MISCELLANEOUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1032, 9 September 1871, Page 16

MISCELLANEOUS.

There are 125,000 paupers in London alone.

A '" Society for the Encouragement of Flying " exists in London. A Bonapartist Congress is reported to have taken place lately in Belgium.

Madame Anna Bishop is shortly expected in England, from America.

The export of coal from Japan is beginning to assume large dimensions. " Publicans' profits," says the Times, "represent mis-spent money."

150 sham iiremen were executed at Versailles in one day.

The " Good Templars" in Scotland now have 530 lodges, with 50,000 members.

A man and horse were killed lately near Dudley, by a flash of lightning. M. Thiers is said to have subscribed a million francs (£40, 000) to the new French loan.

A serious riot took place at Waterford botween the police and some drunken militiamen, who got tho worst of it.

The annual report of the Female Medical Society states that 98 students entered the institution during the year.

The ex-Empress Eugenic sent the Pope 100,000 francs on belialf of the Imperial family, on the occasion of his Jubilee. Forty-seven French men-of-war have been disarmed, and 12,000 seamen paid off.

During a late sitting of the Spanish Cortes, some of the members came to blows.

M. Thiers lately made a speech of five hours' duration. Not bad for a man of 74.

Mr Grote was buried at the foot of Garrick's monument, near Camden and Dr Johnson.

Medical evidence has satisfactorily proved that explosive bullets were not \ised by either faide during the late war. Four "fortune-tellers" in London have been sentenced to three months' imprisonment with hard labour.

The London City Mission employs 385 missionaries, who each visit on an average 500 families, or 2000 persons, a month.

During the ten years prior to the taking of the Census, 84G,35<5 persons left Ireland as permanent emigrants.

Tho Government small-arms factories in France are turning out rifles at the rate of half a million per annum.

It is now reported that Felix P} r at escaped to London disguised as a Bavarian office!'.

A movement for the establishment of a National Technical University is on foot in London.

5000 chests of spurious tea were received in London recently from Shanghai by a single ship. 747,72(5 persons visited the Crystal Palace during the six months ended on April 30th. The Royal Commission on the Contagious Diseases Acts has resolved to recommend the repeal of those Acts. A shower of herrings, from three to four inches long, lias taken jilace at Trinity and Newhaven.

In spite of the wet weather, 22,000 per-soi-is wore present at the Handel festival.

The late triumphal entry into Berlin is the sixth that city has witnessed during the last three centuvips,

A movement is on foot to establish a great race meeting annually jiiji the Phoenix park, Publin,

Notwithstanding the unusually severe winter, the crops in France have been almost destroyed by insects. A translation of " The Battle of Dorking" has been published in a popular Germnn periodical. Thirty- two South London tradesmen were lined in one week for having unjust weights and measures. It is noted as a curious fact that not one of the German war contractors has been made rich by the war.

General Faidherbe is writing a history of the war between France and Germany, and the civil war in France.

M. Gambetta has been feted by a number of leading Republicans. Americans in Paris have petitioned the Government to send the Communist prisoners to the Western American States.

The return of the German troops was celebrated at Hamburg, Stettin, Dresden, Munich, and Breslau, as well as at Berlin.

The Old Testament Company of the Bible Revision Committee have nearly finished the Book of Genesis.

The fortifications of Alderney have cost £70,000 a year for 20 years past, are not finished, and are now pronounced unnecessary.

The Chinese are paying great attention just now to their coast defences. All the coast forts are being strengthened. Garibaldi refused to stand as a candidate for the Department of the Maritime Alps in the French Assembly. At Harrow, a boy while standing umpire at cricket, was struck behind the ear by the ball, hit hard to square leg, and killed almost instantaneously.

Very large forest fires have taken place in Canada this summer.

700,000 skilled labourers in Britain, according to Mr Mundella, M.P., are Trade Unionists.

