UNKNOWN

Otago Witness, Issue 1586, 15 April 1882, Page 6

UNKNOWN

In Palestine of late years the rainfall has increased wonderfully. In Beirut there are fifty educational institutions. In Jerusalem twenty years ago thore were a few hundred Jews ; now 20,000 out of 44,000 inhabitants are Jews.

The incomes of bishops in the Prussian Protestant Church are hardly sufficient to tempt mercenary persons. One of these bishops, in Brandenburg, receives in all £100 a year, and seven others have incomes falling below £175.

The extinction of slavery in Brazil is proceeding very gradually, and it will take more than thirty years to accomplish it. Emancipation began in 1870, but there are still 1,500,000 bondmen in the country.

A German, Mr August Goettel, has given £12,000 towards the Vienna Theatre Relief Fund, he having by an accident escaped being prusent on the night of the disaster. A gigantic mission was lately given by the Rodoinptorist Fathers of Limerick in the Cathedral parish, Cork, and 25,000' persons received communion on that occasion. Over forty priests wero engaged in hearing confessions.

A groat institution with many branches has aince 1873 developed at Naples from a struggling kindergarten. In this institution, a girl entering at three years of ago can be trained and instructed until she is capable of earning hor livelihood.

For a number of years there has been a quarrel over ' religions subjects in the Nebraska State University, at Lincoln. A short time ago, at a meeting of the Board of Regents; the illness of 1 one member left tha Orthodox element in the majority, and 'they dismissed' three Fro; drinking professors. The' act has created considerable fooling. London last year provided additional school accommodation for 25,000 children, and now instructs at the Board school and at the voluntary schools over 500.000 pupils. Last year the ( coat per oapita was 1259 d." The Vienna Politische Oorrespondenz says that Mr Gladstone is inclined to accept the theory of Egypt for the Egyptians, and mako Egypt an independent' State under a European Prince,' and with the collective guarantee of the Baropean powers. There is still. v living a lineal descendant of, Martin Luther, m the person of one Herr W. Wolters, of Stuttgart. He was formerly a oourt aotor, and claims descent through Luther's daughter Anna. The male line has long been ertinct.^ Cardinal Howard', who has just been raised by the Pope to the dignity of Archpriest of the Basilica of St. Peter, was inhis youth asoldier. It was as an officer in the Life Guards that he led the procession at the funeral of the Duke of Wellington. ■ ' There is an excellent law in Holland to the effect that when a 1 young mati of property is inclined to be fast and is spending his money too rapidly," the Government may 'step inand take care of it for him 1 until he' can prove that he has reformed, and will henceforth make proper use of his means.

M. Gambetta is not an agreeable speaker. His voice is guttural, and has an oftenfocurring tremolo, and he occasionally astonishes Bis audience by a tragic hiccough, and even a snort of defiance. His gestures, moreover, are incessant and without dignity. A London medical journal states that there are in that city twenty physicians whose incomes range from £5000 to £20,000 a year. According to a ' recent compilation, the general Baptists in England number 25,000 members, with 187 churches. The total cost of the St Gothard tunnel, which was opened recently f6r tho regular passage of trains, is 50,808,020 francs, something over £2,200,000.

Lord Salisbury has remitted the whole of hi*} agricultural rents for the last half year. He haß, however, a London estate worth some £60,000 a year to struggle along upon.

The mercantile failures in the United States to 1881 were 5582, witli liabilities for 81,155,932 dpls., against 4735 and 65,572,000 dol. in 1880. The London correspondent of the Manchester Gnardian writos : — The long projected tidal navigation scheme for connecting Manchester with the Mersey at Liverpool is again under consideration by a body of capitalists. The project has been thwarted in consequence of the depressed state of commerce ; but now that Lancashire trade is reviving attention has once more been directed to this matter.

MitchelPs Maritime Register states that the prospects for the year^on the Clyde are exceedingly bright. All the yards are full of vrork, and 141 vessels, most of them of heavy tonnage, are on the stocks. Never in the his tory of tho trade have there been so many workmen employed in all the Clyde yards at shipbuilding and marine engineering, the number being estimated at about 45,000. The Daily News understands that Messrs Metzler and Co., of Great Marlborough street, London, are, by command of Her Majesty, preparing for publication a complete collection of the musical compositions, sacred and secular, of the Prince Consort, the whole being produced under the able supervision of Mr W. G. Ousins, Her Majesty's 'Master of Musicke.' '

A bill for the reorganization of the Spanish army, in which the ideas of the King himself are, it is generally understood, embodied, has lately been laid before the Cortes by the Minister of War. The peace establishment of the army will under the new organization comprise 94,125 men, and there will be every year 122,125 men under arms dtiring the months of April, May, and June. From information which the Bradford Chamber of Commerce received, the terms proposed by the French Government during the, recent treaty negotiations were such that under them the duties on the bulk of the goods exported from the Bradford district would have b'jen nearly doubled, and tho British Ooimuistioners had therefore no alternative but to withdraw from the discussion of the new treaty.

A passenger train on tho Boston and Maine railroad recently broke through an iron bridge near Wells, Now Hampshire. The engine and the baggage and Pullman carriages had crossed when the bridgp broke, precipitating the four hindermo&t carriages. juhl 100 passengers down the embankment.. Thowjeek cwight iiro an I the uiurifiges were destroyed. Two person,* were killed and 18 wounded.

