MISCELLANEOUS.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 931, 10 June 1914, Page 7

MISCELLANEOUS.

, Obsolete ■■ which cost £2,000,000 to. build were sold at Portsmouth for £IOO,OOO. : Three of earliest submarines realized an - average of less than £4OO each. The. Royal Sovereign, a warship launched in 1891, and for years the pride of the Channel Fleet, was sold for £40,000. .

The largest stage in the world is that of -the Grand' Opera_ House in i'aris. It is 100 ft. wide, nearly ;00 ft. in depth, and 80 ft. high. The ight is measured from the level 6i w stage to the "flies." The stage of. die Metropolitan House, New xork, City is 101 ft. wide, 89 ft. deep, and ft. high, and is believed to be the rgest in the United States.

WORLD'S LARGEST BRIDGE. It is probable that next year a commencement .will be made with the construction of the railway 4 bridge beRugen and the mainland, which fyiU be the longest in the world, exceeding even that over the Hohangho, vitn its 3,580 yards. "The cost of this great engineering work is not expected to amount to more than £1,000,000, or - dss than a third of that of the Forth .ndge. . When the bridge, which, it is .said, is to include a track for pedestrians, though none for road tralfic, is completed it will substantially shorten the journeys between Berlin and Hamburg on the one hand, and Stockholm and Christiana on the other.—"Daily ielegraph."

RAILWAY TIME BY WIRELESS. The Compagnie du Nord of France is ,he first railway of the world officially .o adopt the regulation of its time.eces by wireless time-signals. Railways ordinarily regulate the station nocks on their lines by means of agnals that .are transmitted over the telegraph wires. . This method frequently interrupts the regular telegraphic service, and is open to other objections. Wireless time-signals, km .he other hand, cause no interruption if then- regular servicje. They are received each morning at seventeen of Jig principal stations on the line of the French railways from the national aureau in the Eitt'el Tower. The receiver, which is a small and portable apparatus, is connected with a'very simple "aerial," made up of one wire or two parallel wires 150 ft. jr more long, stretched between two jrdinary telegraph poles.

A FORTUNE IN A COIN, Somewhere in the world there is a iortirae in a coin. Among the coins *N apoleon had minted were some mii.ons of five-franc pieces, and he determined to popularise these in an extraordinary way. In one of the coins, folded to a tiny size, was enclosed a note signed by Napoleon, and promising the sum of 5,000,000 francs—about £2oo,ooo—to the finder of that particular coin. Naturally, everybody who changed a large piece demanded the new fivefranc coins in exchange, and as a ruie probed and dug and sounded the metal in eager search, for the hidden note. jut tlie years went on, and yet the iote did not appear. Napoieon's plighted word is a sacred trust to the u'rench nation, and to-day the Government stands ready to pay the debt, .vhich, with interest, is now worth demand.

ELEPHANT'S TEETH. The elephant has no cutting teeth, %ke most animals, but only a series or' nolars. These molars, or grinders, as ney wear away, gradually move fojv .vard in. the jaw, and the remnant 01 ne tooth when the surface is completely destroyed is cast out in front, .he-same molar can thus be replaced is many as eight times.' The tusks, .vhich are only enormously-elongated teeth, can be renewed only once. ,i'his wearing process and the ejection of the stump of the tooth go on very slowly during the life of thelephant. Only one or two teeth at a . ime are in use, or in view, in each ,aw. There are always other teeth .vaiting to pass forward and begin aeir work, although there is a limit to his successio/i, for, when the last has -•ome into use and been worn down, the elephant can no longer chew his .ood, and must die of starvation, if he ias not already succumbed to old age.

LAW OF THE FLAG. There are quite a number of- people whom an excess of enthusiasm may lead into committing an offence against the law. On red-letter days many a flag is hoisted which ought not to be, and comparatively few people are aware of the restrictions on this point. The whole matter was laid down by an Order,in Council dated November sth, 1800. ; This still remains in force. The most important point to be remembered is that the Royal Standard is the personal flag of the Sovereign. It is hoisted, where the Sovereign is residing, and nowhere else, with a few exceptions, such as certain fortresses on Royal anniversaries, or State occasions, as laid down in the Royal Regulations. The Union Jack is the flag of the whole nation, and anyone may fly it. For over two centuries the British Fleet consisted of three divisions—the redj the white, and the blue—and each division flew an "Ensign" of a corresponding colour, the white ensign being incorporated with the "St. George's Cross." These divisions were abolishec' n 1864, but the White Ensign wai still retained for the fleet. It- is exclusively the flag of the Royal Navy }iid the Royal Yacht Squadron, and it is a punishable offence for anyone else to use it, however innocent their in.ention. The Blue Ensign is the flag >f the Royal Naval Reserve; it is also 3own by certain yacht sjhibs. The flag vhich is most commonlyMn use among civilians is tho Red Ensign, the flag •f the Merchant Service. No loyal rtitizen with a flagstaff on his house ■r in his back garden will transgress my. regulation if- he runs up the Red insign when the spirit moves him' to proclaim his loyalty.—"Bristol Times and Mirror."

