NEWS. GOSSIP. AND ADS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2251, 22 April 1897, Page 36

NEWS. GOSSIP. AND ADS.

The first number of Hansard has arrived. Great Britain has 135,000 illiterate voters. The war medal of New Zsaland has been issued to William- Bardell.

Of the. 51,000 breweries estimated to be in the world, 26,000 are in Germany. There are 700 varieties of snakes known, of whicS number Europe has bub 30.

The total value of gold in the world at the present time is about £600,000,000. R-gulations under "The Alcoholic Liquors Inspection AcS, 1896," are gazetted. The New Zealand Shipping Company take over the agency for the Vancouver line. Last week 972 tons of coal and 255,000 ft of timber were shipped from Greymoufch.

• There are, reckoning by " BoUin's Directory," 63 fortune-tellers practising iv Paris. N The death is announced of Mr Thomas Tyler, an old and respee'eed resident of Tuapeka Fl&t.

Ships built of steel are said to be able to carry 20 per cent, more freight than those of iron.

The Portuguese say that no man can be a good husband who does 'not ea!i a good breakfast.

A papier-mache* trunk is one of the latest ideas. It is said to be practically indestructible.

| , Sayan per 1000 of the population of England j/4re fiaed for drunkenness in the couts9 of the ! y ear » s The area of the great Sahara Desert is almost exactly the same as that of the United States.

Electricity, in its various forms of application, is said to give employment to 5,000,000 persons.

The telegraph messengers in populous French towns me bicycles for the distribution of their telegrams. • *

In Japan the dead are always buried with the heads towards the north aud feet towards tha south.

Oae ot the largest forestß of the world stands on ica. It is situated between Ural and the Okhotsk Sea.

The Wellington Woollen Company's directors recommend a dividend ab the rate of 7 per cent, for the year.

There are 400 country living 3of the Church of England endowed with incomes of less than £50 per year. "Love's golden dream is ore," sang the chorus-girl, as she counted up her breach of promise damages. Oculists say that there is not one watchmaker in 20 that suffers from eye-strain or o jher eye complaints.

Mr R. 6. Bauchop has been elected for the fifth consecutive year as chairman of the Taranaki Education Board*

There are over 3000 miWof canals in the United States. About half 'of these are owned by the railway companies. The obituary of 1896 covers 158 titles— l 6 peers, 19 peeresses, 1 archbishop, 29 baronets, 53 knights, and 40 companions. In 10 (recent) years the Rothschilds furnished £100,000;000 in loans to England, Austria, Prussia, France, Russia, and Brazil. „ The citizen cranks of Kentucky have a law that actions for breach of promise to marry shall be tried before a jury of women. The directors of the Kaiapoi Woollen Company have declared a dividend for the last six months at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum. Ho Kee, a Chinaman, has been committed for trial on a number of charges of breaches of the Bankruptcy Aofc — not keeping proper books,

Now that the building has been pulled down and sold the profit from the recent exhibition is expected to amount to between £1600 and £1700.

Mr W. P. Hall, who h»s been acting as manager of the Milton branch of the Bunk of New Zealand, has now been appointed permanently.

J. M. Bafcham has been appointed judge oE the Native Land and Validation Courts and district land registrar and examiner of titles at Gisborne.

A health journal is telling people " how to lie when asleep." It ib could persuade them to tell the truth when awake it would be doing real service.

The aristocratic Weld Club at Perth has increased its enbranoe fee from £20 to £40, to restrict the influx of newcomers arriving well recommended.

A special train on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincey railroad hat broken the long distance railway record, having covered the 1026 miles from Chicigo to Denver in 18 hours 52 minute*.

The Government cabled on 13th securing the space available at the Brisbane Exhibition for the New Zealand court— Booo square feet. A proportion of this is for individual exhibitors and the balance for the Government exhibit.

As showing the value of the discovery of the cyanide process; it was stated by a witness in the case which was before the Supreme Court, Wellington, that it had already; saved £600,000 worth o£ bullion in the district of Auckland alone.

The National Chrysanthemum Society's silver medal and £2 10s in cash was won at the Auckland Society's show (for the best 36 blooms) by Alfred Taylor (a teacher), with T. Wells second. There was / not a faulty flower in Taylor'a collection.

