General News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 229, 29 January 1876, Page 7

General News.

Emigration returns at Liverpool show a decrease last year thus far of 30,374. The decrease in the month of October was 4071. A committee has been formed to construct a people's opera-house in Paris to contain from 10,000 to 16,000 persons, at prices not exceeding an average of 2f.

Among the illustrated devices in the city of Bombay put up by the natives on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales was one with the words, "Tell mamma we are happy."

A French blacksmith has devised a perforated plate, put in rotation by clockwork, and intended to place behind the lock of a safe. The consequence is that the safe cannot be opened except at certain times during business hours, and when there is no danger of any robber intruding into the offices. . A. " wedding agency " is about to be established in Paris. There will be a chapel and a branch of the Mayoralty, so that civil and religious weddings can take place under one roof. Carriages, lawyers, priests, ball-room, music, and even the wedding finery will be furnished.

The Russian Ministry of Justice has given instructions that henceforth corporal punishment shall be discontinued in its application to females sentenced to deportation. Hitherto women have been punished the same as men with knouts and rods. Henceforth ten days of isolated confinement are to count as the equivalent of a lash with the knout, and two days a lash with a rod.

The Maidstone Journal believes that until 29th October last, no member of our Royal families has been born in Kent during the last 250 years. King Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, two of the daughters of James 1., the Princesses Mary and Sophia, who died infants, and Prince Charles, the eldest son of Charles 1., who also died an infant, were all born at the Royal palace at Greenwich. M. Sebille, a French architect, has obtained a patent for damp-proof bricks. He injects bricks, tiles, &c, with tarry products of coal distillation, and finds them perfectly impermeable to humidity. Nothing is said as to the kind of cement that is to be used with them.

The Glasgow Herald has been favored with the following extract from a letter from Mr. Gladstone to a friend in Glasgow :—"There is not a word of truth in the statements—l. That I have received a proposal from Turkey in respect to its finances. 2. That I have made any declaration on the subject of the political future, other than was announced to the world eighteen months ago. 3. That I have written about the Church of England in the new Church Quarterly Reviexo, or else-

where. Statistics relative to the use made of the Post-office in the principal countries of the world, shows that Switzerland occupies the first place with 31 letters annually per inhabitant ; England comes next with 20J, then the United States with 19. France only ranks ninth. With respect to telegraphic communications Switzerland also takes the lead with 81 messages per 100 inhabitants ; next follow England, 54 ; Holland 51, Belgium 47, the United States 32, Germany, 31. France has the tenth place in the thirteen chief States ; Russia the last, with one telegram only per 100 inhabitants. There is a remarkable comparison to be made between the French and German nations in regard to financial matters. The Germans, notwithstanding the large amount they received from their neighbors, are getting deeper into debt. The budget for 1876 shows a deficiency of 50,000,000 marks, while the French revenue for the year up to November Ist exceeds the estimates by 110,000,000 francs. The German Emperor's recent visit to Milan has given rise to a curious lawsuit. Many of the boxes in La Scala Theatre belong to private persons, who keep the keys. Two renters, the Duke Scotti and an advocate named Traveris, cordially detest tbe Germans, and in order to manifest their displeasure they resolved to absent themselves from the theatre on the night that the Emperor went there, and to keep their boxes empty ; thereupon the police broke open the doors and placed some Prussian officers in the boxes. For doing this the Duke and the lawyers have instituted legal proceedings. The following from the Masonic News gives the precise history of the much discussed question regarding the expulsion of the Pope from the order of Masonry :—" Pope Pius IX. Expelled from the Order for Perjury.—At the semi-annual meeting of the Grand Lodge of Masons, Scottish Rite of the Orient of Palermo, Italy, held in that city on the 27th March, Mastai Ferretti was expelled from the order for violating his vows and for perjury. Mastai Ferretti is no other person that Pius IX., Pope of Rome. The decree of the lodge of Palermo is published in the official paper of the Order of Freemasons at Cologne, Germany, and dated March 27. It is preceded by the minutes of the lodge in which Mastai Ferretti, in 1826, was initiated into the order under the old Scottish rite. The decree reads as follows: —• A man called Mastai Ferretti, who received the baptism of Freemasonry and solemnly pledged his love and fellowship, and who afterwards was crowned Pope and King under the title of Pio Nino, has now cursed his former brethren and excommunicated all members of the Order of Freemasons. Therefore said Mastai Ferretti is herewith, by decree of the Grand Lodge of the Orient, Palermo, expelled from the order for perjury.' The charges against Mastai Ferretti were first preferred in his lodge at Palermo in 1865, and notification and copy thereof sent to Rome, with a request to attend the lodge for the purpose of his vindication. To this the Pope made no reply, and for divers reasons the charges were not pressed until the Pope urged the clergy of Brazil to aggressive measures against the Freemasons in.

