NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 123, 3 September 1875, Page 12

NEWS IN BRIEF.

- ■<> Moths during repose fold their wings around their bodies. Don Quixote, since it first appeared, is said to have gene through 1,175 editions. The London Society of Compositors has voted JBIOO from its. funds to the Plimsoll Fund. It is said that in Mr. Tennyson's forthcoming drama will t^e found a simile derived from the Transit of Venus. The total number of strings in a piano when prowerly stretched to produce the right tones, exert a pull of over ten, tons ; this explains why good pianos must be durably and heavily built. The city of New York has a civil service of about 13,00p> persons, or one man drawing pay to every three paying taxes. It takes 13,000 dollars to run the city annually. A French journalist saya that the number of public-houses and breweries in London is so great, that if they were placed side by side they would reach from the metropolis to Portsmouth. _ A new plan for steamship locomotion is suggested in providing screw propellers at each end of the vessel. One of them ie thus constantly in the water, no matter how rough it may be. M. Silberman arrives at the conclusion, as the result' of various investigations and studies, that the average height of the human race has remainen 1 unchanged since the Chaldean' epoch, 4,000years ago. The Scientific American Office, New York, is fitted with th» Minature Electric Telegraph. - By touching little buttons on the desks of the managers, signals are sent to persons in the various departments of the establishment. Bridesmaids' costumes are getting to be very lively. At «.- recent English wedding they wore -white Cashmere trimmed with, sapphire velvet. At another they were attired in pale blue Japanese silk, trimmed with tea rose. A contemporary states that there is reason to believe that tha well-known novelist " Ouida " is at present on a visit to Wellington, but desires to remain incog. It is added that her object in visiting the Colonies is to obtain material for a new tale. The pretty rice-paper that looks so pura and delicate is obtained in China from the pith of a great tree— not as we make paper from poplar wood, but by simply cutting the pith into thin slices. A man in a New York rural settlement, who has been an inveterate smoker for twenty years, has suddenly and permanently given up the practice. He knocked the ashes of bis pipe into a ke«of blasting pawder. An insane man in the Asylum of Auburn prison feels assured that he -will become a lunatic if he does not whistle eight hours aday. He has no watch, and that he may be sure of fulfilling his task, he commences at daybreak, and only stops when he falls asleep at night. It is rumored in Dublin- that the Duke of Connaitght has purchased Eockingham Castle and demesne, in Boyle, county Sligo, formerly belonging to Viscount Lorton, as a residence. It is by many thought to be the finest mansion and seat in Ireland, and and the prospect of its being made a Royal residence is very pleasing to the Irish people. The Hungarians are justly proud of their oxen. They are used ai working cattle over the whole empire, and at present there is little indication of their being superseded either by horses or steam power. It is no uncommon light to s»o a team of oxen yoked to a plough, and driven by the ploughman entirely by the voice *nd without any aitii> tauce from either reim or driver. Mr. Macandrew, Superintendent of Otago, is the oldest member of the House of Representatives, except one. He was (saysthe 'Auckland Star') a member of the House in 1854— twenty-one years ago, and according to his own calculation he has spent between two and a half and three years in attending to Ms legislative duties at Wellington. In the souuding of the ocean at great depths greatly improved modes have been introduced in recent times. No rope is now used. A machine is thrown into the sea ; it sinks to the bottom, contact with, -which, disengages -weights attached to sink it, and it comes to the surface again with the ocean's depth at the spot accurately indicated on its dial. A new parlour ornament is the " self-acting perfume fountain." It is a large basin of some peculiar composition, from the centre of which, comes a spray of perfume about three feet high. This falls into the basin, and is " worked over " again by means of a curious little pump underneath, wound tip (wlien you expect company !) like a clock. . The Roman correspondent of the ' Daily News' quotes from, the 4 Osservatore Romano ' an article in which that journal reads the Prince of Wales, a severe lesson for accepting the Grand Mastership of the English Freemasons. It ascribes the downfall of Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Louis Napoleon to their connection -with the craft, and implores the Prince to take warning before it is too late. The statue of Archbishop M'Hale, which is of Carrara marble, was, on June 9, unveiled at Dublin, in presence of about 5,000 persons. It stands 7ft. high, upon a pedestal of Portland granite, 6ft. in height, and is a good likeness. The anveiling was performed by Bishop Nulty, who pronounced a warm panegyric upon the great Archbishop of the West, the pride and glory of the Irish Church, and the best and noblest of Irishmen. ' A veritable wild man of the woods has been encountered near Darjeeling, India. The ' Times of India' tells us that he is of small statue, dark in color, has his toes where Ms heels ought to be, and -weai'3 a beard extending i'ar below his knees— -hia sole habiliment. This wild man inhabits the jungle, and occasionally rushes out on people, howling like a jackal, and frightening them out of their senses.