BREVITIES.
A native woman gave birth to triplets at Otaki do Sunday. This is said to be the first case of Maori triplets on record. France has one university student to every 565 of her population ; Great Britain has only one in 2150. In Persis cutting the hair is a sign of mournirg. Storm warnings were first issued in Holland in 1860. Insurances recently have been placed in London to cover the risk of war breaking out between England and Germany during the ensuing twelve months at three guineas per cent. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway have begun using incandescent burners and mantles in some of their trains on the Horwhich and BlacUrod branch. Mrs Maud Witherbee Adams, wife of a rich broKer, who is very popular in New York society recently sued her husband for a divorce and obtained an interlocultory decree likewise a settlement of £20,000 ahmuny. """The"* English nautical authority, "Steamship," reports that a Cardiff firm T are about to construct 6 turbine steamers, each of 15000 tons gross ' to establish a new regular service between Great Britain and Austmlin. " The Pone's wedding present to Princess Eva was the Golden Rose. The last royal recipient of this — to Roman Catholics — most priceless gift was the Empress Eugenic, the bride's godmother. The big cargo steamer Tweedale, under charter to the Union Company is to proceed from Timaru to Picton for a cargo of barley for Sydney. One of the few millionaires possessed by Spain is working as an ordinary workman in a soap manufactory at Berlin. He ows the largest soap factory in Madrid hut wishes personally to learn the difference between the German and French modes of making soap. Scientific experiments are said to show tbat plants can be forced to grow with the aid of drugs. They are fed on ether or other poisons for twenty-four or tbirty-stx hours, until they are thoroughly permeated with the'fumos. Then they grow with the greatest rapidity. Easter lilies treatnd thus have put out magnificent blooms in a night, and narcissus .flowers have doubled their size after a fftw hours treatment. An attempt to storm the Parliament House in Vienna was made by a meeting of twelve thousands shopkeepers, who had gathered to protest against the Legislature permitting the "unfair competition" of cooperative stores. In quelling the riot the police used their swords, and several persons were wounded. Nearly 500 men fall out from the ranks of the Army flvery year owiDg to weak hearts and other defects broughfe en by the illogical system of physical training in the Army, said Sir Frederick Treves at Sherborne. This system is now under review. Mr T. C. Wyndhanj, of New York, recently found a JBIO banknote between the leaves of a copy of "Much Ado About Nothing," in the Lennx Library in that city. A note pinned ! to the page conveyed the information that it- was from "one who has money to sp^re and i 9 a lover of Shakespeare." Joseph Salomonson, who calls himsolf "Meva," is exciting much j amussnient in Paris, where be parades the streets dressed only in a fiov, ing white robe reaching to the knoes, and wearing a gilt circlet on his head J" Meva, " who says he is an apostle of the "simple life," has
'vb ked uli ofar France in his einga-\ lar costume.The coach in which the Lord Mayor of London rides on State' occasions has been in use since the yea* 1757. Queen Alexandra is particularly fond of one corner of the grounds at Sandnngham, dn admirably-designed wild garden, where in the early spring are to be found thousands of snowdrops, daffodils and primr Tcon Si gDlnent of im tontof ccment is to be shipped by the Marlborough Lime and Cement Company ifrom Wellington for San Francisco, by the steamer Pondo. The sloths never drink; rabbits and parrots very rarely arink. A parrot lived fifty-two years in the Zoo without drinking a drop of water. Lord Rosebery's Epson house, The Durdans. is peculiarly interesting from the fact that George 111. passed part of bis boyhood there, Frederick, Prince of Wales, once owned the house, and theie is a pillai- in the shrubbery which was put upbyfiimin memory of a favourite dog.
The only waxworks in Glasgow were sold by auction recently. Mr f Chamberlain and Mr Gladstone fetched only half a crown apiece, while double that sum was£ paid for Lorci Rosebery. Other statesmen were uusaleable. Henry VIII and his wives went for 8s eaoh, and the late Prince Consort- brought half a sovereign. Assorted criminals were fairly cheap* Park Royal the "white elephant" £25 000 *««>"» A n.." .„ . ... . . ■ - 11 fath «8 beating- the nf flh „ 8 recently sold fo * at JjOndoDA casualty company at Haitford, Conn., has paid Miss Annie Loohe, of New York, £3200 for the loss of her scalp in a machinery accident. A" glimpse directly into too natural home life of Sir Walter Scutfc £and his family is given in "Letters Hitherto Unpublished, written" by Members of Sir Walter Scott's Family to their old Governess," edited by^the^Wftrdeh of Wadham C ollege, Oxford.