LATEST MAIL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4427, 6 August 1901, Page 7

LATEST MAIL NEWS.

From the latest British files to hand are .taken the following interesting items: The anxiously expected Italian. Eoyal baby, a daughter was born on the eve of the National Fete Day. The infant has been named Yolanda Margherita. The queen has offered a cradle and 1000 francs to every child born on the same day as her own throughout Italy. All the baby girls will be christened Yolanda. The King and Queen have been married five years, and this is their first child.

An exhibition of Homan antiquities unearthed last year at Silchester throws light on the industrial occupations of the inhabitants of the buried city. There are complete sets of tools used by the Eoman smiths, carpenters, and shoemakers, and an agriculturist’s outfit. Kylemore Castle, built by Hr Mitchell Henry on the shores of the Atlantic m county Galway at a cost of .£250,000, was offered for sale by auction. Only A 03,000 being bid the property was withdrawn. The Duchess of Fife was waited upon at her London residence and presented with a souvenir of her visit to the West Australian court in the Glasgow Exhibition. It consists of a sandalwood cabinet, inlaid with other West Australian woods. Inside the casket was a necklace composed of gold nuggets. A Sunderland woman has just attained her 100th year. She is hearty and cheerful, tier descendants extend to four generations. . An Addington man who has just completed his 100th year has never been more than 20 miles from his pative village. A pair of wag-tails built their’ nest and batoned their young in a railway waggon loaded with bricks. When the truck leu Wellingborough attached to a train tne parent birds - flew and kept up with it. upon a tunnel being readied, to prevent the birds losing sight of their young, the nest was carefully removed and placed on the railway embankment, and the parent birds proceeded to teed their brood as though nothing had happened. A valuable dscovery of jasper has been made in Wales. Blocks many tons in weight can be obtained. A lady in New York, in imitation of Diogenes, offers A2OO to the first business or professional man who can conclusively prove that ho has carried on his work for a month fionestly and without lying. The census returns show that the population of Paris is 2,714,058. an increase of 177,254 since 1896. ~ . The police discovered the bodies of 31 infants packed in soap-boxes, in the cellar of a woman who carried on the business of an undertaker at Birmingham. She was remanded by the magistrate. It was said that the bodies were for the most part those of stillborn children, and had been entrusted to the accused for burial, lor which a fee was charged. A novel point in flat law has been decided. A Judge held that a landlord could not be held liable for a burglary which occurred at a flat in the absence of the tenant, even although the landlord kept a hall-porter on the premises. At the Crystal Palace a gymnast feu 80ft. through the snapping of his apparatus and died the following day. In the Law Courts, durng the hearing of a libel action, the Judge told one of the jurymen to stand up, and sharply rebuked him for the discourtesy with which he had taken pains to let it he seen that he was not attending to the evidence. He ordered him to leave the box, but bade him remain in attendance until the case was oonC^Thef Turkish authorities have prohibited the entry of typewriters into that Gentry on the ground that the authorship of typed writing cannot he recognised. In Spain a goods train was derailed by grasshoppers. In the church of Belch amp St. Paul, Essex, a halt had to be made in the sermon until a number of wild ducks, which had flown through the open door, screaming loudly, could he ejected. The prison statistics of Scotland show that there were 60,503 committals during 1900—39,795 males and 20,708 females—the largest number of persons imprisoned in a single year. Allowing for recommittals, it is estimated that the convictions repre. sonted the offences arid crimes of only about 41,000 persons some of whom had been sent to prison 50 times and upwards. The commissioners state that many convictions must be the case ‘ where the prisons are so full of drunkards. A bricked-up cave has been discovered on the sea coast near Penrhyn Castle. Archaeologists declare it to be one used by Sir Pyrs Griffiths, who had the reputation of being a pirate, and who served with the English fleet against the Spanish Armada. There is a strong desire that the mem" bers of the recently-created Westminster City Council should all appear in the dignity of robes and cooked hats. Hitherto, for one reason, or another, some of the councillors have not been disposed to ex" pend AS or £lO on such vanities. How. ever, the Mayor (the Duke of Norfolk) now suggests that a robes fund shall be established, for providing with the garb of office such councillors as have any reasons for objecting to tbe personal expense. The Mayor will bo treasurer of the fund, and he alone will know whose robes are provided out of it. Councillors or alderman who prefer to supply themselves with their civic uniform will still dp so. In the case of aldermen the cost is from A3O to £ T woman of good birth has been discovered in a filthy den attached to a private residence in Poitiers. She was naked and lying on straw, and so emaciated that she only weighed 441b._ It is stated that she had been kept isolated by her mother and brother for 25 years because she wished to marry an impecunious lover. It is stated that Mrs M'Kinley was restored by the salt cure. When she appeared at death’s door, it was decided to try a saline injection. The result is said to have been sudden and efficacious. The Chicago theory is that it is muscular, and not nervous, stimulus which causes the heart’s action, and that salt is the greatest stimulant of the muscle The" first issue of the coinage of Edward VII. is likely to bo made in about a month’s time. The first to be minted will be silver coins. The Duke of Newcastle has leased 30,000 acres of some of the most charming portions of Sherwood Forest to a coal-mining company. Fears are entertained that it will mean the felling of some of the famous trees in the alleged haunts of Kobin Hood.