NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 84, 5 December 1874, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A stray balloon of yellow silk, measuring about 600 cubicmetres, . fell at Bruyeres, near Beaumont (Seine-et Oise). The car was quite* intact, but contained only two small bags of sand, a bottle of mnej, and a clasp knife of several blades. . Lieutenant Boyne, of the 38th Begiment, walked to London and back, a distance of seventy miles in half an hour less than the time which he had undertaken to accomplish the journey — seventeen hours.

San Fraucisco has made greater progress during the past twelve months than in any similar period during its history. The estimated population is 200,700 — a gain since March, 1873, of 12,447. The total, valuation" of church property is about $6,000,000, nearly §4,000,000 of which is owned by Catholics^ Forty-three thousand eight hundred and twenty-fcliree conscripts of the last Spanish levy are now serving with the army. The sum at present paid for exemption amounts to 39,500,000 reals. The Govern* ment will shortly send a reinforcement of 2,000 to Cuba. The Italian papers record the conviction at Modena of threo brothers) the eldest scarcely twenty years of age, for the murder of their father.- Two of them committed the crime, while the third instructed them, how to perpetrate it. The Director of the Police at Posen has informed the Lady Abbess of the Carmelite Convent there that all foreign members of the community must leave the country within three days. The Lady Abbess thereupon sent an appeal against this decision to the Minister of -Justice, and has obtained an extension of the time allowed.

Prince Charles Bonaparte has consented to be a candidate for the General Council of Ajaccio in opposition to his cousin, Prince Napoleon. The rupture, therefore, between the latter and the Imperialists has come to a climax, and it is believed that unless he 'obtains the support of the Bepublicans, Prince Napoleon has no chance of reelection.

At a meeting in London, to receive a report from missionaries sent to discover the tribes of Israel, Lord H was asked to take the chair. " I take," he replied, " a great interest in your researches, gentlemen. The fact is, I have borrowed money from all the Jews now known, and if you can find a new set I shall be obliged." Mr. Disraeli's visit to Ireland has been abandoned, in consequence of the state of his health.

A curious phenomenon was recently caught at Wimborne, Dorsetshire, a perfectly white sparrow, with pink eyes. Its brethren, doubtless shocked by such a lusus naturae, had set upon the wretched bird, and were pecking it to death. A fee of 150,000 dollars has just been received by an American surgeon for removing a wen. The operation was performed with •lectric knives. The Jews of New York outnumber those of Jerusalem. The celebrated German Protestant historian, M. Kopps, has become a convert to Catholicity. The unsuccessful strike of the mill-workers of Belfast has cost them over £900,000.

The American papers state that the Evangelicals are somewhat exercised about the statement that Horace Greely died a Catholic. Basil Harrison, Who figures in one of Cooper's novels as the "Bee Hunter," died recently in Michigan, aged 106. Froude's venom has not been entirely exhausted, and he proposes to iss- c another volume of " The English in Ireland." Henry B. Ste Marie, who captured John H. Surratt, one of Lincoln's assassins, recently died in Philadelphia. The Japanese census shows only 3,000 criminals in a population of over 30,000,000 souls.

Somebody calculates that to feed New New York audits adjacent population requires annually 600,000 head of cattle, 800,000 sheep, 1,000,000 hoge, 2,000,000 barrels of flour, and 1,000,000 barrels of rye and corn, in addition to milk, fish, fruits, vegetables, and groceries to correspond.

The ceremony of blessing the foundations of the magnificent new church to bei erected in honor of St. Joseph, at Berkeley street, Dublin, took place on Sunday, August 30. His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop .officiated.

Some houses in Clare Market, London, were recently found to be in such a dangerous stat« that the occupants, who ran out on the first alarm, were not allowed to return for their goods. The houses are now in course of demolition.

A New York man, who believes in advertising, paid a bill of 78,000d01s the other day for a year's work, but it was well spent, for the earnings resulting from that advertisement, which were divided among four persons, footed up 650,000d015. A large crab having teeth like those of a horse, and limbs five feet long, has been captured off the Japanese coast. Wishing to show a few English visitors some "sport," the Maharaja of Puttiala, lately let loose a tigress in the vicinity of his palace. As might have been expected, the brute killed two or three people before she herself was knocked over. Mr. H. M. Stanley has left on his Zanzibar expedition. It is said that he will have as many as 800 men at his disposal to carry out its objects. He has had two portable steel boats built in England especially for river service. It is said that Mr. Stanley regards the expedition on which he is now entering as one attended with great personal danger. One of the members of the expedition is a magnificent dog, presented to Stanley by Lady Burdett Contts, and said to be worth £500.

An enterprising firm lately paid 200 rupees for the privilege of collecting the hair shorn from the heads of the pilgrims at the Magh Mela of Allahabad, and the whole capillary harvest, it is said, has been shipped off to England, to be made into chignons. The Corporation of the City of London is becoming very rich. Its accounts for the last financial year shows its revenue amounted to £430,6000, while it has a cash balance in the bank of £640,000. Wreaths of artificial foliage and flowers made of metal, and carefully colored after nature, are used for wall decorations, and on festive occasions at Paris.

The sale of waste paper from the different publio departments in (Jreat Britain realises annually sixteen thousand pounds sterling. The shareholders in the Manchester Aquariam have decided to have it open to the public on Sundays, from 4 to 6 p.m. Temple Bar has now to be propped up ; so it will formally be taken away from its present position, where it is an obstruction to traffic, and re-erected as an entrance to the new law courts near by. Margaret Wolfe, aged nine years, the daughter of a sailor, died at Liverpool, from inflammation consequent upon having her ears pierced for earrings. King Coffee has so far lost caste by his defeat that the neighboring tribes from whom he formerly exacted tribute, now refuse to pay. Some of the tribes are in open revolt, and at present he is powerless to tubdue them.

A venerable old lady (sayß the ' Tribune'), who was called upon to give evidence at the inquest on the fire in Pernell, lately, when she had the Bible presented to her on being sworn, asked in the sweetest manner possible if the book was for her, and without waiting a reply,, began rummaging for her pocket to put it in. She looked very much disappointed on being told she was only to kiss, not to keep it. The ' Pilot' says : — Several exchanges have stated that Key. Father Keenan, of Lancaster, Pa., who has attained his ninety-sixth year, is the oldest priest in America, and perhaps in the world. This is incorrect, as the oldest priest in North America is now stationed at St. John's Church, Frederick, Md. ; the Rev. John McElroy, S, J., aged ninety-eight year/}.