ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

Kumara Times, Issue 512, 18 May 1878, Page 2

ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

Over ctIGOO has been subscribed towards Sir Rowland Hill’s memorial. Mr Tennyson, it is said, has several new poems nearly ready for publication.

Australian butter is one of the latest additions to Great Britian’s food supplies.

The annual dinner of the Caledonian Society of London took place on the 35th ult, in the Freemasons’ Tavern, in honor of the memory 0 f Robert Burns. Nearly 200 ladies and gentlemen were pioseut.

Cleopatra’s Needle is to stand on the Victoria Embankment, at the Adelphi Steps, whore its proportions will not be dwarfed bj surrounding Jiuiidinga. and whore, as Mr Dixon ‘days, the

splendid grey granite of the Embankment, the solid grandeur of the Waterloo Bridge, the distant background of Somerset House, the river, and the Adel phi Gardens, form appropriate surroundings. A great change has been made in the programme of examination for appointment to Royal Irish Constabulary Cadetships. Latin and two branches of the law having been added, a largely increased number of candidates being nominated fur each vacancy. Thus the difficulty of the examination has been greatly enhanced. As proof of the dullness of trade in the Coatbridge district, it is mentioned that in one day no less than seventy young men there enlisted in the army. A Manchester lady has taken second honors in two subjects—mathematics and moral science—at the Cambridge examinations. She ia the Erst woman to accomplish this.

The traditional love of the Irishman for “ mountain dew,” and his desire to enjoy it free of Government control, ia exemplified in the return of the Inland Revenue just issued. In 1874-5 the number of detections of illicit distillation was 731, in the following year it rose to 796, and in 1876-7 it was 979. The detections in Scotland in 1877 were 2 ; in 1876 there was only 1. In England, in 1876, there were 8 detections ; in 1877 only 3. The number of British subjects at present in Constantinople is under 4000, and of these more than half are not Englishmen, Irishmen, or Scotchmen. Hr Hardwick, a London coroner, states that 300 children annually meet their deaths in the metropolis from suffocation in bed.

The Commissioner of Agriculture is S'Kin to issue a pamphlet, in which he will call attention to the feasibility of tea culture in the United States.

The market price of salmon in Waterford is Is 3d per pound. Last year, at this period, it was 2s per pound.

The annual report of the RegistrarGeneral is published, [n two respects particularly it presents a favourable picture of Scotland. The births for the last quarter of the year were far more numerous than in the corresponding quarter, for any of the previous ten years, whilst the death rate was considerably below the average. This is proof of health and progress. ■Shaw and Co, spinners at Belfast and Celbridge, have failed. Their liabilities are about £IOO,OOO. The grant for pauper lunatic in Ireland last year was £78,000, all of which was expended with the exception of £93.