Foreign Statistics.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1905, 18 June 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

Foreign Statistics.

Statistics show that eight times as many murders are committed m Italy &b in any other European country.

Acoording to the last cansue, the population of Hamburg is Bix hundred and twenty two thousand five hundred and thirty, a gain of more than one hundred thousand since 18S5.

The reoent census of Ireland shows a population of one million seven hundred and six thousand one hundred and sixty-two males and two million three hundred and Eeventeen thousand and seventy Bix females, being a decrease of four hundred and sixty eight thousand six hundred and seventy four in the total since the last census.

According to the most recent census returns London haa a population of four million five hundred thousand, Paris of two million four hundred and fifty thousand, Eerlin of one million five hundred and seventy four thousand four hundred and eighty five and St. Petersburg of one million.

The " Paris Medioal Journal," in compering the death rate of England and Italy, Bupplies us with a subject for reflection at a time when our attention is being especially drawn to hygienic and sanitary matters. After stating that the death-rate per one thousand in England reached 17.8 in 1889, and in Italy 27 G, it goes on to give some of the facts oollected through the inquiry of a Sanitary Commission in the last named country in ISBS. The Commission stated that 6405 Italian parishes were without drain 3of any kind, that in 3,633 parishes the greater number of houses were without closets, and that over an area containing nearly one third of the population, undrinkable, indifferent, or insufficient water only wae procurable.

It ia a law of good society in China that young widows never marry again. Widowhood is, therefore, held in the highest esteem and the older the widow grows the more Bgreeable does her position become with the people. Should she reach fifty years, she may, by applying to the Emperor, get a sum of money with whioh to buy a tablet on whioh is engraved the sum of her virtues. The tablet is placed over the door at the principal entrance to the house.

The Greeks raised statues to their dogs ; Socretes swore by his dop, and Alexander the the Great honoured his by building a oily with magnifioant temples, which he dedicated to ita memory, A monument was built over the remains of the dog owned by X'intippus, the father of Pericles. Denied admission upon hi 3 master's ship, he swam alongside of it from Athens to Salamis, and foil dead from exhaustion at the feet of Xanfcippu3 the moment he stepped upon the shore.

In tho Cottonian manuecripta in the British Museum there are representations in a Saxon calender whioh depict men pruning plants, some of which resemble vines.

It is claimed that more men have died and are buried on the Isthmus of Panama, along the line of the proposed oanal, than on any equal amount of territory in the world.

The late Archbishop Tate of Canterbury onoe made an effective use of a sermon. Driving down Holloway Hill, ho was confronted by a runaway horse, with a heavy dray, making straight for his carriage. He threw a sermon in its face. The horse was so bewildered by the fluttering leaves that it awerved and paußcd, the driver regained control, the sermon waa pioked up and the bishop proceeded on his way. " 1 don't know," he said to his companion tha present Archbishop of York, " whether my sermon did any good to the congregation, but it was of considerable servioe to myself." A definition— " What is the difference between an optimißt and a pressimiet ?" "An optimist Bays sunshine followß rain, and a pessimist says rain follows sunehine." But I had aßked you, darling. Why then didn't you keep our engagement secret for a while." " I couldn't, Edward. That hateful Miss Oldish said the reason I wasn't married was because no fool had asked me, bo I up and told her you had." It is told of a certain bishop that, while at the house of one of Mb friends, be was pleased to observe that he was the object of marked attention from tbe small son of the host, whose eyes were rivitted upon him. After dinner, tho bishop approached the boy and said : •• Well, my young: friend, you seem to be interested in me. Do you find that lam all right?" "Yep, sir," returned the boy, with a fjlanoa at the bishop's knee breeches, " you're all right ; but, say, won't your mamma let you wear trousers yet Z" TS7