NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Times, Volume V, Issue 105, 5 January 1881, Page 3

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The language of the inhabitaHijfi; of the island of Madagascar contains, a complete numerical system up to, % million. An extensive coal bed, estimated as capable of yielding 3.0t)0,0()01h daily for I a century, is now being worked near ELisgashe, on *he Kiou Kads, Japan. Mr. Boehm's statue to Lord LawI renee is to be erected opposite that of Sir John Bu.rgdyne m Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, A society for the relief of shipwrecked maVinera' families has been formed at Parii, on thf modei «£ tfe^ English so-

Fifteen of the aipirants to the parlimentary representation of Sydney arc of the aiJermanic class. A statue of Kabelais was lately unveiled at Tours, discourses being pronounced on the occasion. It is the work of M. Dunaaige. Eec-ently a plot of ground was sold m Tower-street, Loudon, at £4, 17s Gd per foot, or at the rate of £212,000 per acre. The German postal authorities estimate the number of cards m use throughout the postal union at about 700,000,000. Dr. Herz has marie the trial of a submarine telephone, with great success. His invention has carried a voice 300 miles inland. The united ages of ttreeh r ee Victorias judges — 'he Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Barry, and Mr. Justice Molesworth — are 207 year 3. The Battle of. Waterloo— that greatest event m the history of the time — received just one-third of a column m the London Times ! The Mormons began to work on their new temple twenty years ago, have expended "^BOO,OOO on it, and it is now one-fourth done. It is said that the Leiehhardfc copper mine (said to be the richest m theworid) will shortly be opened, and worked by a Melbourne company. A large kangaroo, alive, but with its two hind legs broken, was found fixed m the cowcatcher of a locomotive, m Victoria, recently. It is proposed to bottle and exportlie waters of the Nile, and it is conjectured that there are millions m it, the water is so healthful and delicious. A child at Newcastle was savagely attacked by a chained-up monkey. The little fellow was nearly killed, and ii now suffering great agony. A Melbourne journal recently gave a minute t ■legraphic account d£ the boma, bardmenfc of Dulcign.o, which, by the way. is yet to come off It is reported that the Chinese City of Hangchow, which has three-quarters of a million of inhabitants, has no policeman, nor does it- fee l the need for one. It is said that m America grain is carried on some of the railways 1000 miles for £1 per ton. That is about the same cost as for 200 miles m New Zealand. A correspondent of the Argus points out that the picture supposed to represent " Melbourne m 1880" has been made to do duty far several years past by the Australia^, News. The Duke of Ma v lboiough is com pelled to sell the portraits, paintings and library of Blenheim Palace, to save his son, a dissipated fellow from disgrace. S lifer necessity compelled a man to steal a pair of boots m Melbourne. He Aid it openly, and made no attempt to esvape, for gaol was his only refuge from starvation. He got three months. That was a knowing steward of one of the Sydney- Mel bourne steamers who lately concealed £50 <vorth of jowellery m a tin of fat, but the Customs officer was more knowing, for he found it out. A wealthy Victorian squatter ha 3 had made, totally regardless of the cost a magnificent set of double carriage harness, elaborately and profusely ornamented with his coat of arms m solid colonial gold ! The detective who «o cleverly cap tured Weiberg, of gold-robbery fame has got the " sack " because he appeared at tlie effice one morning some two minutes late. " Atticus "m the Leader suggests jealousy as the real cause. The French history m the past Lun dred years exhibits three women who. perhaps experienced more splendour and more bitter grief and mortification than any other three women m the world — Marie Antoinette, Jouephine, and Engenie. The Duke of Malborough having sold his gems, which were brought together by the great Thomson Howard, Earl of Arundel, for thirty-five thousand guineas, is now about to sell his library, which is as valuable m its way as the gems. The greatest hail-storm ever known recently prevailed at Stevans Point Wisconsin. Hail-stones from six to ten inches fell and cvered the ground from four to eight inches deep, killing thousands of sheep and other animals, and turkeys, geese, and prairie clucVens. The latest official returns show that m New South Wales there are 37,557 stock holders, who own 360,038 horse, 2,014,210 hwied cattle, 29,043,392 shepp, and 256,026 pigs.. The Russians now have an enormous force m the Pacific waters, and next spring will be able, if the negotiations fail, to present an ultimatum to China. An angry man atLeetonia, Ohio, drovf his family out of the house and set on fire the premises. He neglected to provide a means of escape, and perished m the flames. The London and North Western Railway Company boast that during the past 2\ years they have carrisd 12O,( 00,000 passengers and only one lady has been killed. | The life of the prince of Wales is insured for £40,000, for which he pays an annual premium of £800, m order that his family may not be left destitute. Emigration from the Neapolitan provinces to America was never so great as the present ; the streets of Naples are encumbered with peasants waiting for transportation across the Atlantic. The wiEe of a wealthy Boston sugar refiner was caught stealing alaca shawl in' a- &toiv, though her wallet was crammed full of money, and her husband permitted ' her to spend all she wanted to. . A girl wai frightened to death by % \ dream, at West Chester, Pa. She was : r,ecnwri.ng. fr.om typhoid fevar, and -was i ' so, "Break, that awakening m terror, the v,-iolen;fc action, oJ| her- heart proved m. j Sjtantly fatal. : Mr- John, a well-known Coupa,r-_An£Us pea,rl fi;sher, a Dundee | paper s.ays, has. returned after a fishing tour m. Balqnhidder watars, with one of the fipest pearl's that has ev-er been secured 1 . In shape. a,ndi colour if, if : aulltess, antf- weight 23- grains., Boccacio was thirty-five, years of ags. when he commenced hid &tu,dies m light literature; yet \e became, oae. of the greatest master* of the. Tuscan, dialect, Dante and Plutarch, being to the .Qtjh.^taQ*

