NEWS IN BRIEF.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 192, 1 December 1876, Page 3

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A drug store in Indiana recently sold 1,900 dollars worth of quinine in a week. ' New York has a " professor of " floral Binblems." In Boston a hearse without lanterns is considered very old fashioned. A locomotive consumes en the average forty-Eve gallons of water for every mile that it runs. To promote sleep put sixpenny worth of clean and fresh hops in your pillowcase. The St. Lo'iia delinquent tax list occupies 160 columns of the Time.* of that city. There is a wonderful girl in Ohio, who, irheni blindfolded,, can tell colors by touch. A citizen of Portland has a wedding unit i» which he has been married hv« times in thirty-six years. Xhe colossal statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyd« Park corner weighs 40 tons* and is nearly 30ft. high. The Japanese census shows only 3,006* criminals in a population of over A large crab, having teeth tike those of a horsey and limbs hve feet long, has been captured off, the Japanese coast. The sale of waste paper from the different public apartments of Ctreat Britain realises annually £16,000 a year. The net stamp duty on "playingcards" in the year ending 31st of March was £12,529. " Carnival" is derived from the latin words cttw fiesh> and cut* farewell, meaning farewell to butchers'" meat. The Att(* Califomitm says the cost of living in Sun Francisco is higher than in any Northern City, with the possible eatcuptiott of New York. During the deep sea sounding in the Pacific, a depth of 4,63m> fathoms, nearly llvu and one-third miles, was found off Japan. The manufacture of carpets in Phtladblphia is annually greater than in any other city in the world. Kiddermtnster used to take the palm. Wreaths of artificial foliage and ftowers mtuita of metal 1 , and carefully colored after nature, are used for wall decorations, and if native occasions at Paris.

> uLitgiumt Wolf®, aged nine years, the lnu&Mer of ft sailor, <*ied at Liverpool, rmu inflammation, consequent upon having the ears pierced lor ring?*. A fee of £30,000 kas been received by «t Arner.can surgeons for r«moving a wen. The operation was performed with electric kniv«s»^

Basil Harrison, who figures in or.e of footer's novels as the " Bee Hunter, * limf in Michigan recently at tit* age of

to(*. , _ . Waltham,. in the state of Vermont, has ranched the highest point of Municipal happiness* It has no tax l®vy» and no paupers. The doctors of Naples have discovered & liquid preparation which blatantly it ops (lie (low of blood from wounds of every description. There are now raor® than 500 noblemen unci gentlemen in the United Kingdom worth the capitalised sum of £l,flw,(lw iterling at 3 per cent, interest. the Vatican contains* it is said, no. less than 12>,0W apartments, and a library itliiohf exceeds in the rielwsS* of its books Mid manuscripts, any other in th© world. Hi, Forster, the new Judge of the United States District Court of Kansas, lias astonished the lawyers of that region liy requiring; them not to smoke or wear liats in Court.

Scotland has st grant of £30,800 a year for tIW training of teachers j England and Wales, white to favoured, pampered Ireland the magnificent sum of JJSOO is allotted.

'Ehe Armenian peasantry abo«t Mount beli«*e that the wortd rests upon fc large ok, which, being irritated by a largely, teases its head„ and thus causes A correspondent asked if the brow of » lull aver became wrinkled f The editor roplied, " The only information we can pva on that point is that we have often seen it furrowed."'

Ant Irish journal advertises a new washing machine under the heading, " Every tonn his own washerwoman," and in its culinary department says that *' potatoes ihouM always be boiled with cold water. The theory has buen started, that since faa use!ainess of whales has largely diminiihod through the discovery of mineral nils for illuminating purposes, the animals ®ight be domesticated and used for towing ships'fhe foreign commerce of the United States is no more than half that of Engird, which has eight millions less populitiun j and it is not more than equal that >t France,, the population of which is less Utaa the United States.

William North, the English writer, i*»id "be would rather ace the whole world, drank fctuu. ohotee than on* «*«* pobes from compulsion." £We are not of iftf same min4 as William.]

