NEWS IN BRIEF.

Kumara Times, Issue 2336, 22 February 1884, Page 2

NEWS IN BRIEF.

♦♦♦ [From the Auckland Herald.] Chiua is vigorously preparing for war. A bulldog in London was recently sold for £SOOO. French missionaries are being maltreated by the Chinese. John Wisker, the well-known chessplayer and journalist, is dead. The traffic receipts of the London General Omnibus Company are about £BOO,OOO a year. Within a short period the Clyde shipbuilders have discharged 4000 workmen. Colonial wines are to be admitted to England at the same rate of duty as Spanish wines. It is believed that an extra duty of 3d per Bj will be placed on tea in New South Wales. It is supposed there are 7,000,000,000 people now living who never heard the Word of God. The banking institutions of South Australia have given all their employes a bouus on their salaries. It is stated that cancer prevails among the cattle in Tasmania from one end of the colouy to the other. The Medical Record says milk heated above lOOdeg. Fahr. is superior to all alcoholic drinks as a stimulant. The journeymen tailors in New York complain that they have to work sixteen hours a day to earn £2 8s per week. The only persons who are considered as fit for a long walk on the high Alps are those who can run a mile at a fair pace. The fish caught by English fishermen every year are estimated to be worth £8,000,000, and those by Scotchmen £3,000,000. A Sunday observance, as affected by newspapers, has lately been engaging the attention of the synod of Glasgow and Ayr. The returns of 1881 and 1882 show that the annual import and export trade of China amounts to very nearly 100,000,000d01. • Lieuteant Wissmau, the African traveler, has just left Hamburg again on another three years' exploration in the Congo region. The Egyptian Ministry now virtually consists of the English officials, Messrs Edgar Yincent, Clifford Lloyd, and Moncrieff, and Sir Evelyn Baring. Germany has symptoms of apoplexy, and in consequence of his advanced age much anxiety exist* u the truth.

The United States has the biggest oyster fisheries in the world, this single industry employing over 50,000 people. and yieldiug oysters to the value of 2,700,000d01. A large steamer on the Volga which was carrying 680,0001 b. of napthft, was struck by lightning, and was at once •wrapped in flame. It burned the whole day and night, it being found impossible to extinguish the fire. Several men perished. It is remarked that, according to the returns of the late census, every industrial and "commercial class in Great Britain has greatly augmented in numbers, excepting only those directly engaged in producing the actual necessaries of life at home. No less than 1400 telegraph and telephone wires, it is said, stretch across Leadenhall street, London. Over Queen Victoria street they intersect each other at almost every foot. Already nervous persons avoid riding on the outside of omnibuses. A duel with swords has been fought between M. Ignaz Heumann, one of the counsel who defended the Jews in the recent famous trial in Hungary, and M. Vay, police commissioner, who was accused by M. Heumann of torturing the prisoners. M. Vay received a severe wound in the chest. His antagonist was unhurt. At the Bacup Town Council meeting, Dr. Brown, the medical officer, reported that a girl aged seven had died from inflammation of the brain, brought on by overwork at school. The medical officer strongly condemned the practice of making young children do lessons at night. He said it worried them, and made them restless in their sleep.