The London Jockey Club employes a special staff of detectives to remove known bad character* from the rings, aud guard stand enclosures. Sir Henry Spellman neglected the sciences m hit youth, but commenced the study of them when he was between fifty and sixty years of age. Aft. r this time he became a most learned antiquarian and lawyer. A man by the name of Godmann beat Christian tjmbright to death a few years ago m Indiana. Some weeks since a pair of bull dogs pulled him down and nearly devoured him, and after that they attacked Umbright's widow, and almost tore her to pieces before help could ] reach her. Not a bad sort of a landlord. The American paper* give an instance of one Irish landlord, drawing £190,C00 per annum, who is 92 years of age, ami has never set his foot on Irish soil — uot once. The gold and silver plate belonging to the present Duke of Wellington is worth £300,000. The Shah of Persia remonstrated with the Queen for allowing such wealthy and powerful subjacts to live. A lord of the manor m Bedfordshire refuses positively either to tell or lease a site on which to erect a memorial chapel to John Bunyan. The annual consumption of oysters m Paris amounts to 50,000,000. The young Duke of Newcastle, who has reached the vast age of sixteen, has applied to the courts for permission to marry. The Empress JSugejiie ha& just bought the Parnboroagh Hill estate, m Hampshire, closotathe borders of the county of Surrey, for £60,000. The improvement m travelling is shown by tb* fact that m 186)) it took a passenger fire days to go from, New York to Few Orleans ; m 1880 oue can go m 60nours and 45 minutes. Mr. Mackav, the San Fran-oi^o Bonapza milJionaris, is said to lia.-fj become morose and susmcious, so ma j • adventures and importers having pin:-- j tked on him that he has lost faith m human nature. An excursion train on the West Jersey railroad, America, collided with another one which had been sturfi-d a few minutes before it, the result being 21 deaths and 60 persons tembJy injured The largest tewing machine m the world has just been finished, I: is <■*' the Singer pattern, and weighs o?or four tons. It is worked by-stea:u, ana has been ma,de for a manufacturing firm m Liverpool. The longest bridge m. the world has just been completed. The Volga, near Syrzane, m, Itussia. aud will form part of the Orenburg railroad. Its length is 4176 ft. There are m, the bridge thirteen spans. The old Duchess of Cambridge, to whom her niece Queen Victoria is much attached, has been an extraordinarily good mother m her generation and her eon the Duke, when m London, alwyas visits her every day, An English gentleman states that his beard, which at home was soft and straight, began to curl at Alexandria, became crisp going up the- Nile, and after a short whilein curly growth, which ii interesting to ethnologists who would account for Ethiopian skin and wool. An English journal bewails that the world is threatened with a death of lions, that the "king of th« forest" is. gradually disappearing m his. native wilds. But this grave misfortune has encouraged a Frenchman tv establish a regular breeding stud of lions at Bona, where lions wjU be breed and trained for the market. The Irish Royal College of Surgeon? has lately soverajty- cautioned its mem- ; bera against having any communication with bonußopathista. A diabolical attempt was made to wreck the railway train about 100-yards from the Lancefield road station, i Victoria. It was discovered on, Tuesday night that an iron, sleeper had heen placed across the rails. . The Sydney Morning Herald of Saturday last consisted of 20 pages,, containing 120 columns, about 90 of which were composed of small type. It may farily be claimed that this typographical achievement has never been equalled south of the line. It costs the Queen £1000 a year to ride between England and Scotland. ;