INTERESTING ITEMS.

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 43, 5 June 1906, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The Royal crown of Portugal is worth a million sterling. "■■"“l* Thirty-two tons of water pass over the falls of Niagara every hour. — i — Great Britain pays £6,000,000 annually for foreign poultry and eggs »J. Great Britain spends £22,500,000 a year on the 'support of the poor, exclusive of private chariLies. Tea i& very cheap in China ; in one province of the Empire the best can be obtained at lid. a pound. * Thero are 17,000,000 children in Russia between the ages of six and sixteen who are not receiving any education. * The crater of Mauna Loa, in the Sandwich Islands, the largest volcano in the world, is twenty miles in diameter. Sometimes the stream of lava issuing from it is fifty miles long. * For the ascent oj Mount Omi, on the borderland between Western China and the Tibetan plateau, there is an artificial staircase consisting of 20,000 steps, cut in slippery limestone. An odd circumstance about the British flag, as seen in Canada, is that it is not, as a rule, the actual “Union Jack," but the flag of the British merchantile marine, which appeals to Canadian tasts as having more colour in it. * Senor Sarasate's most precious possession is a Stradivari violin. When he was twelve years old he played before Queen Isabella 11. of Spain, and hor Majesty was so pleased with his exquisite music that she presented him with the instrument, * In Corea, the termination "Po" or "Pho" indicates that the place is a port, or harbour, on navigable waters—e.g, ‘ Yongampho," the harbour near the mouth of the Yalu river ; “Mashampo," the growing naval base on the southern shore of the peninsula. “Do" as a termination means that the place is a province, "district of," and that it is the chief city of the province "Han," river.

An Admiral of the Fleet flies a Union Jack ; but this is seldom seen., A ship carrying an admiral is known, by a white flag with a red St.* George’s cross flying from the foremast. A vice-admiral’s flag is similar, the only difference being the addition of a red circle in the top lefthand comer, and a rear-mhuiral flies a flog with the same design, hut with a rea circle in each left-hand corner, top »nd bottom 984.