Page 2 Advertisements Column 4

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIX, Issue 2923, 12 September 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

Besancon, Victor Hugo's native town, will forestall Paris in erecting a statue to the poet. The municipality has headed a subscription ■with. 5000 francs. The first light railway in England was commenced on Saturday, to connect an extensive agricultural district with the NorthEastern main line at Selby. The Fishery Board for Scotland report that the total value of fish landed on the coasts of Scotland for June was £lB-1,403, being an increase of £18,610 on the corresponding month last year. Ostrich feathers frequently fetch £7O per ib. : The Kaiser’s manoeuvres in Germany will be preceded this year, as they were some years ago, by cavalry reconnaissances on a large scale, conducted by His Majesty in person. , _ , . The secret marks on Bank of England notes, by which forgeries are so rapidly detected, are constantly being changed. The microscope will reveal|many such peculiarities to an observant eye. . A new tax lias been created in Russia on all fuonev passing in and out of the country. The tax amounts to about one farthing on every one hundred roubles, but each traveller furnished with' a passport from abroad is , allowed three thousand roubles with him, free of duty. Any amount in excess of this sum must be declared, the penalty of omission being the confiscation of onc] fouith of the sum concealed. The death-rate in the German Airay is the lowest of any in Europe or the world, being only five per thousand yearly* In Englrnd it is eight, in France ten, io Italy eleven. The method used io Germany to secure this low mortality is entirely hygienic, find one of the most important Is that of bathing in tepid water. All the soldiers have their warm baths at a cost of about sixpence for cacb hundred persons, including the soap used.