Miscellaneous.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 934, 24 January 1890, Page 20

Miscellaneous.

The English language is spreading. Most of the large cities of Europe and many small ones now have their English newspapers. The Mandalay Herald reports the death of a Burmin prisoner from torture by police during the investigation into a dacoity. The unfortunate man isalleged to have been taken into the jungle, where pressure was applied to his neck by two pieces of bamboo, his spine being brokeu. It is further stated that a certificate of death from heart disease was issued. There are no old maids in Japan. If a girl is not married by a certain age, the authorities take the matter in hand, and cho ’se a husband, whom she is compelled to accept. According to a calculation made at the United States Legation at Paris, it is estimated that 50,000 Americans have visited the Exhibition. The Matin, reckoning the expenses at Paris of each of these visitors at 5000 francs, calculates that the total sum they must have spent there cannot be less than 250,000,000 francs. A deputation of German employers has gone to England to ascertain on beiialf of a large section of German employers the relations existing between employer and employed in England, and meauß adopted to settle trade disputes. Some 50,000 “surplus reserves,’’ young men either legally exempted from military service in Austria, or not enlisted as ordinary recruits, were to be called out on Octobei 1 for eight weeks’ drill in accordance with the new military law. Vienna alone was to furnish 1000 of them. At Portsmouth an American named Lawler, accused of stealing the yacht Never Tink. shot the harbour-master and another man who attempted to obtain possession of the craft. The wounds of one of the injured men are serious. Lawler was arrested after a desperate struggle. _