NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 77, 17 October 1874, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

During the past year the San Francisco mint has coined 74 tonsof gold, and 140 tons of silver, xiz, 22,300,000 dollars gold coin, and 2,500,000 dollars silver. After Blondin has completed his tour through the colonies he intends to walk on a ropo from the Pyramid of Cheops to that of Kophron. He estimates that the cost of stretching the rope -will be about £1,800. It is said that the Chinese authorities meditate sending at no distant dale an experimental squadron of two or more of their now fleet on a voyage to Europe. The death-rate of great manufacturing centres aic relatively low, compared with those of country districts, that aro seemingly salubrious. It is not generally known that Ireland's Patron Saint reached thepatriarchial age of 120 years. He died at the Abbey of Waul, in 493, and was buried in Down, where liis relics repose. A Steam Navigation Company to improve the commerce of Italy is talked of. The population of the German Empire is now set down at 41,090,846 inhabitants. .

During the late strike at Belfast the niill--workers paraded the streets with sticks upon which loaves were placed. Rumors of an Ausfcro-Russian alliance, as safeguard against Prussian schemes of aggrandisement come from Europe. An extensive open-air demonstration against the money granted to Prmce Leopold, was made by the London Republicans at Clerkenvrell on July 26. An aero of land may be made to yield an average of 12 pounds of oil of lavender, of the value of 40s a pound. Linseed is recommended as a cure for a consumptive cough. The linseed should be boiled to the consistency of a jelly, and sweetened with honey or sugar. Two large tablespoonfuls should be taken when the cough is about to attack the sufferer. There are about 170 firms of artificial florists in London, employing trom fenir thousand to five thousand women and children in the trade. Jet, the very beautiful material used so largely in the manufac- ™- i P? rs ? 11nl ornmnents, is found mostly in the slatey rocks of Whitby, Yorkshire. It is generally held to be wood in a high state or bitumcnisation. The mamufacture of carpets in Philadelphia is annually greater than that of any other city iv the world. Derby was formerly the chief seat of the jewellery trade, Edinburgh and London, however, manufacturing the finest goods. The trade has almost disappeared from the former places, and London now solely depends upon Birmingham for her chief supplies. Japanese auctions are said to be conducted in the following manner : Each bidder at, an action writes his name and bid on a slip ot paper, which he pnts in a box. When the bidding is over, the box is opened, and the goods declared the property of the highest bidder. A very curious map is in the Galerie d' Appollon, in the Louvre. It represents France in the time of Louis XIV., and is entirely composed ot different colored marbles, like Florentine-mosaic. It is the work ot an artist named Coplet, who was attached to the Court, and bears date 1684. The enormous length of 3,410,901,522 yards of cotton piece-coods, or more than 9,000,000 yards per day, were exported from Great Britain during 1871, India and China being the principal customers. Xhe JNun of Keninare is engaged on a book which will be a complete review of the woman question from a Catholic standpoint. Inc tiara of the Pope owes its second crown to Boniface VIII., to show the union of the temporal and the spiritual power. In 1334, -Bonitacc XII. added a third crown, indicating parental authority. Vox Populi Vox Dei."— The origin of this familiar phrase is not known, but it is quoted as a proverb from William of Malmesbury who lived in the early part of the twelfth century. A recent s\u-vey of the north-eastern shores of New Guinea resulted in the discovery of a new and shorter route between China and Australia. The valuable library of Cardinal Barnabo, lato Prefect of Propaganda in Rome, which consisted of 6000 volumes, relating chiefly to me History ot Catholic missions, has been rescued from the auctioneer's hammer by the Pope. A provincial tribunal in France has sentenced a farmer to imprisonment for life, with hard labor, for haviiig confined his aged mother to one room in his house, refusing her proper food, and neglecting and ill-treating her in every way. The word " Bnm-irium " or Breviary first occurs in a work of the eleventh century, denoting a compendium or systematic arrangeinont of the office of the Church. Previously the psalms, homilies and hymns were m separate books. Pope Gregory VII. had the Breviary CollecfciollS) iv ihcir p^p^ **<& It is reported that Professor Schmidt counted the notes— printed we suppose—of a piece Rubenstein, the great pianist, played by heart' JLhey amounted to 62,990, and so far appear to justify the assertion of the phrenologist Horing, that the profession of a pianist lays the heaviest tax of any on the memory. ' J It is said that, in consequence of the great wickedness of the people of Kerry, St. Patrick could not enter the country to bless it but stood upon a hill overlooking that part of the country, and said • I bless county Kerry in the distance." To tell this story to a Kerry man is well calculated to disturb his equanimity. Two young princes, the sons of tie Archduke Charles of Austria had a trorm dispute in the presence of no less a person than the august Emperor himself. Greatly excited, one said to the other You are the greatest ass in Vienna ! >' Highly offended at quarrel in his presence, the Emperor interrupted them, saying, with indignation Come, come, young gentlemen— you forget that lam present." ' \Yhue London oould boast in 1872 of only JO daily ™»crs morning and evening, all told, no fewer than 42 appeared in the course tt^cnJhM } °T iU Pai>i M- I* 00 * 0 "*? e ™V happened that that one-half exactly were published in the morning, and one-half in the afternoon and evening. of tl? h Z^° £ th i° s ° ut I hcm Wspuere are much larger than those ot the northern hemisphere being reported to attain frequency a height of 1,000 feet, their ordinary altitude being 200 or 300 feet ±he greatest number are found between New Zealand and Cape Horn' and they may be met at any season of the year Tl». n P cbimnies » re a P fc fco brea * X ""eel tightly into the socket. This allows no room for expansion when they are heated. A loose fit, SSSJ? Vw d preferred; after the lamp is lit tie chimney will be found to sufficiently expand to fill the socket Cxoldsmtth received the magnificent sum of £2 1 sterling for " The Traveller, —said to be "without one bad line—without one of Dry den scare ess verses." Burke, Pox, Reynolds, and all the men of SSL P, H^T, c conßrar< ft° applaud it as "one of the finest poems in the English language." The writer of the song " Not for Joienl » as his share of the first six months' profits of the song, netted £7 000 A continuous roll of paper four miles long is damped, printed and cut into sheets at tho rate of twenty thousand copies an hour by the Walter printing michine in use at tie London ' Times '