NEWS AT A GLANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 306, 1 December 1906, Page 1

NEWS AT A GLANCE.

The cobweb trade is one of the greatest in Paris. The Atlantic Ocean is crossed monthly by 1000 ships. The best time for exercise is about two hours after a meal. Russia grar - patents for three yeais j only; Belgium for 20 years. j More than onefourth of all Engish newspapers are pubished in London. In the Crimean war 30,000 operations were performed under chloroform. Lithium is the lightest substance in Nature, with the exception of gases. Divers' boots weigh 201b apiece. The helmet weighs 401b, and the diver carries 801b weight besides. The bones of an average male skeleton weigh 201b, while those of a female are about 61b lighter. The grouse-shooting rental for Scotland is estimated at something like £500,000. Torpedoes are said to have been invented by an American in 1777. -.. A man's voice through a speaking trumpet 20ft long has been heard a distance of three miles. The original Mr John Gilpin is said to have been Mr Bover, a Cheapside draper, who died in 1791. One of the smallest colonies is the Falkland Islands. There -are- 2043 people, who live in 359 houses. Pulling a plough which cuts a seveninch furrow a horse travels 14i miles in ploughing an acre. A calf that_ weights 2331b at three months old should weigh 3511b .at six months, and 64Q at twelve months. - -- •- -. i The smallest bone in the human body is to be found within the drum of the ear. Railway goods engines are capable of drawing, in some cases, as much as 740 tons. Grapes are "squeezed sis times in making champagne, yielding wine of different qualities. Victorials railways, which are entirely under Government control, have a broad gauge of sft 3in. There are reckoned to be at least 300 million cocoanut trees in existence in full bearing. Thread has been produced from nettle fibre so fine that 60 miles of it i weigh only 2£lb. I An average walking pace of a healthy man or woman is said to be 75 steps a minute. On two occasions only have baronet- | cies been conferred upon women. The last was in 1686. The Royal Commission which discussed the rabbit plague in New South Wales cost £6129. The salmon caught yearly in Scotland weigh 2800 tons. Its prime value -is, about £107 a ton. " " " " Tobacco was legal tender in the American States when they were still colonies of Great Britain. The Bank of England printed four notes for a million pounds each, and then destroyed the plates. The intervals between the meals of large serpents like the anaconda or boa vary from 20 to 200 days. Some of the finest lace in the world is made by the women of the Philippine Islands from strong silky fibre obtained from pineapple leaves. An earthquake wave has been known to travel across the Pacific Ocean in 12 hours and '16 minutes — that is, at the rate of 6 miles a minute. The railway lines of Canada are worked with coal from the Nova Scotia mines of Halifax and Cape Breton. A gallon of water a day is drunk by every Japanese who practices, as nearly all do, the gymnastics known as jiujitsu. There were 187 more casualties among railway passengers on British railways in 1903 than in 1902, but 6,613,731 more people travelled. In the city of Jaipur, India, all the streets are broad and '- straight, and cross one 'another at right angles, and every edifice, public or private, is of tho same uniform' pale pink hue. The master of the Chelmsford Workhouse has reported to the guardians that a bread-cutting machine bought for the" workhouse has effected a saving of 1962 loaves, valued at £32 14s. Fishes have no eyelids, and necessarily sleep with their eyes open* they swallow their food whole, having no dental machinery. Frogs, toads, and serpents never take food except that which they are certain is alive. Tho following advertisement appeared in a Torquay paper : — "Wanted, a smart active wife ; well up in laundry work ; fond of singing ; can ride a bicycle, and be a loving old man's darling. Apply by letter with photo.'' ~ • — ■ — —

Mr Hearst, opposed by President Roosevelt aa Mayor of New York, spent £51',000 to secure election, but was dej ieated by Hughes, whose disbursements were only £124.; ... - Mr Hall Caine makes a practice of raiting every place he intends to describe in a novel. When engaged on £ story he writes, on an average] 1500 words a day. "Carmen Sylva," Queen of Roumania; itory-writer and poetess, was married ;o her husband tour times — according to the German civil code, according ti the Lutheran religion, according to thi Roman Catholic Church, and according to the rites of the Greek Church. There are more Jews in New York :han there are in Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland put together. They worship in 57 -synagogues. Every fifth person belongs to the family of Abraham. '„•!... J The sacrifices that the French railway companies are about^.to make'spqr. taneously in order to assure . for thel employees the Sunday rest is/ valuer by M. Bathous at £1,200)0004'- tc £1,600,000 a year. , Rubber is steadily increasing in valnc awing to the growth .of the, automobile ■ bicycle, and the electrical industries st'n'd this year's crop for the who]. world is estimated at 75,000 tons, valu id at £24,000,000. The Tauranga Borough Council ha: passed a by-law instructing the pound keeper to supply owners of quiet broker; horses and milch cows with a necl. strap on payment of an .annual, fee oi £1. Animals wearing these strapi will be permitted to graze on the roadside without molestation. Extraordinary revelations aJicin Berlin about a private lunatii asylum in Charlottenuurg, kept b> ascertain T)r Kbel. Two of <the chie' attendants have ,t»een, arrested, charged with the most revolting cruelty, practised oh the unfortunate patients. One of these patients, ,Herr Rothschild, isialloged to have died from 'injuries^-inflict ed on him. Jt is stated that th patients "wore belaboured with in diarubber tubes, sticks, and life preservers, kicked on the abdo men, and otherwise (maltreated and, further, that they were dos oi with chloral by the (attendants without the doctor's orders, tc keep thenv tjuiet. In -the departmenfor epileptics tho patients wbrv brutalize beaten. A letter appeal's in the press from the 'directors o the asylum, denying the charge brought against their establishment. The truth, however, wi-1 not be known until the two ward cts have been tried.