LATEST MAIL NEWS

New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 60

LATEST MAIL NEWS

From the latest English files to hand are taken the following interesting items:—

The Queen's Crown has been removed from the Tower, and important alterations are made in the settings for the Coronation ceremony. Mrs Haines lias died at Cheltenham, aged 10-4. She had lived in that town nearly all her life, and could recall visits from George 111. and George IV. Josephp Yiragh. the inventor of multiplex telegraphy, has died practically penniless in a hospital a-t Buda-Pesth, at the early age of 32. Sir J. Rockefeller, who holds 40 per cent, of the stock in the Standard Oil Company, will receive nearly £4.000.000 as las dividend for the vear.

A new tar-paved open space in Southwark. near the site of the old Marshalsea prison, is to be called "Little Dorrit’s Playground."

Kingston-on-Thames is to possess the only genuine English Coronation stone. Upon it Edward the Elder was crowned just 1000 years ago. A large number of London 'buses will shortly be lighted with acetylene gas lamps.

On November 11 the quaint and longestablished custom of paying "wroth silver’ 1 to the Duke of Buccleuch,-Lord of tlie Manor, was observed at sunrise at Knightlow-hill, in the heart of rural M arwickshire. The parish representatives assembled and deposited certain silver coins in tlie cavity of an ancient stone, after walking round it three times.

A boy has been at Llangollen Board School for 11 years without missing a single attendance. A speed of 101 miles an hour has been attained on an electric railway in Germany. A cyclist on the Crystal Palace track rode nearly 100 miles in three hours. It is stated that, the now star in Perseus has attained a velocity of 4000 miles a second.

The income of a hundred principal trades unions in this country last year wa-s £1.975.000. and their accumulated funds £3,707,000. During the last nine years these unions have spent over £8,000.000 on friendly benefits, t-ed about £2,750.000 on dispute pay. At St. Monica’s, Suffolk, an infant was suffocated through swallowing a brooch which had been attached to its bib. During the hearing of an action it

was stated that plaintiff, a waiter st a London restaurant, not only received no wages, but paid 25s a week for the privilege of serving the customers and pocketing their tips. The Judge said it was important that the public should bear in mind that in establishments of this sort profit was made by the proprietor both on the dishes ordered and on the gratuities given to the attendants.

A village clergyman was fined at Leominster for trespassing in pursuit of game. Defendant said he thought, as rector of the parish, he might shoot a rabbit. He did not aspiro to game, and only bad a 10s license. Sir Frederick Milner, M.P., sued a firm of house agents for damages for alleged negligence in letting his London house to a lady whose financial position they had not ascertained, and who could not pay the rent. The plaintiff- was awarded £420 damages. Three judges have decided that a magistrate was entitled to convict a motor-car driver on evidence of a high rate of speed, though no particular person was shown to have been in danger. The Supreme Court in America has decided that a child’s life is not worth more than £2OO. It was the fourth trial of a famous case which sought to establish a father's claim.

The higher courts have decided that, except in the case of an inn and a traveller, the licensee of a public-house lias a right to request a person to leave his premises. The ejected person, it. was alleged, had misbehaved himself on a former occasion.

A lady who has just died in S‘t. Petersburg lias left a library of 18,000 volumes, every work in the collection being the product of a female author. Tho new British warship, King .Alfred. one of the largest and fastest cruisers in the world, ivas launched at Barrow by tlie Countess of Lathom. The vessel’s length is 500 ft. and her displacement 14.100 tons. She will carry 2500 tons of coal, and will thus be able to steam for 12.500 miles Avithout renewing her fuel supply. She will .Attain a speed of twenty-three knots an hour, will carry a cretv of 900. and wh en ready for sea will have cost over a million sterling. The Glasgow Exhibition, which closed on November 9. had been visited by over 10.000.000 people. The attendance on tho la~t Saturdav exceeded 131,000.

At a meeting of the Phonographic Society a spoimen of shorthand was shown taken down by a blind man. with a transcript made by a blind type-writer. The shorthand consisted of a series cf marks made by a newly-invented machine. It was embossed, and the amanuensis feels the stenographic characters with one band, while he Avorks the typewriter with the oilier. At the Coronation the King will add to the Duke of Fife’s titles the semiroyal one of Duke of Inverness as a mark of Royal favour to the Princess Royal, the Duchess of Fife.

