GENERAL NEWS.

West Coast Times, Issue 2768, 14 February 1878, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

Duriug the eruit-e of the Marion Rcnny to l''iji, a hirgr t^hark was caught and hauled on board. As he lay on his back on the ship's deck, a Solomon man came near him, and somehow managed to put his hand near the shark's mouth who made a snap, and bit the poor fellow's hand off. Japan has annulled all commercial treaties, and resumed its right to revise custom duties at pleu'-urc. There is a report, according to the Army aud Navy Gazette, that the authorities are alarmed at the " ugly rush" for retirements under the new warrant, and that they are thinking of asserting their right to limit the number of officers who may retire. The nett yield of gold for the colony of Victoria last year, according to the calculations of the Melbourne Argus, is 792.839 ozs, showing a decrease on the previous year of 144,421 ozs. M. Dreux, of Glebe-street, Sydney, has just shown us (Sydney Morning Herald) a sample of bis ingenuity, in the shape of a bouquet of flowers mule from human hair in natural shades, and varying from hazel brown, for the leaven, to almost snowy white, for the blossoms. The work, which is really artistic in appearance, is said to have had it* origin in the efforts of some members of the Royal Family of Sweden, who wished to preserve lelics of their relations, and is intended to provide mementoes of families, the members of which supply their hair for making them up. A medical work nearly 3400 years of age, has just been translated from a papyrus found on an Egyptian mummy. From this it appears that hair invigorants, hair dyes, pain-killers, and flea powders were just as much in vogue then as now. Last year about 1200 miners were employed in the Cassiar district, British Columbia, which number included 300 or 400 Chinamen* The yield of gold was worth £100,000. The season was not a favorable one on account of the many freshets which occurred^ The Cariboo also produces about £100,000 worth of gold annually.