ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4979, 8 March 1877, Page 3

ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

The Strand, in London, is now being paved with wood.

Scotch heather is exhibited in a shop window in New York. ; The death is announced of M. Montouban, the oldest pastor of the Reformed Church at Paris". ' , ■' i ' A compressed air motor (the invention of M. Mekarski) has been finally adopted for the tramways of Nantes. Atlanta's (Georgia) mammoth cotton factory will soon be started, and the city will celebrate the event. One hundred and fifty Spanish cattle were landed at Penryn for the Christmas market. The theatrical fraternity in San Francisco are giving " benefits" in aid of the sufferers of the Brooklyn disaster. ' Mr. Joseph Arch states that the National Agricultural Laborers' Union was never stronger than now in funds or numberß. More than 2000 workmen are engaged day and niglit in the Champ de Mars and Trocadero preparing for the Paris Exhibition of There has been a further remission of commutation of French Communist convicts, to 61 of whom, on this occasion, the clemency of the Marshal-President has been extended. In a case of cremation at Washington the cost was about seven dollars. Forty bushels of coke were consumed ; but of course the same furnace might have sufficed for several bodies. The vaccination laws now in operation are so effective that the authorities who are charged with enforcing them are able to ac-

count for 95 per cent, of all the children born iu England and Wales. One of the Acheenese chiefs, the Rajah of Sunpangolin, who had tendered his submission to the Dutch authorities, has withdrawn it, and taken to flight, and has consequently been declared to have forfeited his dignities. A correspondent has forwarded to the office of Land and Water a very curiously-formed rat's tooth. It is exactly the shape of a horse shoe, and measures round over one inch. The rat was shot by Mr. Robert Amos, at Standen Hall, Essex. An agricultural society in Massachusetts has offered prizes of from 400 to 1000 dollars, and issued printed instructions for the best plantations of larch, pine, ash, and other trees, suited.for re-afforesting the respective localities and soils.

The Miners' Association of Cornwall and Devon intend to strike a medal for presentation to those young miners of not less than twelve months' experience in underground work' who distinguish themselves at the examinations held by the association. Cards containing figures of the Colorado beetle in its different stages have been supplied to the Customs officers of the different ports, who are requested to destroy any insects resembling them which they find on vessek from foreign ports. The man who, some years since, caused considerable, excitement throughout India by personating the infamous Nana Sahib is reported to have lately died in captivity in Gwalior. It will be remembered that the authorities, having satisfied themselves that the self-accused was not the Nana, he was made over to his original captor, the Maharajah of Gwalior. The Punjabi Alcbar, after extolling the pomp and grandeur of the approaching Imperial Durbar at Delhi, recommends 'an increase in the amount of State pensions granted to the Princes of Delhi, as the condition of these princes is really deserving of compassion. Some of them get not more than four rupees a month, and may be said to be actually in a state of starvation.

The Supreme Court of lowa has declared that a State law, enacted in 1875, and authorising women to hold the office of county superintendent, though retroactive, was constitutional, and that women are eligible to the office, and those holding the office when the law was passed are entitled thereto. Notes and Queries states that M. "Vapereau, editor of the " Dictionnaire des Contemporains," is now editing a " Dictionnaire TJniyersel des Litteratures." This will include the literature of all ages and countries, books, authors, and those who have exercised any influence on literature. The' publication, which began last month, will be completed in May, 1877 ; the various parts will form a volume of about 2000 pages. Messrs. Hachette are the publishers. A great many people pay their two francs just now to inspect a marvellous talking machine which is exhibited at the Grand Hotel. The ingenious inventor pf this toy (for it is difficult to discover its practical utility) has devoted a quarter of a century to his hobby, which .must, be considered as crowned with success, since the machine really speaks, although it finds the vowels rather tough work. It Jb stated that the speaking machine is to make a European tour Bhortly. A conspicuous act of bravery was performed by part of the crew of the Bteamer H. D. Pochin (just airived at Falmouth) lately. On perceiving a barque signalling that she was in a sinking state, although there was a perfect hurricane and terrific sea, the seoond mate and six men volunteered to go in the lifeboat. In launching great difficulty was experienced, and it was only after four hours that they .could approach close enough to the barque to effect the rescue of the poor fellows, some of whom were thrown overboard, but were saved by lifebuoys. An extraordinary explanation of the supposed explosion and disappearance of a ship off Portland, withoub leaving any fragments of wreckage, is given in .a letter which has been received by the Dorset, Coutoty- Chronicle.' Mr. John Welldun wrote-bn'tfiei 14th December: — "When on the look-out at Pdirtland Bill this morning, about 10.20, I saw .what at first appeared a long, low, dismasted ship, with short stumpy jurymasts, about one mile S.S.W. off Portland. She., looked like a vessel -broken backed, as her stem and stern were well out of water, and withsomething.like_Bmoke. or.steam rising up in midships. ,What was my surprise when, on looking through my glass, I saw! it was a monster fish with head and.tail rising high above the swell of the sea, and the back nearly down to the level of the water, and what appeared at first to be smoke or steam was large jets of water thrown up like a ,big whale blowing, as I have.seen them in the Arctic seas. The stumpy masts were immense long fins. All at once, vsth a tremendous bound, at least thirty or forty feet high and down again almost like lightning, the huge monster disappeared.",. The Dorset County Chronicle has made enquiries respecting this monster fish, and finds Mr. Welldun's.jßtaiement confirmed by Captains Cosens, Gibbs, and Mace, who were in,the Commodore ,in,search of the crew or fragments of. the ..supposed veßsel. They saw,!ajn immense monster of the deep throwing up jet's of water as described by the writer of the fetter. ■ An important addition has been recently made to the Egyptian, antiquities in the British Museum, and it is one no less interesting to the student of Greek and Roman history than to the Egyptologist. It is the body of ;a lyre, made of the shell of a land-tortoise, covered with leather. The shell of the tortoise can be seen through a hole in the leather. This is a unique example of the lyre of the Egyptian Thoth—the Greek Hermes ; also of the second Hermes, son of Zeus and Maia, who (according to the Hymn to Hermes) stole the oxen of Apollo. The story, of-the earlier deity is, that he was "walking along the banks of the Nile, after the ■ inundation had and accidentally kicked the shell of a dead tortoise, of which the flesh had been rotted away tyy the heat of the sun, and only the sinews remained,- therefore the shell brought forth a musical aound, and it suggested to him the formation of the lyre.— Athenmum.... ~, \ 3 The, Burns' Monument Committee intend asking Dean Stanley's permission. to have a bußt of Burns placed in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.