GENERAL INFORMATION.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2788, 11 October 1910, Page 7

GENERAL INFORMATION.

Over 7,000,0001b. of tobacco was produced in the Transvaal in 1908.

The Vatican contains 208 staircases and 1,100 different rooms.

There are nearly 2,000,000 horses in the Australian Commonwealth.

The Chinese have a flower which is white at night or in the shade, and red in the sunlight.

Alcoholic liquors for the use of natives are not permitted to be imported into Somaliland.

Of the 3,795 vessels passing turough the Suez Canal in 190 H, 2,333 carried the British flag.

For skating a mile and a half with three turns, 4mins. 41 2.5 sec. is the record time in Great Britain.

The tents of the Bedouin Arabs nro usually black. They arc made of dyed goat-hair cloth.

Japan's Government last year aP

pointed an Aeronautical Commission to make a tour and report on thi progress of the science of aviation in various countries.

Elephants, rhinoceroses, chimpanaees, and hippopotami exported alive from Northern Nigeria have to pay a duty of £lO a head ; ostriches have to pay £5, and leopards £3.

Small-holders in Egypt receive advances from the Agricultural Bank at 9 per cent, interest, which the Government collects on the bank's behalf through its tax-gatherers.

The heightening of the Assouan dam is expected to occupy six years in all, and to increase the annual value of the Egyptian cotton crop by between £3,000,000 and £4,000,000.

When the electric light has been dc prived of its heat ray, it is shown to have a powerful stimulating effect upon the muscles of the body.

The wear upon the Cape Cod coast is shown to be at the rate of 765,756 cubic yards per year, or an annual wear off the coast equal to a distance of about eight feet.

The crackling sound of freshly ignited wood or coal is caused by the air or liquid contained in the pores expanding by heat and bursting the covering in which it is confined.

On the summit of Den Lomond may be seen the smallest tree that grows in Great Britain ; it is known as the dwarf willow, and is, when mature, only about two inches in height.

Wood-tar is prepared just as it w ft » in the fourth century B.C. A bank is chosen and a hole dug, in which the wood is placed, covered with turf. A fire is lighted underneath, and the tar slowly drips into the barrels placed to receive it.

In many employments requiring dexterity and quickness with the hands, women are far more valuable than men. For instance, where the folding of large quantities of books or magazines is required, one woman can do as much as two men.

Observations made at Berlin, Potsdam, Prague, and other cities of Europe have shown that their geographical latitudes have decreased by two-tenths of a second. It is supposed that the axis of the earth has shifted by that much in space.

A human being consumes, on an average, no less than 2,465 ft). of food-stuff each year, which is sixteen times his own weight per annum, assuming an average body weight of 1501b. This seems an enormous quantity, but it is probably below th« average consumption of food in this country.

In Belgium, and in the neighbourhood of Liege especially, cock-crow ing competitions arc very popular among the working classes. The cocks are ranged in cases, and markers note the number of crows. The chanticleer who has sounded his shrill clarion the most times in an hour carries off the prise. In a competition recently held at Poulseur a cock gave voice 139 times.

The coolnesß of the cucumber consists in its audacious assumption of solidity with a minium of justification. Here we have a massive looking club as big, maybe, as a policeman's truncheon, and yet, when we come to analyse it, it is practically a yard of pump-water with a Pinch or two of salt in It. Only about one-twentieth of its mass is aught but aqua pura, and yet, not only does the vegetable fraud pose as an individual of substance, though only worth a shilling in the pound, so to speak, but it is not even solvent in another Rense, that is, gastronomically, since it resists digestion and breeds the hideous nightmare in the struggle. Architecturally, indeed, the cucumber is one of Nature's wonders.

Every Tibetnn family is compelled to devote its firstborn male child to a monastic life. Soon after bis birth the child is taken to a Hud dist monastery, to be brought up and trained in priestly mysteries. At about the age of eight he joins one of the caravanß whteh travel to Lhassa. There he is attached to one of the local monasteries, where he remains as a novice until he is fifteen, learning to read the sacred books and perform the religious rites of his faith. The firstborn sons being thus "sent into the church," as we should Pay in this country, the second sons become heads of the families and many. Unlike some other semi-civilised races, these young Tibetans h»ve the right o! choosing their own wives. A Ti-. betan girl, too, cannot be married off by her parents without her own consent. The curious custom in regard to the eldest sons results, of course, in nearly every Tibetan family acquiring the odour of sanctity by numbering a monk among its members. 1727.