BREVITIES

Evening Star, Issue 15480, 30 April 1914, Page 8

BREVITIES

The United Federation of Labor have decided to call " a conference of all unions " for July 7.

The proposal that Grey Lynn Borough should amalgamate with the City of Auckland was carried at a poll yesterdav, the voting being: For amalgamation, 1,072 ; against, 432. A proposal at Christchurch to raise a loan of £5,000 for suburban libraries was defeated yesterday by 2,610 votes to 2,084. The Invercargill ratepayers agreed to loans of £IO,OOO for electric light extension and £25,000 for gasworks extension, by big majorities yesterday. The Khedive of Egypt once had a carp which lie trained to come to the top of its tank whenever it was called. Before a fire brigade can start for a fire in Berlin the members must all fall in line in military fashion and salute their captain. The Chinese calendar is most complicated. Their cycles have 60 years, each year, month, and day bearing a separate name.

Next to opium in power are certain kinds of grasses, notable among which is hemp, which causes intoxication and ansesthesia.

Among elephants, both sexes of the African species have ivory tusks, while in Asia these are generally restrioted to the male. Canada has the largest forest in the world. It is ih the Labrador and Hudson Bay district, and is, roughly, 1,000 by 1,700 miles. A youth was recently arrested at Calcutta for having climbed up a waterpipe 120 ft long in order to hold converse with his sweetheart.

The leaf of the cocoanut tree is nearly 30ft long, while a single leaf of the parasol magnolia of Ceylon will shelter 15 or 20 persons. A lighthouse of bamboo, which is in use in Japan, is said to have great ■power of resisting the waves, and does not rot like ordinary wood. _ Pure oil of turpentine mixed with 1 per cent, of oil of lavender is the finest of all simple methods for purifying the air of a stuffy room.