NEWS IN BRIEF

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4339, 29 April 1896, Page 5

NEWS IN BRIEF

The only lady mayoress entitled to wear a chain of office is the wife of the Lord Mayor of York. Down to the year 1890 Krupp had delivered to European nations over sixteen thousand cannon. Great Britain owns 2,570,000 square miles of territory in Africa, an area almost equal to that of the United States. The New South Wales railway revenue for the March quarter shows an increase of £1,100 as compared with the corresponding quarter of last year. The expenditure shows an increase of £3,870, owing chiefly to the damage caused by floods. Mr T. D. M'Manaway, of Tawhitinui, Pelorus Sound, writes to the • Post' that he has found one of Captain Cook's medals. Heavy sea and high tides led to the discovery by displacing the soil. The medal had evidently been buried in an iron vessel or box, as it shows signs of contact with iron. On one side two ships are shown, and there ia an interpretation in clear letters : " Resolution, Adventure— sailed from England March, MDCCLXXIL," on the other side a King's head, and also, in clear letters, " George 111 , King of Gr. Britain, France, and Ireland, etc.," with the small letters " BF " on the neck. An ingenious young man named Henry Lorenz has, through reading and experimenting entirely by himself, succeeded in generating electric light from chemicals in glass jars. By this means he supplies his widowed mother's cottage, at Hunterville, with a brilliant electric light. A Melbourne dentist, who is going through the Insolvency Court in that city, admitted that his income for the last two years was about £2,000 per annum. The gambling evil in Sydney is causing much attention. On a recent Sunday thirty-five clergymen talked on the subject. The highest inhabited building in Europe is the Alpine clubhouse, on Mount Rosa — 12,000 ft above the sea level. Lilies are raised as a regular field crop in the Bermudas. In one of the largest fields over a hundred thousand may be seen in bloom at the same time. At the present time a penny on the income tax in Great Britain yields £2,700,000, as compared with the £800,000 of Sir R. Peel's i estimate in 1844. "Cool as a cucumber" is scientifically correct. Investigation shows that this vegetable has a temperature one degree below that of the surrounding atmosphere. The new metal, glucinum, which has hitherto been more of a chemical rarity than a commercial commodity, is coming very rapidly into general use, much in the j same way as aluminium did a few years ago. It is lighter even than aluminium, but its chief value consists in the fact that its electrical conductivity is as high as that of silver, and consequently higher than that lof copper. It is more durable and less tensile than ircn. The only alteration in the laws of the game of football made by the English Union last season is the striking out of the word " half" before " backs" in section h, rule 4, which provides for the granting of free kicks by way of penalty. The rule now reads : " Not in scrummage, wilfully obstructs his opponents' backs by standing on his opponents' side of the ball when it is in a I scrummage." An experiment in the direction of the municipalisation of hotels has just been established at Elan Village. The rules of management are decidedly stringent. Youths are not served, and the house is only opened from twelve o'clock until two, and from half-past five to nine in the evening ; on Sundays it is closed all day, but it is open from Ito 9 p.m. on Saturday. The net profits for the first half-year were £140. The house is conducted on similar lines to those advocated by the Bishop of Chester. This experiment was made by Mr Lees, the secretary of the waterworks at Birmingham, who, in concluding his report, says that individually he is an abstainer, but he was perfectly certain that he was serving the interests of temperance better^ in providing wholesome liquor, under proper regulations, than attempting to prohibit the traffic altogether. A clever swindle is described in the ' Drapery World.' It was perpetrated on a New York dry goods house a few weeks ago. A fashionably-dressed woman drove up in a stylish carriage and selected a seal wrap at £60, tendering in payment a cheque for £200, drawn on an uptown bank. The customer was detained while a boy was sent to the bank to ascertain the genuineness of the cheque, and became highly indignant when she learned the cause of the delay. In fact, on the boy's return she demanded her cheque back and left the store, saying she would purchase elsewhere. Fifteen minutes later, however, she returned, expressing regret for her impatience, and, tendering the cheque, said she would take the wrap. The garment was accordingly placed in the carriage and the customer departed, carrying her change of £140 with her. When the cheque was again presented at the bank it was found that immediately after the boy's first visit to the bank the £200 which the woman had on special deposit had been withdrawn, and there was no balance with which to meet the cheque. The adoption of the Gothenburg system of controlling the sale of liquor has been urged upon the Premier of New South Wales by a deputation from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. Mr Reid> reply. Ing, said the Gothenburg was a system which put the whole question on a footing more favorable to reform than any proposal made by the Prohibitionists. The prospect of getting a majority in Parliament to legislate for Prohibition was so remote that he heartily welcomed the action of the deputation, as it brought the matter within practical politics. Personally he opposed local option, and did not think any member of the community had a right to prevent anyone else drinking moderately. But the proposal of the deputation, with modifications, was quite feasible. He thought this was a matter which the Government should take up, and intended to introduce a Bill next session dealing with adulteration, including intoxicating liquor, bnt thought it impossible to promise any general measure of temperance reform next session.