Mrs Alsou, of Brantley, has just attained her 101st year. Mr Hall has died near Cleveland in his 101st year, his end having been hastened by a fall. By order of the Pope a sepulchre of white marble lias been prepared for his last resting place. The translated inscription reads:—‘’Here lies Leo XIII., Sovereign Pontiff. He is dust.” It is said that the Koh-i-noor will form the centre ornament in Queen Alexandra’s crown at the Coronation.

It is fifty years since the first submarine cable —that between Dover and Calais —was laid. At New York the French automobilist, M. Fournir, beat the world’s motor car record by covering a mile in 52 seconds in the face of a bead wind. Mr Justice Grantham beaded a demolition party near bis home at Barcombe, who demolished a gate which had been placed across a right of iA-av. It is reported that letters found in the Vatican show that Rizzio was in t the lover of Mary, Queen of Scots, but a priest who had adopted a disguise that he might act as the Queen’s spiritual adviser.

A postcard containing an order for goods, which was posted six years ago addressed to a wholesale house in Lon-

don 11 miles distant, has just reached its destination. A Chicago professor claims to be successfully treating cancer by means of the X Rays. The Italians claim to lie curing foot-and-mouth disease by an injection of a solution of corrosive sublimate. Tho workmen's co-operative societies in the United Kingdom at the end of last vear had a total retail capital of £22.282,473. of which £18.985,270 was share capital. £2.510.091 loans and deposits. and £840,512 reserve and insurance funds. There are two wholesale societies—one for England (with a capital of £3.137.945) and another for Scotland (wit'll a capital Gf £1.070.705). The foreign produce imported last year was valued at £4,818,310. The society owns an estate of 741 acres in Shropshire, which it cultivates, and the Scottish Society rents a farm of 2SO acres. The incomes of the inhabitants of the British Isles are shown to be steadily increasing. The gross incomes dealt with bv the income tax authorities give a total of £403.399.019. Two women Avere fined at Aylesbury for maliciously damaging a bride’s dress by throAving a mixture of soot and rice as she was returning from her wedding. An unknown man has created a scare in Portsmouth by r hacking at little girls’ feet with a knife in the streets, cutting through their boots, and then decamping.

Worcester Gaol is said to be more eroAvded now than at any time for 20 years. Owing to the improved diet people are said to prefer the prison to Die workhouse, and on the approach of winter they break the iaii- to gain admission to the rolls.

Fines and costs amounting to over £IOO were levied at Richmond upon a firm for selling butter containing an excess of moisture. The magistrate consented to state a case for a higher court.

A man suffered from arsenical poisoning after drinking six pints of beer daily at a Manchester public-house. He sued the publican. The jury found chat plaintiff’s illness tvas caused to a large extent by arsenicated beer, but was contributed to by excessive drinking habits. Damages to the extent of £SO were awarded.

While excavating at Thornton-heath. near Croydon, large quantities of elephants’ bones were found in the gravel. It is supposed that a herd of these animals in prehistoric times on coming down from the great Xor Wood to drink at a river were overwhelmed in the torrent.

A Court has ordered certain Welsh miners to each pay lhs Od damages for absenting themselves from Avork on what are knoivn as ‘‘stop” clays. A very important decision 011 the subject of ancient lights has just been given by tho Court of Appeal. Until now it had been supposed that possessors of ancient lights could not complain of obstruction so long as the diminished lights were not in a worse condition than those of neighbouring houses. It has now been held that this is not the IaAV, but. that the lights must not be substantially diminished to the detriment of any business carried on on the premises.

A man tvas summoned under a local bylaw for using offensive language on a Bristol tramcar. The magistrate discharged the summons. The matter was carried to the King’s Bench Court. It was contended that no offence had been committed, seeing that no one but the conductor heard the language complained of, and that therefore no public nuisance had been proved. The Judge, however, held that the hy-latv wa:T a valid one, and that an offence had been committed under it.

An American claims to have invented a bird-like flying machine, which is to travel through the air in all winds up to 100 miles an hour.

Triplets came of age at Shrewd and the church bells were ■ “«it. our of the event. b 111 i%