by his criticism ; still, if this account be correct —and we hare no reason te doubt its accuracy —it is quite possible that the contempt which Shere Ali felt, or professed for üb, may have had some share In influencing his recent conduct.