NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 71, 5 September 1874, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The last sitting of the Westland Provincial Council cost the province £844 2s 6d. Tenders have been called for the erection of a district hospital at Cromwell, at a cost of £900. Gas emitted from the earth is used with success as fuel at an extensive iron works iv Loechburgh, Pennsylvania. At a public dinner, at Yass, N S.W., an alderman proposed the toast of " The Bushranging Interest, coupled with the name of Sir Hercules Robinson." The toast was drunk amidst great laughter.

The largest plate t.aat has been rolled in Scotland from a single pile was rolled at the Blochairn Iron Works recently. The dimensions are twenty-three feet sis inches long, four feet wide, and one inch thich. The weight of the pile going into the furnace was 44001 bs — nearly two tons. The California Assembly has passed a Bill requiring all miners to keep in good order and operation two shafts of ingress and egress ; means* of ventilation sufficient to give each miner 230 feet of pure air, each minute ; keeping hois' ing machinery in good order } and overseers to be deemed guilty of manslaughter if death occurs from want of attention to its provisions. The latest news iroui the Indian famine districts is cheering. Plentiful rains have fallen, the labourers on the relief works are decreasing daily, seed corn is abundant, and the Government grain reserves will suffice until December. The Mansion house Relief Fund exceeds £122,000.

A Frenchman named Degoof .succeeded in descending eafel from a baloon by means of a flyiug-inachme. He went up from Cremorne Gardens, passed over the city, and descended near Brandon, Essex. In a second attempt Degooi was killed owing to the failure of his plans. As a remarkable illustration of the large trade between England and Australia it is mentioned that 17 vessels arrived at Qravesend from the Antipodes on 25th June. Eight we.c from New Zealand, 4 from Adelaide, 2 from Melbourne, 2 from Sydney, and 1 from Brisbane.

A statistician has calculated tint it would require a period of nearly 400 years to read the titles of all the books comprised in the various libraries of Europe, allowing one minute for each title. Manuel de la Concha, the distinguished General who fell on June 28 while leading the Republican army iv an assault upon the Cariist position, was born iv 1794, and wa9 therefore 80 years of age, being probably the oldest Commander-iu-Chief that ever died in the saddle. Of the 204 members of the Senate of Dublin University, only 11 are Catholics.

The Shah of Persia recieved 8000 begging letters during his stay in London, which he ordered to be packed in a large chest for future inspection and consideration.

The colored Catholics of Kentucky have sent through their pastor a gold-headed cane to the Pope, and a crown for the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes .

Baltimore is boiling down her superfluous canine population into glue, by whioh the city gains five cents per dog. Fifteen hundred and sixty housrs in New York City are owned by the Astor family. It is certain that the police of Paris are Imperialists to a man, and that they would at any time help in bringing about a Bonapartiit reiteration.

An island five acres in exfent is floating about Lake Monomonaulc, which lies partly in New Hampshire and partly iv Massachusetts. It travels two miles at a time.

It has been estimated that two tkirds of the earnings of British workmen are spent en liquor, involving an expenditure on that commodity of £96,000,000 every year.