that country. Then the charges were pressed, and the second and third notifications sent, and after a formal trial a decree of expulsion was entered and caused to be published. Ihe decree bears the signature of Victor Emanuel King of Italy, Grand Master to the Orient of Italy." INTERCOLONIAL CLIPPINGS. Blondin's large tent, in Sydney, is to be utilised for service of sacred song. A pig has been born at Yass River with one ear, two tails, and six legs. At Parkes, 12900z5. of gold were taken from 350 loads of washdirt. Wild ducks have been successfully domesticated at Young. Three prospectors, at Parkes, suffered seriously from drinking out of a lagoon, which had been poisoned for killing kangaroos. The Government of South Australia have set apart 120,000 acres of land for educational purposes. . , An original cantata, styled "The British Throne and Empire," by Mr. Gibbs, has been produced at Adelaide. Sir Hercules Robinson is about to purchase Glenalvon estate, Murrurundi, for a country residence. An infant three weeks old, with teeth and long hair, has been brought up as a neglected chifd, at Melbourne, and sent to the Industrial School. A policeman's dog at Ballarat does good duty in dispersing larrikins, and points well at drunken men. William Durwood was killed in a gold mine at Eaglehawk, Victoria, by 150 tons of mullock falling on him. The Seymour Expres sstates that a veritable bunyip, about 20 feet long, supposed to have been disturbed by a steamer, was seen by Duncan Mcintosh in the Goulburh river. The interference of Roman Catholic clergymen in public school affairs at Stawell, Victoria, has been severely commented upon by the judges. The Victorian Education department has a model of a portable school for country districts, to hold seventy children, and accommodate the teacher with two rooms. Forty tons of iron, of excellent quality, have been sent to Sydney, from Lithgow, New South Wales, where it was manufactured. Ellen Taylor has been committed for trial at New Norfolk, Tasmania, for attempting to poison Sarah Fielding for marrying a man who was to have married Taylor's daughter.^

Kong ah Kang, a Christianised Chinaman, has been preaching the Gospel to large numbers of his countrymen in Sydney, and has been accredited by Bishop Barker for similar work on the Palmer.

The following is related by the Burrangong Chronicle : —A black tracker entered one of our public-houses one day during the week, wearing a uniform similar to that worn by the police, and, seeing a man of his own color, but an African, standing at the counter, he accosted him by saying, "I say, old man, arn't you going to shout V The sable friend who was thus interrogated looked at him and replied, "No, I never shout for traps." The wearer of her Majesty's clothes at once said, " I'm no trap ; no, I belong to the country work. You go and do something wrong—steal a sheep or a bandicoot, and see how soon I'll have you, by George." The African replied, "No, I won't steal no sheep nor bandicoots; go and do it yourself." The aboriginal retorted, " Will you track me, then ?" The answer was, " Yes, I would go into the first shanty to look for you." After some further discussion, they shared a long-sleeved 'un, or what is, properly speaking, a pint of colonial ale, and made friends. A girl about eleven or twelve years of age, named J?anny Taylor (states the Argus), was brought before the Melbourne police court by Mrs. Smith under very peculiar circumstances. Mrs. Smith, who keeps a small shop, told the Bench that on Christmas Eve the girl came into her shop for a shilling's worth of lollies, and as there was something strange about the girl she questioned her. The girl said she had been landed at the wharf that afternoon from the steamer Argyle, and that she had been put on board that vessel at the river Mersey by her sister-in-law, who told her that her mother would meet her at the wharf at Melbourne. There was, however, nobody to meet her at the wharf, and she would not know her mother if she met her, as it was many years since she saw her. Mrs. Smith then kept the girl, who was very poorly clad, in her house ; and from further inquiries of the captain of the Argyle, it appeared that the girl was put on the vessel just as she was leaving Tasmania, and he did not observe her at all until they got to sea, or know that she was on board. No passagemoney had been paid for her by anybody. Mr. Sturt asked Mrs. Smith to take care of the girl further, and he would see she was paid for doing so, and he also directed the police to make full inquiry into the case. A New South Wales gentleman who has lately been making a tour through New Zealand writes to the Sydney Morning Herald:— *' Wellington is situated in a corner of the harbor called Port Nicholson, surrounded by high hills, and built entirely of wood, with the exception of one store which was in the process of erection twelve months ago, but may by this time be levelled with the ground by earthquake. Its peculiar conditions are described as ' three days' blow, three days' rain, and the seventh day an earthquake/ During a week spent in it, we had three days' rain and the earthquake, but none of the blow, when the rain is pver, the atmosphere is so clear that the rocks can be easily discerned on the hills miles away, with a sharp distinctness perfectly startling to one to such rarity of atmosphere. The city is just now the most progressive in New Zealand, but its progress is opposed by the difficulties of its situation, the chief means of its extension being through cutting down its mountains, and filling up a portion of the bay, to gain a little level Bpace. Several acres of building ground

have been thus made, and the work is advancing with increasing speed as the demands for larger accommodation arise. The valley of the Hutt, just' opposite to Wellington, is one of the few sights which the tourist is bound to visit. It has two or three gardens, belonging to gentlemen who take a pleasure in this form of spending a portion of the gains of commerce. These are obligingly shown to strangers, and are worth a visit; but the impression produced by the valley as a whole is, that its rich soil is not used as it might be by most of the residents; and this is felt all the more as Wellington, owing to its situation, has so few outlets for recreation." An extraordinary case of a child living, after sustaining a most serious injury to the brain, is thus reported by the Riverine Herald : —" About three months ago, a child of Mr. Lawrence was playing under a tree whilst it was being cut down. In falling the trunk struck the child on the head, causing such frightful injuries that the child was not expected to recover. The skull was fractured from ear to ear, and the scalp was literally torn from off the back part of the head, leaving the brain fully exposed. After a time, the child seemed to be getting better ; but, at the same time, the scalp was entirely wanting, the whole of the brain and membranes being without any covering, save the bandages which were bound round the head. The child is in full possession of all its faculties, and its mind not at all impaired. A large portion of the fractured skull was removed by Dr. Macmullen some time ago, the piece being larger than a full-sized watch, and some more has yet to be removed. The head is fast healing up, and the child is in its previous healthy condition, seemingly no worse for the accident."