NEWS TIT-BITS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 11, 12 January 1918, Page 18

NEWS TIT-BITS.

Every household in Italy saves all the odd bits of paper. These are soaked in water and kneaded into balls, then put in tho sun to dry. They will serve to give a littlo heat later on. Walk down a fashionable street in Milan and you will see pyramids of these paper balls on the balconies of the houses of the rich. It has been computed tbat there are now 15,135,230 women voters in the world, exclusive of the 6,000,000 who will soon be enfranchised in Great Britain, tlie 3,073,900 in Mexico (whose position is in some doubt), and tbe many millions who will probably soon be enfranchised in Russia. In the United States there are 8,557,308; in five Canadian provinces, 1,075,205; Australia, 2,141,070; Norway, 1,234,630; Denmark, 503,956; Finland, 750,n07 ; New Zealand, 527,533 ; Iceland, 24,874; and Isle of Man, 15,373. Of King Peter of Serbia an American correspondent writes, after a recent interview: "The face of this unhappy king is lined and drawn. Hi 3 sorrow shows upon it. Nearly all his early life he spent in exile. He vvas past the prime of life when, after tho assassination of the former royal family, he was called to the throne. He is thin and tall; bis slight stoop does not rob him of his dignity of carriage; his hair and beard are grey. Before the war he wore a moustache only; but in Serbia a beard means sorrow for lost loved ones, and Heaven knows this king has reason for a mourner's badge." A city now in the hands of the British, and noted for its tanneries, is Hebron, near Jerusalem. This city, according to the Bible, was built seven years before Zoan, and Zoan was originally Tanis, the chief town of the Egyptian delta in the second millennium before Christ. Hebron was known, according to tho Book of Joshua, as JCirjath-Arba, and vvas inhabited by a race of giants. The tanneries of Hebron engage in the tanning of skins for' carrying water. The skin of the animal is made water-tight and sewed up with the hair on the outside, after which tanning material is pumped into the bag which is so formed. After being fully inflated by the tanning fluid, these skins are allowed to remain in this condition until thoroughly tanned, when they are used as sacks for carrying water. Philip Laszlo, the eminent Hungarian portrait painter, who has been interned as an alien enemy in England, notwithstanding -his marriage into the famous Guinness family, boasts a rare list of titles and decorations. He was made a Member of the Victorian Order in 1910, and was ennobled by the Austrian Emperor two years later. He is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and a Commander of the Royal Spanish Order of Isabella la Catholica, and of the Orders of Jesus Christ of Portugal, the Hohenzollern house, and the Royal Greek Saviour, a Knight of the Austro-Hun-garian Order of the Iron Cross, a Chevalier of the Order of Pius IX., and belongs to the Order of the Prussian Crown (second class). Both Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria and tho Grand Duke of Hesse have conferred upon him the Order of Art and Science.

One of Kaiser Wilhelm's favourite efforts consists in camouflaging people as to his height. A former lady-in-waiting to the empress says: "I dare say very few people have a correct notion of the Emperor's height, for, as he is seldom seen without a helmet terminating in a point, the public is mystified, and even close observers are apt to be deceived. In the palace this question is never openly discussed, but I heard the Kaiserin tell the over-inquisitive Prince Eitel Fritz once or twice that his father measured five feet eight inches. That, I am sure,<s a mistake; five feet five or six inches is the highest measure that even Adjutant Count Moltke, who has a very sure eye in such matters, gives him." Twelve shipyards in Canada are building wooden steamships to the order of the Imperial Munitions Board, under instructions from the British Ministry of Shipping. Six of these yards are on the British Columbia coast, and a similar number on tho Atlantic seaboard and the Great Lakes. Altogether 42 steamers are under construction, but as the Imperial Government needs all the new tonnage that can be supplied, and has expressed its willingness to take over as many vessels as can be turned out by tho shipyards of Canada, the programme will doubtless be extended in the near fututre. At the present time there are 27 wooden steamers under order on the British Columbia coast, and about 15' on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. The vessels are all from 2.500 to 2,500 tons dead weight and 250 feet in length. A unique museum may be found in the city of Nara, the former capital of Japan. Since its foundation in 756, it went through all the changes of the Japanese Empire, without one single addition to its collection. It opens its doors but once a year, on a day in spring, when a special committee inspects the collection, and a new list is made out. The museum contains about 3,000 articles, which are said to be the most beautiful specimens of decorative work which have ever been produced by human hand; such as lacquer ware, decorative furniture, enamel ware, cam-bric-like fabric, etc. The origin of the mapority of the articles is uncertain; some came from China, and others from Corea; but most of them appear to be of a more exotic origin. All, however, came of a time prior to the year 75C.