NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 126, 1 October 1875, Page 12

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The quantity of coal consumed by an ocean steamer varies from 50 to 100 tons In the 24. hours. The statute law of New York compels children who are capable ol doing so, to relieve and maintain their parents when poor, old, lame, or not able to maintain themselves. Three of the signers of the Declaration of American Independence were Irishmen— Mathew Thornton, of New Hampshire: and James bnuth and G-eorgc Taylor, both of Pennsylvania. A person at Pike's Peak, writing to a Minnesota' journal, says that the miners are very discouraged in that region. They have to dig through a solid vein of silver four feet thick before they reach the | gold. J i Of all the warm-blooded animals, tho goose is the most rapid in 1 its-growth. Geese have been known to livo to 100 years of age. i Lightning has been pressed into the service of man in Germany. An iron rod, planted perpendicularly in the rock which the engineer wished to blast, has attracted the electricity of the clouds to the base ot the iron, where the lightning shivered to atoms the rock in which tho iron was sunk. The Duke of Westminster recently paid '.£ls,ooo for the racehorse Doncaster, rather than he should be secured by American or Continental buyers, who are always on the alert to purchase firstclass thoroughbreds. . -A hundred tons of mail matter are sent out from the Post-office ot Biew York city every clay ; and its people consume every day 600 calves, 20,000 sheep, and 20,000 SAvine. With improved machinery in America they can make a watch in three minutes. One company alone in that country turns out 80,000 watches m a year— more than are made in all England during the same time. __ a In December, 1873, a telegram was sent from New York to .London, and an answer received back in 30 minutes, actual time The distances travelled were as follows :— From New Yo*k to Heart's Content, N.F., 1300 miles ; cable, 2000 miles ; Valentia to London, 300 miles. Each of the telegrams travelled 3600 inilcs, and passed through the hands of 18 persons, so that in the short space of half-ar-mour the two telegrams travelled the distance of 7200 miles. England was the last country in Europe to abolish the' barbarous custom of burning at the stake, an instance of which occurred so late as the ninth year of George 11. Another barbarous custom, trials by battle, was abolished in England so late as 1820. In the time of Henry VIII. an Irish hawk was worth iLs weight in silver. An Irish forest, however wild, which contained hawks' nests, was as valuable as a mine in California, owing to the hi«*h prices which the aristocracy of England and France paid for Irish talcons— a word which is in itself Irish, and comes from Faoh "wild " and con, "a hound." J ' The Scallion derives its name from a place in Palestine, termed Ascalon. which produced the best onions in tho world. New York has two thousand newsboys. . The hat, as an article of man's attire, was invented in Paris, by a Swiss, m 1404. ' J The number of newspapers at present in circulation throughout the United States is estimated at 5000, being at the rate of one for every 5,800 inhabitants. v • Greek fire is supposed to have been composed of naptha, pitch and sulphur. Ie is said to have been invented by Callinicius of Heliopohs, about the year 670, and to have been used with terrible effect against the Saracens. The peculiarity of the Greek fire was that, on being exposed to the air, it burst into flames, and burned under water. No one after the deluge passed the age of 464 years, which was not half the age of Methuselah, who attained the age of 969 rs - . ler f \> "}™ ed b-c- 1921, was the last who exceeded the 200. Since his time but few instances of men attaining one hundred years are recorded. In modern times, the oldest inhabitants of the globe known m authentic history are to be found among the slaves of the West Indies. Allison, the historian, speaks of some of these slaves m Jamacia who attained the a°- e of 180 A new motor, said to rival the Keeley mo°tor, is in.'operation in Hamilton, Canada. The motive power consists of nine parts of air, and one of coal-gas, which operates as an explosive. The inventor challenges the Keeley motor to a trial The Rothesay correspondent of the ' South Wales Daily News ' telegraphs that Lady Flora Haatings ha* become a Catholic. This young lady is cousin to the Marquis of Bute and eldest daughter o* the recently deceased Countess of Loudoun. She is past 21 years of age, and has been spending the winter in the Me of Bute, where her guardians, the Marquis of Bute and Lady Bute, have been residing <* l -11 " VT?i UB ?t fc th ° neWB of the shi P^e°k of the steamer feohxller off Seilly Isles, came to England from New York. The übiquitous correspondent of the 'New York Herald' was the first to fh S? !rf^r gg < BTJr8 TJr he «* once to New, York, and from 8 *^°>* HTH T T rad ™"« was telegraphed back to the Evening Standard.' It v rather humiliating to think that news from the south of England ihould reach London via New York It does not Bay much for the enterprise of Englieh journalism.