GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4910, 16 December 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

Thera are 40,000 lawyers in th.e United States, of whom 198 are in Congress. . _ Mdme. Patti, with her London and foreign engagements, earns about £28,000 a-year. . A fine monument of Jzaak Walton is to be erected in Winchester Cathedral. _ _ Postal treaties are in course of negotiation between Chili, the principal nations of Europe, and the United States. , ' It is believed (says the Whitehall Review) that the accouchement of the Duchess of Edinburgh will take place at Malta. . In the four years from 1872 to 1875 there imported into France, alone the enormous »nm of £53,700,000 in silver. The French papers state that the Duke of Connaught lately spent four days in visiting the battlefields of Sedan and Metz. . „,The Municipal Council of Paris are going to christen one of the streets of the capital by the name of Sir Richard Wallace. There are between forty and fifty members of the House of Commons at present in the East.

. The Dutch Geographical Society is making active preparations for the despatch of the expedition which is to explore the interior of Sumatra.

~ A railway porter at Hayward’s Heath, while in a state of delirium, ate nearly the whole of a newspaper, and died from suffocation. ~ .

The value of property insured in London is £540,000,000. Of the fires which occurred in London during the past five years four-fifths occurred to uninsured property. There are now 12 teachers and 297 pupils in the Protestant schools of Naples. One of the preachers, Ragliante, was once, a famous Catholic priest, known as Padre Gabrieli. . A letter from Kiel in the Cologne Gazette says that no European navy, except perhaps that of England, has so mapy vessels continuously employed in long journeys to the most distant seas of the world as the navy of Germany. . The Prussian Government has instituted an inquiry into the condition of the theatres in Prussia, and the advisability of establishing an academy of the dramatic arts, endowed by Government. ; The Esquimaux of Greenland have increased fifty pep cent, during the last half century. One notable fact is that the sate of spirits is absolutely forbidden by.the Danish Government. ; > '

Consul Green, reporting oa the trade of the Brazilian provinces of Para.and Amazonas, states that the crop of indiarnbber, which was little over 2000 tons in 1861, has been steadily increasing ever since, and : reached 6763 tons in the year 1875. Prom a return just printed, it appears that in the last session there were 255 public , Bills in the Commons, of which 64 were United Kingdom -Bills, ,85 ■ English Bills,- 64 Irish Bills, 26 Scotch Bills, and 16 “other Bills.” The Whitehall Review says it is probable that before long another “ mystery ” case will come before the public. The police are investigating what there is reason to believe is a inost foul crime, and one which, in- regard, to the horror of its details, will quite eclipse the Balham mystery case. Recently a young lady of Hereford, named Nicholla, ,of independent means, twenty-four years of age, and extremely good-looking, committed . suicide. by nearly severing, her head from her body. The cause of this act is believed to have been her, mother's objection to her associating with a young man to whom she was engaged. A most distressing domestic tragedy was enacted at Crosby, near Liverpool. A lady named Mrs. Morris, whose husband, a teller in a hank, died suddenly a few months ago, shot two of her children dead, wounded a third, fired at, but fortunately missed, the fourth and fifth, and then shot herself It is feared she will not survive the wounds she has inflicted.

Mr. Moses Annetts, farmer, of St. Briavels, Blokeney, 85 years of age, lately led to the hymeneal altar Mrs. Mary Taylor, a widow of 48 summers. The ceremony, which was performed by the Rev. B. Stevens, of Coleford, was witnessed by a numerous company. It is reported in the American papers that Professor Westbrook, after delivering a temperance lecture at Painesville, Ohio, got intoxicated, and falling in front of a locomotive, was run over and Wiled. It is said that the Professor was widely known in the west. iA.-visitor is to arrive in London shortly who will attract considerable attention—King Ko. The party in question reigns over a portion of the Island of Borneo. He is accompanied by a numerous suite, under the direction of M. Paul Prosper, a French merchant. 1 It fi understood .that should Count Moltke, who will be 76 on October 26, be compelled by old age to resign his post as chief of the general staff, he will be succeeded by General Blumenthal, who is ..chief of the Prussian staff. Blumenthalfs 66, and is a great strategist. Victor Hugo is now engaged in the production of a new volume of poetry. Not long ago he read a few specimens to a small party of private friends .in Paris, and one of these gentlemen, an accomplished French politician, states that as respects both originality and : literary execution they are equal to anything the poet has ever previously written. ■ -Says the ßuenos , Ayres Standard The best news on ’Change to-day was the landing of 200 strong, healthy Irish emigrants from i Lamport and Holt’s splendid 1 steamer Mas-: kelyne. This is the largest batch of Irish: emigrants we have had in the Plate for many | •years. Wo heartily welcome them, the footprints of their countrymen in the camp of Buenos Ayries mark the road to fortune.” ’ A singular incident has occurred at the* ■Bochdale railway station, showing how easily: -»train may be thrown off the line. An engine 'was in the aot'of crossing the points, when a, • cat got entrapped between the points. This- ■ prevented them from working, and the enginei -went off the line, but was soon stopped withoutdoing any damage. ‘ ' i Sir Wilfred Lawson, in the course of anj after-dinner speech, is reported to have said;—,. “There was once a mayor of an ancient! borough who was a staunch teetotaller, and. well known to be so. He attended the festi-j ' vitiea promoted by a neighboring borough; and ■somebodythat knew him well 'put■ a glass of milk punch close to his plate. The mayor saw: the glass and could not resist it.- He took it, ■ up, quaffed the contents, and setting it down,, exclaimed, “Lord, what a cow !” Messrs. Saunderson, Brothers, and Co.- - (Limited), steel manufacturers, Sheffield, have] adopted a means of defeating the American ' prohibitive duties which is entirely novel.; ! They have purchased* the works of Syracuse,, New York State, where they will'carry on' steel-making with their own Sheffield men and, ■ their own Sheffield trade secrets, the produc-; tion to be guaranteed equal to the steel made here. : A new corporation has been formed, with a capital of 450,000d015., a large proper-; ■ tion of which is held by the Sheffield share- ■ holders. ■ ■ . , , „ . ' A Home paper has : the following regarding ' the latest female indelicacy in the matter of attire The latest new idea is the-“classical” dress for “ ladies’” eveuihg wear. It is gome- ■ thing worse than the trousers with only one leg, which Punch declares women now walk in, It is made in the most simple Fashion. The trimming is of the slightest; There is nothing to disturb the: graceful “classical outline.” The bodies are very low indeed, the trains are very far from what ladies call full, and the sleeves are just a narrow strip of braid. The 'arms, the shoulders, and the neck are quite displayed, and the figure in all respects is fully shown. This is the new notion in London during the recess. _ The ex-Guicowar of Baroda m The Times to “ British impartiality” against tho ■ ‘Oun-Engliah policy” pursued by the authori--1 ties in India, ard of which ho is being made the victim. He states that'he has just received official intimation that from henceforth his income of 26,000 rupees per annum, paid, by the Baroda authorities, shall be reduced to 3600 rupees. His Highness says the official reason for this step is that he has made his grievances public through the English Press, and, he asks, “instead of seeking,to starve, as it were, righteous complainants into abjectsubmission, why not, in preference to-such a; course, adopt,, comparatively speaking, ‘the, nobler and the cither myself or my agent m Calcutta for dofamat! era?”

