General News.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XVIII, Issue 3107, 2 August 1894, Page 3

General News.

On an average each Englishman writes 40 letters a year, each Scotchman 30, and each Irishman 16. Tho averago Italian only posts 6 and the American 21. It must be remembered, that iu tho country letter-writing is a yare pursuit, and that the hulk of letters are written by business men. A French physician lias devised a vibrating helmet for the cure of nervous headaches. It. is constructed of strips of steel, put, in vibration by a small electro motor, which makes 600 turns a minute. Tho eeneation, which is not unpleasant, produces drowsiness; the patient falls asleep under its influence, and awakes free from pain. A new process (says the Marlborough Times) for destroying fern is being tried with success on one of tho best runs of the Sound, Heavy logs of timber are 1 ached together (sleepers answer the purpose) and aro dragged by horses over the fern land, this being repeated if necessary, and in duo course the fern thickens and dies Tho effect is similar to the heavy stocking process which, in suitable localities, has proved efficacious. The following epistle was addressed to She proprietor of an Auckland saleyard recehtly, when trying to dispose of his pony : —“ Please sell the old pony to the highest bidder. As to hie age, all I can £*y is that he is over one aud under ninety years. Ho is fast in saddle and harness, and will take a buggy across country if

you like. He is game to the backbone. As a present to one’s best girl, ho would be dear at 10s, as ho is fond of kicking ladies in tho stomach, but for this reason would be cheap at £SO as a present for a mother in law. He will work and go day and night.” Electric lamps aro now being largely fitted to gentlemen’s carriages in Loudon. The most popular aro about the size of a policeman’s lantern, the light being turned on and off by a button. The cost of the lamp is two guineas, and the cost of recharging threepence. A fox terrier imbued with a fiae sense of duty was found mounting guard over a woman in Ballarat, who v/as found tipsy ia Main-street. It would ullow no one near till a policeman threatened it with a stone. The woman, who is au inveterate toper, was taken to tho watch house, and the dog stayed in tho yard all day, occasionally stealing to the cell door, and trying to scratch its way in. The cost of maintaining the seven ships of the Australian auxiliary squadron has lately cropped np in Admiralty despatches. From these it is ascertained that the actual expenditure incurred in maintenance was, last year, £119 ; G71. Tho combined colonies agreed to pay £91,000, so that tho balanceof £28,671, with £2300 on interest account, or altogether about £31,000, represents the sum which tho Imperial Government is annually contributing towards tho protection of commerce in these waters.

During tho hearing of a Supreme Court case in Wellington the other day Judge Richmond was puzzled as to the meaning of the word ‘ greed,” and was informed that the word signified money, cash, coin of tho realm. Tho word ‘ chin music’ also stuck up tho judge. ‘ Chin rnusio,’ ho said, ‘ what is that ?’ ‘ Jaw,’ replied the witness, and tho judge was silent. He knew what that meant ! Which reminds us that Justice Williams was once puzzled b} 7 a witness, who, in repeating a conversation spoke of ‘ saavelling the rhino”—iu other words stoalieg the money.

In the Central Prisons at Toronto, a plebiscite on Prohibition was taken a few days ago. The Warden consenting, a canvass of ail tiro prisoaors was made. Tho reformatory for women was also canvassed. Tho following figures give the result : —Central Prison, for Prohibition, 257 ,* against, 58 ; neutral 26 ; total, 341. Mercer Reformatory, for Prohibition, 72 ; against, 10 ; total, 82. So that the vote was 75 per cent of tho malo prisoners and 88 per cent of tho female prisoners in favor of a Prohibitory lav/, while only 17 per cent and 12 per cant respectively are against it. An investigation of the records show that about 85 per cent of nil those at present in prison are there directly or indirectly through drink. Curing bodily ailments by coloured light !is a new thing. A North African potentate | who had a bad liver was shut up in a j room to which sunlight was admitted only ! through a small opening filled with purple glass, tho eunrays being directed against the region of the poor man’s offending organ. Perfect cure of course and people running the French doctor who was the author of it. Perhaps a day or two of low diet or none at all had more to do with tho bashaw’s recovery than coloured light. It was gravely asserted a few years ago that nervous diseases could be cured by incarcerating the patient in a room hung with crimson wall paper and window curtains.