In an article in the International Review, J. R. M' Bride, formerly Chief Justice of 1 Arizona, dissipates the delusion that Salt Lake Vallny was transformed from a desert into a fertile country by the Mormops. The Christian 'students of the University of ' Kieff, in Russia, have petitioned the Minister of the Interior to withdraw the rule requiring its Jewish students to reside in the outskirts of i the city. I The men of France favour the Republic, but ' a majority of the women are said, to be opposed i to the present regime. More' Bibles were printed and circulated last year than during any previous year in the 'his!tory of Christianity, and the inspired word now exists in the languages of over four-fifths of tho inhabitants of the globe. The final result of the revision of the German census of the Ist of December, 1880, shows the population of the Empire to have been 45,234,061, viz., 22,185,433 males, 23,048,628 females. Between 1575 and 1880 the increase of population was 5,506,689. The English Presbyterian Foreign Mission Committee have adopted a new plan for new missionaries to China. They; send to Professor Legge at Oxford to study Chinese. Owing to the groat increase of manufactories and the abandonment of political agitation, Poland is now called the ' Belgium of Russia.' Among all sects of Mohammedans, Mr Blunt, in the Fortnightly Review, says there is a common belief that a leader, called Modhy, will suddenly arise, when Turkish rule is in decay, to restore tho fortunes of true believers, and that afterwards Jesus the Son of Mary will come. ' ' i Tho art collection of William H. V anderbilt, said to be the largest and finest in New York, includes not a solitary painting by an American artist. This does not speak well for Vanderbilt as an American. , > A correspondent of the London' Tablet is authority for the statement that during the past thirty years great numbers of the 1 laity ' and over '300 of the Anglican Establishment havo become converts to the Catholic Church. The building of a church in Turkey reqiiires a special firman from the Sultan, and this is ' attended with 'much trouble and' expense, and often with years of delay. ' ' • Professor Christlieb, in reporting the pros-'| ;pects of evangelical religion in Germany, says ( .that, although there is still a considerable jeal- ' oiisy of' lay agency, yet, inßhineland more 'especially^ numerous meetings' are' held in private nouses, and godly laymen are taking active part in various forms of evangelistic , ,work. The Tichborne claimant has prison employment' picking oakum in a gang with two negroes. He has lpst flesh and corpulence, but seems to be healthy and rugged. His fellow 'convicts regard him as no less a fraud than the courts did. • • Beyreut is the centre of influence for all Syria, arid is growing in importance. Papal , Rome is rearing stately and' colossal edifices 'for female as well as male' education", and 1 has thrown down tho gauntlet to Protestant missionparies'. ' 'One Romish seminary 'for' girls in Beyreut has cost not less than £15,000, and another' 'almost an equal sum. ■ ' " Thirty one .Americans, are registered as ( students at, the Academy of' Arts in' Munich. 1 Only the Bavarians arid Prussians outnumber them. j In most of the larger town's of Germany art 'classes have been established for mechanics, ;and are largely attended. , The Chineso divide the day into twelve parts of two hours each. The Italians reckon the 24 ■. hours round. , Thore are only 113 works in the English language which the blind can read.', Producing books in raised letters is very expensive, and . of course the sales are small, so that their pub- • licatipn is a matter of charity. The Perkins Institute of Boston has almost raised a fund , .of $100,000, with which it will issue twelve • books a year indefinitely. It has been decided that tho dome of, the colossal Palais de Justice^ in Brussels, now approaching completion, Avhich was to have been f made of copper, shall be constructed of papier ■ n*,ohe. It will weigh about sixteen tons. Various cases of poisoning from the use of perfumes have been reported in recent English journals. In one instance a little girl had bought some heliotrope perfume at a bazaar, and applied it on her face. This caused a veisicular eruption, swelling, itching, and in fact erysipelas, which lasted for some time. The scent was made with some of the products of coal tar, and not with the odoriferous prinicipals of plants, thus acquiring its irritating properties. The entire receipts of. the Roman Catholic Association for the propogation of tho faith j from ail parts of the world were £240,501 in | 1880. Of this amount Europe contributed I £235,645. America gave less than £4400 but received £26,087. Of the whole amount £36,950 was expended in Europe, £105,575 in Asia, £48,529 in Africa, and £19,235 in Oceanica. An experiment was lately made at Berlin with what professes to be a newly-invented substance called ' antipyrogene,' or fire preventive. Curtains, blinds, ropes, gauze, artificial flowers, carpets, costumes and other stage appliances were impregnated with the chemical preparation in question, and then exposed to torches, the result being a slow and nameless charring or carbonization of the experimental objocts, which ceased the moment the torches were withdrawn. The attempt to light the principle streets of Liverpool by electricity has (the Liverpool Daily Post says) proved a failure. The announcement is made that the British Electric Light Company have withdrawn from their contract, having it is said, lost a snm of £15,000 in their experiments. With the failure in Liverpool before them, the members of the West Derby Local Board declined to appoint a committee to collect information regarding the electric light. At the date of latest advices from home, three of the great railway companies were desirous of placing some unusually large orders < for rails, tyres, axles, and other railway: materials. The leading Sheffield manufacturers ha,d been asked to tender for them, but as they were well supplied with work tfp to the end of the year they declined to accept further contracts at present rates. One firm had offers of orders sufficient to keep their, works fully engaged the whole of next year. \ It has boon reserved for a Frenchman to take from cremation some of its most objectionable features, by so arranging the burial service and tho process that there is at least an important advantage over tho present method. The body is carried to a church aud placed in a catafalque enclosed on four sides. The funeral services commence, and the body, unseen, descends to the basement, where it is cremated, and by the time tho obsequies in the church are concluded the dust in tho coflin, and can bo buried in the usual way if so desired. The largest boll in tho world, intended for St P.iul'ri Cathedral in London, was recently cast in Lmocstor.shiro in ISuglaud. About, Iwonty-one loiin of molten moLil wc? - o used, and the bell it-self will weigh more than seventeen tons. The Midland Railroad Company 1 h;is disulinod to transport tho pondcroua load j to London, and it accordingly will have to be j \ conveyed by roaci. '