MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 1342, 8 January 1879, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

The United States now exports about 200,000,000 pounds of cheese annually. Dr. Halley says that the total evaporation caused by the rays of the sun on the surface of the Mediterranean Sea amounts to 52,000,000,000 tons of water m one summer day. The Austrian Government has replied to the Turkish circular attributing barbarous excesses to the occupying forces m Bosnia, denying the charges, and claiming credit for extreme moderation m carrying out the decisions of the Berlin Conference. In the United States the city council of New Orleans, La., have passed an ordinance compelling all commercial travellers to pay a license fee of 100 dols., which entitles them to sell goods by sample or take orders during their stay m that city. The telephone has recently been exhibited on the Island of Formosa, m the China Sea, m the presence of the Imperial Governor. Messages were transmitted a distance of thirty miles, to the surprise of the Chinamen, who showed deep interest m the experiment. A new species of tea shrub, resembling that which grows m China, has been discovered m Armenia, near Trebizond. The peasants pick the leaves and dry them m the sun, and large quantities have been sent to Persia, where the new product is highly appreciated. Last year the potato-bug invaded Prussia, but the inhabitants of Schildau and Mulheim built fences around the fields, covered them with sawdust and tanbark, soaked this with kerosene and set lire to the mass. The heroic treatment has been entirely successful, as not one of the dreaded insects has been seen this year. The British Consul at Calais reports the passenger traffic through the principal French ports m the year 1877 at 395,321, or, adding Ottend, 423,979 — namely,

j 212,264 passengers landed, and 211,715 embarked. The total is distributed thus j — Via Calais, 180,982 ; Boulogne, ' 132,386 ; Dieppe, 62,916 ; Havre, 19,037 ; ! to which are to be added 28,658 via Osj tend. A large portion of the work m the Belgian coal mines, such as loading the train or trucks, hauling them down into the main roads, attending doors, &c., is performed by women and girls. An attempt was recently made m the Belgian legislature to exclude females from work m the mines, but the attempt failed, the only progress made being to fix the minimum age of girls working m the mines at thirteen years, and that of boys at twelve. The consumption of sugar-cane m the United States stands between 600,000 and 700,000 tons per annum. Of this the j British West Indies supply 10,000, British Guiana 10,000, the French West I Indies 22,000, Cnba 450,000, Spanish Possessions 50,000, Porto-Rico 30,000, Brazil 18,000, the Dutch East Indies 11,000, the Sandwich Isles 10,000 ; the American home producticns being about 80,000 ton?. The steamship Great Eastern is now being fitted with new engines and boilers manufactured by the Clyde Iron Works, at a cost of £100,000. She is now lying at Milford Haven, and it appears that she has been chartered for a term of years, or even bought, by a company for carrying cattle between Texas and London. This is a kind of " passengers " with some drawback to them, no doubt, but they have a c ecided advantage over the other human kind, i.e. they can't complain. A substance having the properties of india-rubber and guttapercha has been derived of late from the bully tree, on the banks of the Amazon and Orinoco. It is called balata. It is tasteless, gives out an agreeable odour on becoming warmed, may be cut like guttapercha, is tough and leathery, is remarkably flexible, and far more elastic than either of its rivals. It becomes strongly electrified by fricition, and is a better insulator of heat and electricity than gutta-percha. The trial of Juan Oliva Moncasi, the man who attempted the life of King Alfonso, is now proceeding, and has established that the would-be assassin had no accomplices. It is believed that the King will commute the sentence of death which will without doubt be passed upon the prisoner, into penal servitude for life. The people of Madrid continue their manifestations of loyalty to his Majesty, and large numbers of congratulatory telegrams and letters arrive daily from all parts of the provinces. It is stated that copies of revolutionary journals, purporting to appear at St. Petersburg, Kieff, and Odessa, circulate m Russia. Placards of similar contents have been repeatedly posted up, and pamphlets distributed. The latest pamphlet of the sort, entitled " Buried Alive," professes to describe the tortures of political prisoners detained m the dungeons of the St. Petersburg fortress of Saints Peter and Paul. It would appear as if the production of Russian revolutionary literature, m and out of Russia, almost extinct since the death of Alexander Herzen, has been resumed with a will. The Italic comments on the prevalence m the Peninsula of pellagra, a malady which, beginning with the skin, impairs the digestion and nervous system and becomes fatal. In Lombardy m 1830 there were 20,000 peasants attacked by it; m 1856 there were 38,000; and, though no statistics have since been published, there are believed to be now 40,000. The disease is produced by the habitual consumption of the flower of damaged maize, and also by overwork, uii cleanliness, and unhealthy dwellings ; and the Lombard peasants are declared to be underpaid and underfed.