GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 126, 1 October 1875, Page 15

GENERAL NEWS.

ii Steps are being taken for establishing a new Catholic Club in London, in the place of the Stafford Club, on a proprietary basis, the proprietors being the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Ripon, the Earl of Denbigh, the' Earl of Kenmare, the Earl of Gainsborough, Viscount St. Asaph, Lord Petre, Lord. Howard of Glossop, Lord Emly, Sir R. Gerard and others. The number of .'* original members" has been fixed at 350, and in the space of one week, 250 names were registered. The great event of the day in Austria is the extraordinary success achieved in the training camp of Bruck by an Austrian captain (Herr von Kropatschek) with a newly-invented repeating breechloader. Herr von Kropatsehek is an authority in Austria on breechloaders, having devoted his whole attention to the subject ever since the defeat of 1866 brought the question of breechloaders v. muzzleloaders before the public. Herr Kropatschek's writings on breechloaders early attracted the attention of the -highest military authorities, and commanded an extraordinary sale in military circles. The result of the trials with this newly-constructed rifle are not publicly stated, but they are reported to constitute a signal success. Probably few people are aware of the large amount annually paid by the English Government in the. shape of pensions. Last year's Parliamentary paper on the subject has just been issued. It consists of qighty-four folio pages, and is styled, " An account of all allowance* or compensations granted as retired allowances or superannuations in all public offices and departments which remained payable on January 1, 1874, the annual amount which was granted in the year 1874, the amount which ceased within that year, and the total amount remaining payable on December 31, 1874." From its contents it appears that this last item, the actual amount paid at the close of last year, reached the large total of .£1,080,715. In each of four departments — the War Office, the Customs, the Inland Revenue, and the Post Office — the figures exceeded .£IOO,OOO, while in the Admiralty they amounted to .£98,939. Several very liberal pensions ceased in 1874, owing to the death of their recipients. Amongst the largest of these was a pension of .£1,300 to the late Hon. G. Jerningham, Minister at Stockholm ; one of to the late Mr. Maclean, Secretary to the Customs ; one of J51,541 to Sir Denis Le Marchant, Clerk to the House of Commons ; one of. .£I,BOO to the late Mr. Abrahall, Commissioner of Bankruptcy; one of i>2,500 to the late Sir A. G. Spearman, Controller of the National Debt ; and last, but not least, one of .£7,352 to that leviathan pensioner, the late Rev. T. Thurlow, Patentee of Bankrupts. The common belief in the curious longevity of pensioners will, perhaps, receive fresh support from the fact that we are still paying ,£7OO a-year in pensions to the household of the Princess Charlotte, who died no less than fifty-eight years ago. It is now little more than five years since the Home" Government acquired the telegraphic system of the country ; but in that short time some marvellous results have been achieved. The total number of offices open to the public, which at the time of the transfer was about 2,000, is now little short of 5,600, of which upwards of 450 are in London alone. The number of messages forwarded annually has increased from six millions to twenty millions ; and the average charge for an inland message has been reduced from 2s. 2d. to Is. 2d. Of-words transmitted on behalf of the press upwards of 220,000,000 are delivered annually, as compared with something like 2,000,000 in the days of the telegraph companies. Those companies possessed about 5,600 miles of line and 49,000 miles of wire. The Post Office possesses 24,000 miles of line,; and 108,000 miles of wire. But the number of instruments has increased in a still greater proportion — all of the companies together possessing fewer than 1,900 instruments, as against upwards of 11,600 worked by the Post Office. - The Wheatstone apparatus, hardly known or understood half-a-dozen years ago, and so essential for the carrying on of the news service of the country, has been introduced by the Post Office to the extent of nearly 150 sets; while the " duplex >J or double-working system is in general operation throughout the country, and is in use in the central telegraph stations in London on no fewer than 75 separate lines. The pneumatic tubes of the old system were about 20 in number, and measured some three miles in length. Those of the Post Office ar« 55 in number, and measure upwards of 23 miles. Besides extending and maintaining its own system, the Post Office has lent help in several directions towards perfecting the system of military telegraphs. It has thrown open a portion of its service to a detachment of the Royal Engineers, who have been trained, at its expense, to erect and maintain telegraph lines, although it is understood that these officers are in no sense necessary to the telegraphic service of the country, which could be equally well carried on minus the expense which the Post Office is now put to in order to make room for them. Speaking of the decease of the ex-Emperor of Auitria, an exchange says :: — '• Emperor Ferdinand I. of Austria, crowned King of Hungary, Bohemia, and Lombardy, died at Prague, in the 84th year of his age, after a lingering illness. He was the last Emperor of Austria who possessed the-e three crowns. In the whole Austrian monarchy, and those countries which in happier days had belonged to it, there is not a noble or charitable establishment of which the Emperor Ferdinand has not been the promoter and the protector. The population of Austria surnamed him Ferdinand the Kind. He * had, nevertheless, a great many enemies, who hated him for being a faithful servant to God's Church — a truly Catholic monarch. He was the representative of a_ period of interior welfare and exterior splendour, which has now unfortunately disappeared. In 1848 he gave up his crown in favour of his nephew, the present Emperor Francis Joseph (who is tht heir of his fortunes and estates), and retired to Prague, where he lived a quiet, pious life, taking part in good works, in which the, Empress Marie Ann Pia, who Bumret him fervently joined."