The rateable property m'Christohurchtbisyear shows a falling off in value of neatly £50,000. During the last year £48,500 worth of buildings have been erected, which leaves the actual deficiency afc about £1400. The council's overdraft amounts to £8327.

A big ocean liner, with 547 cabin passengers and crew of 287, carries the following supply of meat for a single voyage from England to America :— 12,5501b of fresh beof, 760 ib corned beef, 53201b mutton, 8501b treßh lamb, 3501b veal, and 3501b pork. The appeal by the Caesel Gold Extraction Company against the decision of the registrar of patents refusing them permission to amend the patent specifications waa concluded ab Wellington on the 14bb, Mr Justica Edwards reserving his decision. On the Maugishlak Peninsula, in the Caspian S«a, there a five small lakes. One of them is covered with salt crystals strong enough to allow mm aud beast to cross the lake on foot, while another is perfectly round in shape and of a lovely rose ooloiu*. One vigneron in Victoria has applied to the Government for the whole of the 50,000 t phylloxera-resisting vine cuttings which the Department proposes to import. , Signor Bragato estimates that at least 600,000 cuttiogs, and probably 1,000,000, will bo required. The number of pttients in the Dunedin Hospital at the beginning of last week was ,67. and during the week 18 were discharged and 15 admitted. Lily Mafchews, Catherine M'Lelland, Harriet M'Aulay, and Cuing Wing died in the institution, and the patients remaining number 80.

Colonel Porter, of Gisborne, has received the appointment of Government Native land purchase agent at Gisborne, and will, with Mr Wheeler, of the Survey department, arrange for the completion of the Native land* transactions which Government have entered into in the Poverty Bay district. A naval captain had invented a now lifebuoy. Ib consists of a large cork ring, capable of floating three persons, and provided with a kind of net, which affords a support to the feet. Its principal feature, however, is "that it is fitted with an electric light and a smill supply of pro visions. A vote is to be taken of the Pre6byremn congregation at Milton on the subject of introducing an organ. "At a meeting of the congregation a motion was carried^in favour of its introduction, but that the even]b should be postponed till the debt is reduced from about £600 to £200, the young people who desired the change undertaking the task. The Hon. W. J. M. Larnach has been appointed to represent New Zealand at the Brisbane Exhibition, which epens in May. Mr F. N. Meadows, who toured.the colony recently with the view of securing support for the exhibition so that the colony may be thoroughly represented, will act as Mr Larnach's secretary. Mr Me »dows leaves for Sydney, en route for Brisbane, on Saturday. The report of the council of the Cremation Society of England for 1896 gives the following list of the cremations at Woking from tho commencement of operations :—IBBS,: — 1885, 3 ; 1886, 10 ; 1887, 13 ; 1888, 28 ; 1889, 46 ; 1890, 54 ; 1891, 99; 1892, 104; 1893, 101; 1894, -125; 1895, 150 ; 1896, 137=370. Three crematoria are now open in Eugland and Scotland beside that at Woking. A daring burglary took place at tha Junction Hotel, Oamaru, on Sunday night. The burglars effected an entrance by the cellar door, and carried off the safe, which contained £20 in notes and Bilver. They cut the back out in a field clcsa by, and having abstracted the contents left the safe a wreck. The barglary was very cleverly planned, and was evidently the work of old hands.

: The aggregate tonnage of the steamers now j being built in England to the order of various ! Japanese companies ia said to reach upwards of 90,000 tons. The following are particulars concerning this great increase of the Japanese mercantile marine : — Nippon Yugen Kaisha, 10 steamers, 50,000 tons ; Osaka Shosen Kaisha, 7 steamers, 17,000 tone ; Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, 2 steamers, 4000 tons ; Toyo Kisea Kaisha, 4 steamers, 20,000 tons. Mr Lang tells in Longman's the strange story of a misprint. He wrote: "The want of historical perspective which makes the moment hide the great abysm of time." The printer's reader queried "abysm," and Mr Lang pub " Shakespeare " in the margin as his authority for the phrase. Then the passage appeared m print thus : " makes the moment hide the great Shakespeare of time"— to the confusion of Mb Lang and the. baffling of the commentators.