MILLIONS SPENT ON MUSIC.

; An armjr%f nearly '42,000 workers, is jtiow. engaged' in 'making pianos and [organs m the; Onited? States, accordLing to the last census, and aboui i£6,000,000 is paid them for,their work. In 1909 (says' "Popular■■? Mechanics") the value 9f the products they "turned out almost reached £iß,obo,ooorr-orßi seven times the value of the industry's, troubled with crowds while you si -oke cigars of that brand.',' total output in 1869.' But tho number of factories is decreasing; small firms a *e giving way to huge corporations. iVi^^ 374 ' 154 'pianos; valued at nearly '£12,000,000, that were built in 1909, about 98 per cent, -were uprights, and some 40,000 had mechanical player attachments. Half of the £1,000,000 jpent on organs in that year went into i-ipo organs, although they were outnumbered 50 to 1 by reed organs... lnc phonograph and graphophone industry is increasing faster than all others, and now amounts to about £2,400,000 : i year, equally divided between machines and records. On the other , ,iand, and probahly as a result, evefv year brings a decline in the number of land and orchestral instruments produced.

, THE KAISER'S WEALTH. The German rulers and: a considerable number of the-members of their families are very wealthy, men, but their incomes, bulk; more largely than iheir actual accumulations. The richest of them is undoubtedly Kaiser Wil:ialm as King of. Prussia. For as German Emperor he,, receives . no' Civi. 'jist..,: His fortune is computed at seven millions sterling, his annual income at £1,100,000. The Kaiser's wealth consists largely of land in town and country. He owns forests and lands to the value of three and a half millions, forty castles and country houses valued at two millions, and various property in Berlin, approximately worth a million. In seven different, provinces he own'k seventy-four estates, comprising close on half a million acres. With trifling exceptions, all the Kaiser's landed property is entailed. ~/ His eldest son, the German Crown rinco, has property valued at three iuarters of a million and an income l , fifty thousand annually.. The eCaiser's brother. Prince Henry, owns property valued at four, hundred thousand, and has an income of at .east twenty-five thousand. The Kaiser and his relatives own property to the value of about eleven millions sterling. -"Christian World."

WHAT DIVERS EARN. There are jobs than diving—when it comes to pay-time. On docks and similar works men in bells receive, as a rule, Is. or Is. 2d. per hour, while helmet divers draw from 2s. to 2s. 6d. And these, are minimum rates, the remuneration increasing in p*)portion to risk. f :■■:> , For assisting in making wells the pay is from 14s. to 20s. a shift, and ohe ordinary rate in a flooded mine is from £1 to, £2 a shift. Nominally, a shift is four hours: but,-as fifteen minutes are allowed for resting and another fifteen minutes at the end for undressing, it js really only three and a half hours. Salvage work is paid for still more' highly. In some cases men receive £1 a day, whether they dive or not; in others they get so much—£l upwards for every tide at which work is practicable ; and in others there is a standing wage of £2 per week, besides an extra sum for every hour actually worked.

When operations are carried on for the recovery of treasure at great depths divers are usually paid weekly wages, plus a commission on the value of the stuff actually recovered. One has received as much as £lO in wages alone, and a diver has brought up in his hand a "find" worth no less than £7,000. lhis was a hunting-knife studded with diamonds, and it was recovered from the "Cadiz," which was wrecked near Ushant, on the French coast. i\vo of the most profitable jobs divers have ever had were in connection ivith the "Alphonso III.," which sank off Ppint Gando, Grand Canary,. in 162 ft. of waterj and the "Skyro," wrecked near Cape Finisterre. From the "Alphonso III." Daniel Lambert recovered £70,000 in Spanish gold coin, and another diver salved £20,000. Lambert's share of the haul was £3,500 and his companion netted £I,OOO. In the case of the "Skyro'.' silver bars to the value of about £IO,OOO were hauled from the ocean's bed, and the diver's commission amounted to soaiethina like £SOO. '