So far, nothing tangible has resulted from the efforts made during late years to establish tho iron-making industry in New South Wales, although attention has from time to time been directed to many natural advantages possessed by several districts of tho colony—namely, deposits of iron ore, and coal and flux iu close proximity. Tho iron made in the colony at tho present time is not from oro, but from scrap, and the quantity so manufactured during the year was 2100 tons llcvvt Iqr 41b, valued at £14,726 6s. Tho Eskbank Ironworks, where this industry is oarried on, aro situated at Lithgow, on tho western side of the Blue Mountains, and employ about 150 men. In the Broken Hill district there wero raised during the year 1051 tons of iron ore, valued at £ll9B. The bulk of this comes from Balaclava, about eight miles from Broken Hill, the rest of it being taken bv the Proprietary Company from the out crop of the lode. It is used solely us flux. The Post remarks :—The figures published as to tho Poet Office Savings Bank returns tell their own tale of hard times and want of employment throughout tho country. The thrifty of tho industrial classes have evidently been to a considerable extent living on their savings. While in the corresponding quarter of last year there was an excess of deposits over with dratvals of £188,260, there has in the quarter just passed boen an excess of withdrawals over deposits of £25.095. Tho classes who deposit their accumulations in the Savings Bank are evidently worse off to the extend of upwards of £200,000 in tho threo months of last year. It is a bad sign of depression and want of employment when tho accumulations of the industrial classes not only cease to in crease, but have to be drawn on to afford means of subsistence. This is the slate of things disclosed by tho Savings Bank returns.

Boiling water (s ys Scientific Siftings) is not always very hot water. This is the way it happens : When tho water boils, ordinarily it is because great boat has separated the tiny particles of the water, forcing upward and outward in lively bubbles the air which is contained in them. This is done in spite of tho downword pressure of the atmosphere. After tho water has become hot enough to boil, it can get no hotter, because tho air escapes as fast as it is sufficiently heatod to do so. There aro places ou the earth whore tho pressure of the atmosphere upon the water is so slight that it requires but little heat to push apart the y articles and set free tho air bubbles which are confiued in the water, so it begins to boil beforo it becomes very hot. This state of things ia found on all high mountain tops, as tho atmosphere grows weaker and its pressure less as one ascends. A joker recently induced the owner of a goat "to tnko tho animal to a hall in which a Masonic lodge was in sesnion. Ho told tho man that the lodge goat was dead, and that a new ono was needed for immediate service. The gout was a very troublesome one, one of the “ billy” porsuasion, and its owner was glad to be rid of him, so he promptly haltered him, aud after an exciting trip through the streets and a, faliguiug journey up two flights of stairs, tho outer door was reached, the man tired with his exertions and the goat mad at being hauled so far above terra firma against his will. Just then a young man who waa to bo initiated that night came upstairs, and tho goat catching sight of him, jerked away from its owner, and with a 1? air-raising, blood curdling b-a-n, lowered its horns and went for the newcomer like a wolf for a yearling lamb. Ono glimpse of hie wjld wierd looking assailant was sufficient, and tho frightened candidate, with «n ear splitting yell of dismay went down stairs, six stops at a jump, and made for tho woods at a 2 40 gait. His initiation has been indefinitely postponed until he can be found, and the lodge has placed advertisements in the nowspapers, asking for intelligence of his whereabouts.

A report upon insanity in Ireland, which has been issued in England, enumerates among tho causes of mental failure, the in nutritious dietary of the poorer population, tending to produce amumia and con-

stitutional weakness, which favor the development of scrofulous and neurotic disease, aud the immoderate use of certain nervous stimulants, particularly tea and tobacco. The report adds :—While the moderate use of properly prepared tea is regarded as innocuous, or even beneficial, in its action on tho nervous system, its ill effects when decocted or over-infubed on persons who rnxka it their staple article of dietary are dwelt on by almost all the resident medical superintendents ia their several reports. Undoubtedly the method of preparation adopted, and the excessive use of this article of diet, now so general among our poorer population, tends to the production of dyspepsia, which in its turn leads to states of mental depression highly favorable to the production of various forms o£ neurotic disturbance. The excessive use of tobacco also, especially among the youug, whether by smoking or chewing, in the opinion of certain of our medical superintendents, acts, though perhaps ia a minor degree, injuriously on the nervous ceutres. In many parts of Ireland it has been found that bread and tea havo been substituted for porridge aud milk, and for potatoes also ; that the tea used is generally of an inferior quulity, and the method of preparation ia to put a quantity in tho teapot early iu the morning and to allow it to stow during tho day, water being added a 3 required.

The Timaru Herald states that Mr W. J. Tonkin, well-known as an exportor of hares and poultry, received by the mail a letter from a prominent poultry dealer of Smitbfield, in which the writer says : “ I received au interesting consignment of poultry from Australia during the month of April, consisting of ducklings, chickens, and wild rabbits. They arrived in excellent condition, and arriving as they did when our market waa comparatively bare they made fabulous prices* I returned tho shipper 4s each for the ducks 3s 6d each for the fowls, and Is 2d each for the rabbits. I am sure during the coming season, if you could send these things to mo to arrive during March, April and May, I could got you a lot of money, for you must know during those months we have very little English poultry indeed.”