NEWS AT A GLANCE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 March 1907, Page 1

NEWS AT A GLANCE.

Mahommedans salute with the left hand.

A swan has been known to exist over 300 years. Four sovereigns are in circulation to one half-sovereign. London's imports by sea are over 174 million tons yearly. Eitdit thousand people arc employed in Woolwich Arsenal. The first locomotive was built by Richard Trevithic in 1794. Coloured people suffer more from blind ness than white races. A ton of oil lias been obtained froni the togue of a single whale. Twenty-seven thousand vessels yearly enter the Port of London. The blasting of reefs in-New York harbour cost in all £1,070,000. -in London there are three habitual cri miiials to every two policemen. nals to every two policemen. A London omnibus carries on an average 2500 passengers a week. Mild steel has 0.15 to 0.4 per cent of carbon in.it; hard, 1.2 to 1.6 per cent In the sea there is four shillings worth ', of gold in every twenty-five tons of | water. j

Lord Gwyden, who is in his 96th year, is the Father of the House of Lords.

The Belgians are the greatest potatoeaters in'the world, and the Irish come second. One thousand and fifty soldiers are employed by the London and South Western Railway. The combined annual income of the British working classes exceeds the sum of £600,000,000. Melbourne and Wellington are the greatest distances by post from London 6$ any of the colonial cities. ' The railways of England and Wales own, on an average, twelve acres of land for every mile of railway. German engine-drivers receive a gold medal and £IOO for every ten years of service without accident.

England's imports of wool in 1905 were 620,350,8851 b, of which oyer 500,0001 b came from British possessions. Lord Bacon was made a Q.C. at the age of 29, the youngest age at which a barrister has ever attained this honour. The first experimental train which crossed the Forth Bridge was driven by the Marchioness of Twcddale in 1899. Nicolo Puccini, the Italian composer, holds the record of having written no fewer than. 134 operas. He was born in 1728.