It is said thai the photograph of the Princess of Wades, in which she is carrying one of her children on her back, isso great a favorite that no fewer than 300,000 copies of it have been sold. A Paisley manufacturer «£»>t «>y some accident a severe cut across tiitr nose, and, having no court-plaster at hand, stuck on the unfortunate organ one of his gum tickets, on which was the usual intimation —" Warranted 330 yards long." An English tourist, on passing the Free Church of a certain Scotch watering-place, a very unecclesiastical building, asked a boy whose factory it was. The sharpwitted lad, after an involuntary consultation with crown lawyers, replied, "Mr. Kinnear's." "Ay, and what does he manufacture here Y' " Sinners into saints, »ir," wa» the ready answer. The first European decoration conferred upon H.M. the Mikado of Japan has been presented by the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The Mikado has been enrolled in the Order of the "Ernestine House, because of the welcome he accorded Prince Philip of Coburg. A curious phenomenon has been caught in Dorsetshire—a perfectly white sparrow, with pink eyes. Its brethren, doubtless, shocked by such a Iwus natnra, had set upon the wretched bird, and were pecking it to death.

Somebody calculates that, to feed New York and its adjacent population, requires annually 600,000 head of cattle, 800,000 sheep, 1,000,000 hogs, 2,000,000 barrels of Hour, and 1,000,000 barrels of rye and corn, in addition to milk, fruit, fish, vegetable, and groceries to correspond. A New York man, who believes in advertising, paid a bill of 78,000 dollars the other day for a year's work ; but it was well spent, for the earnings resulting from that advertisement, which were divided amongst four persons, footed up 650,000 dollars.

Wishing to show a few English visitors some " sport," the Maharaja of Pultiala lately let loose a tigres* in the vicinity of his palace. As might have been expected, the brute killed two or three people before she herself was knocked over. The church of St. Peter, at Rome, is the largest and most magnificent structure ever yet erected for religions purposes. It is 780 feet long and 520 feet wide. The height of the interior pillars is 180 feet, and the height of the top of the cross is SIS feet. Its f-rcction occupied 111 years, and cost £12,000,000.

The rfe Pari* says that an emptwyi in the Bavarian Telegraph Department has discovered a way of reproducing exactly signatures, letters, and pictures, at no matter what distance, by electricity. The portrait of an absconding cashier has already been sent along the wires.

An old farmer said to bis sons, '" Boys, don't yott ever spekerlate or wait for aotaetfein' to tarn op. Yoa might just as well go and sit down on a atone in the middle of a siicddor, witli a pail 'twixt your legs, and wait for a cow to walk up to yott to lie milked." A Mrs. Van Henrigh bequeathed all her property to her husband, adding:— "It is also my earnest wish that my Parting husband should marry ere long a nice, pretty girl, who is a good housekeeper ; and, abvve all, to be careful that she is of good temper."

\ Amongst the pocket-handkerchiefs in the {ritHtiMCH of the Duchess of Edinburgh, there was one that was exhibited in the Italian Department of the Paris Exhibition of 1867. It was purchased by the Czarina | for 12,000 francs, and is said to hare cost the embrwidress seven of the best years of her life, and her eyes Into the bargain. The Paris Figaro informs us that a gentleman borrowed for Louis d'or of a friend, ! who accepted in exchange eight promisi sory notes of 100 francs each, becoming i due month after month. The first vm ; protested. " This does not promise very well for the others," said the lender. " They will also be protested," coolly replied the debtor. " Then why did you ' sign the eight bills 1" To prevent the i blow being too mnch for you. As it i 3 j yon only lose 100 francs at a time, yon ! ought to me. A high personage, very sceptical, who in his office receives none but financiers of i the first rank, has made a strange erperi- ! ment. He has placed on his desk where ' it can be seen a counterfeit rouleau of a thousand francs. It is arranged in such a i m»nn«f no one can touch it without I its being perceived. During every visit i marte to him he finds some pretext for i fearing the visitor alone with the treasure. He declares that every time he returns ! the gold has been disturbed. " Are ypu ; astonished after that," he asks, " that I have not the slightest confidence in human nature i"

The fa tore Emperor of Austria, the Archduke Bedolpb, who has just completed his eighteenth year, is about to take a- voyage round the world, which wilt take him two years. Madame Ribard. who recently obtained the diploma of Doctor in Medicine, is the aecoad French lady upon whom that degree has been conferred. _ The Minister of Public Instruction has just retained to her the amount of the expenses of her study. Madame Ribard intends practising at Nantes, her native town.

The French papers note that the largest creditor of France nsed to be Sir Richard Wallace, whose dividends amounted to 1,100,000 francs (£44,000) per annum, at the present time the nephew of Lord Seymour, so kindly disposed towards the inhabitants of Paris, is far distanced. Madame Fqrtado receives every three months dividends to the amount of 1,000,000 francs, which represents a fortune of 80,000,000 francs (£3,200,000).