Some of the French railway companies lease the sides of their lines to sportsmen for the shooting of rabbits and other game.... The evidence elicited in a suit for abandonment brought against William Taylor Morgan by his wife, before. Justice Grossman in Jersey City, U.S.A., revealed the fact that they were thus divorced :—Justice Martin took their marriage certificate, and having examined it, called upon them to stand up. He clapped the man’s hand on one side of the certificate, his wife’s on the. other, ..and saying, “ are you ready?” gave the command,.“Now, pull.”They pulled, and the, certificate was torn in two. The Justice waved his hands and pronounced them divorced. „ Morgan failed to provide for his wife after that, and she got in debt. She sued for abandonment. The case was tried before Justice Grossman. The jury were unable to agree upon a verdict, and .they were discharged., Nine of them favored conviction and three acquittal. : The Yorkshire Post says :—-John Cawdron, a publican, after seconding, at a meeting held at Norwich, .a resolution expressing horrorat the atrocities committed by the Turks in Bulgaria, went home and knocked his wife about with a clock-weight till she was covered with bruises from head to foot. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by the magistrates.

A young Quaker named Nissol has been sentenced at Marseilles to two months’ imprisonment for refusing to join the Reservists. He declared it opposed to his religious principies to bear arms, and on the. President of the Court-Martial trying to pose him as to what he would do if he saw, his father being murdered, he replied that he should lot ; the will.of God be accomplished rather than,violate his religion by. using arms. His counsel stated that the French Quakers, though not numerous, gave 5,000,000 f, for the liberation of the territory after the last : war. [ New reguiations have been issued to the service relative to the outfit and clothing of, her Majesty’s army with a view to giving the soldiers a smarter and better appearance. After the annual clothing has been inspected by the Board of Survey the uniforms will be issued to each man. The captain will then parade the men for inspection of the commanding officer, who will direct that such alterations as may be deemed advisable shall be made with regard to fit and appearance. When the alterations have been completed the men will be again paraded, and the captains will inspect them and ascertain that the necessary alterations have been properly carried" out, after, which the troop battery or company will be again paraded for the final approval of the commanding officer. Dean Stanley having recently preached at the parish church of Scarborough,. “ Brother ” Ignatius (now missioning at Scarborough) preached in condemnation .of his cousin’s alleged infidel teaching, and convened a public conference of Christians Wt the Theatre Reyal upon the same subject. - Several hundred persons attended, including many visitors. Ignatius referred at length to, the books of the Dean of Westminster. A discussion followed, and a, clergyman publicly undertook to communicate with Dean Stanley as to the accuracy of one statement made by , Ignatius—that the Dean told an old woman in London (whose address was given) that she needed no Saviour, and that Shakspere’s 'works would do her more good than the Bible. . . The Canadians find the ice which for nearly six months every year blockades the St. Lawrence a great barrier to direct European trade. How to overcome it is a problem thenshipbuilders have been endeavoring to solve, and there has recently been launched at Quebec a vessel designed for making winter voyages down the St. Lawrence to Prince Edward Island. If. .'she is successful, other and larger vessels on the same model may be built for the European, trade. She is named the Northern Light, and will, be fitted for sea by November. She .is sheathed with one of the hardest of woods—-green heart—and plated with iron. Her construction is such that there can be no right-angle pressure from ice on any part of the hull. . The draught of water aft is 17ft., and the screw is so placed that there will be at all times at least sft. of water above the upper blades, so as to prevent contact with ice. Her engines will be of 700 nominal horsepower.

The .fearless and well-known traveller Moreno intends making another scientific journey next spring through Patagonia, Terra del Fuego, and Wellington Island. His travels are watched with much interest by scientific societies in Europe, and we believe the Royal Geographical Society has requested a gentleman in Buenos Ayres to forward a report, and, if possible, some' specimens of the recent prehistoric discoveries in Patagonia.