BREVITIES.

Evening Star, Issue 14966, 28 August 1912, Page 10

BREVITIES.

Count Tolstoy bom August 28. 1628. Australia is the largest island in the world ; its area is nearly three-fourths that of Europe. St. Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, died .August 28, 430. Slaves in the British colonies liberated August 28, 1853. Motor spirit is produced throughout the world at the rate of 2,000,000, W0gal per annum. Including navigable rivers, the United Kingdom possesses 4,053 miles of inland waterways. Trade unions in the United States of America have a membership exceeding one and a-half millions. Education under the London County Council represents a gross annual expenditure of £6,000,000. Greenwich mean time is the standard employed on the railways of France, Belgian*,’Spain, and Portgunl. Winchester College is the oldest of our public schools; it was inaugurated by William of Wykeham in 1393. The longest canal in the world is in Russia. It extends from St. Petersburg to the frontier of China, and its total length is close upon 4,500 miles. The baya bird of India has the curious habit of fastening fireflies to its nest with moist day. On a dark night such a nest might be taken for an electric, lamp. Over 40,000 certificates and 3.500 prizes have been awarded to children in the London County Council schools for Scripture knowledge* at the annual examinations. In Java there is an orchid, the grammatophvllum. all the flowers of which open at once.' as if by the stroke of a fairy wand, and they also‘wither together. Leigh Hunt, poet and essayist, died August 28, 1859. The Chief Justice thinks that every person who drives a motor car should have a certificate of proficiency. Sir Robert also gave it as his opinion that if a man were hard of hearing he should have on the car some sort of mirror attachment which would enable him to sec any vehicle coming up behind him. Freda Pickett, aged six years, swam the other day across Dover Bay from the Princess of Wales pier to the Promenade pier, a distance of half a mile, in 12min. She was taught by Miss Jarvis, a sister of the English champion swimmer.