It has been found necessary to exhume and burn many thousands of the bodies buried round Paris.

It is now asserted that many innocent women were executed during the confusion that followed the capture of Paris.

A Bill rendering registration compulsory in England, as in Scotland and Ireland, has been introduced into Parliament.

The consumption of spirits in Britain during the first quarter of this year was greater than in the corresponding period of 1870.

The French Government deemed it necessary to exhume the body of Delescluze, the Communist leader, and bury it again in quicklime in a secret place. It is said that all the journalists who figured in the Commune were or had been writers in the Figaro. The Hoiise of Commons has voted £0000 for the completion of the Edinburgh Industrial Museum.

Two of the proof readers on the Times are lawyers, who look out for anything libellous.

Carrier pigeons are now coming into use in England to carry reports to the newspapers. There are foi*ty millions of Germans in Germany, and twenty millions beyond the boundaries of the Empire.

Hundreds of emigrants are now conveyed from Sweden to America via Granton and Glasgow. The Rev. Dr Hanna of Edinburgh has been seriously ill, but is now convalescent.

The 41st annual meeting of the British Association was to be held in Edinbxirgh this year, commencing on August 2nd. The cost of the Volunteer force in Britain during the last financial year was £841,(550 (5s Bd. It is said that the population of Belfast shows a larger proportionate increase during the decade than that of any other city in the United Kingdom. Nearly half of the victims of the epidemic of yellow fever at Buenos Ayres are said to have been Italians.

Oak and linden trees are being planted in all the German villages in honour of victory and peace. According to European medical statistics, the introduction of chignons has increased brain fever among Avomen 75 per cent.

A Berlin shoemaker is advocating the revival of the Roman sandal for summer use, on the score of relief to the feet and exemption from corns. The mackerel fishing on tho Cornish coast has been very productive tins year.

In a recent article the Times urges the claims of geography ' f to a more definite place in English education." Mr Spurgeon says some ministers would make good martyrs — they are so dry they would burn well.

More than 1000 emigrants sailed from Queenstown for New York in one day lately. The Orange demonstrations throughout Ireland on July 12th, were attended with little or no disorder.

In Britain there are 79,287 licensed pedlars. In Ireland there is only one, as f pvipg derjred.atp.rß ftnd jt unnecessary

to take out a license to cover their designs."

Some thousands of tons of glass were required to repair the broken windows in Paris, and plate glass rose in price 35 per cent, in one week.

The Prcsse of Vienna says that the greater part of the Hungarian bishops will refuse to publish the dogma of infallibility in their dioceses.

It is reported that the ex-Emperor Napoleon means to reside at Mamhead, near Dawlish, South Devon, the seat of Sir Lydston Newman.

It is understood that Lord Belper will be Mr Grote' s successor as President of University College, London. The Empire is said to have increased the national debt of France by £350,000,000.

The Peruvian Government have resolved to import from Europe from 5000 to 10,000 women of good moral character, for employment as domestic servants.

Two large swimming ponds, for the people are being constructed by the municipal authorities at Dundee.

The Saturday half-holiday movement continues to be agitated in the manufacturing towns in Lancashire.

The tweed trade in the south of Scotland has been in a very healthy condition lately.

The Glasgow Locomotive Works, which commenced in 1804, now employ 1000 men, and cover 8i acres. Up to the middle of June 33 yards of columns in the Times had been devoted to the debates on the Army Bill.

The latest returns show the total strength of the Volunteer force in Britain to be as follows :—B4l: — 841 Light Horse, 37,575 Artillery, 7,099 Engineers, 148,182 Rifles, and 196 Mounted Rifles.

A new bridge across the Clyde at Hutchesontown, Glasgow, called the Albert Bridge, has been opened. It makes the eighth in the city, two of that number being railway, and two suspension, bridges.

The Times says that " the Irish Land Act has now been tested .by nearly a year's experience, and the result has, on the whole, justified the convictions of its framers."