SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 16, 1878

SECULAR NEWS.

—Pennsylvania has a population of 4,000,000 of whom 1,000,000 live in cities.

—The St. Gothard tunnel, under the Helvetic Alps, measures nearly ten miles in length, costing about $60,000,000.

—Extreme destitution prevails in Labrador, and fears are entertained that, unless assistance is promptly rendered, many people will die of starvation.

—Until recently human as well as animal bones were used in French sugar refineries; in fact the former were as lately as 1858 sent from Algeria to France.

—May 8, the steamship Gaelic, of the Occidental and Oriental steamship line, arrived at San Francisco from Hongkong and Yokohama with 549 Chinese passengers on board.

—It is estimated that the sugar crop of Cuba will be 100,000 tons short this season. It is time the United States took effectual means to inaugurate the extensive production of beet sugar.

—Postal statistics show that of all European countries (Russia probably excepted) the fewest letters are written in Spain. Thus in 1875-6 only 87,000,000 letters passed through the Postoffice, being but 5.49 to each inhabitant.

—Immigration to this country seems to be slightly increasing again, as seen from the statistics of arrivals and from the reports of consuls in European ports, that laborers who went from America at the beginning of hard times are begging for means to return.

—There is a prospect of a large emigration of English people, discouraged by stagnation in business, resulting in strikes, etc., to the mineral and agricultural lands of Alabama, following the investment of English capital in the railroads of that State.

—There are now in the Massachusetts women's prison three hundred and fifty-five female convicts, their ages ranging from sixteen to sixty-eight years. In the nursery attached there are forty-three babies, fourteen of whom were born in prison. The convicts are guarded, controlled and managed by women, and as a reformatory institution it is making a good record.

—May 8, Charles Morgan died in New York city. He was owner of Morgan's line of steamships running between New York and New Orleans and other vessels in the Texas trade—twenty-one in all. He was sole owner of the railroad running from New Orleans to Morgan City and the railroad from Indianola to Victoria, Texas. His fortune was estimated at $13,000,000.

—The Sydney correspondent of the Australian and American Home News writes that the loss in Australia by drouth in 1876 represented about $10,000,000. It was with great difficulty that stockholders could be induced to furnish statistics. The losses in 1877 are known to be very much heavier. Previous prosperous seasons have enabled the colonies to bear up under this heavy blow, but, of course, many individuals have gone under.