INTERESTING ITEMS.

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 50, 17 July 1906, Page 8

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The income of Oxford University is slightly under £70,000 a year. Salt water extinguishes fire much more rapidly than the same amount of fresh. The salary of the common hangman is £1 a week as a retaining fee, and £2 after an execution. The gilding in the throne-room of 1 the Sultan at Constantinople is unequalled by any other building in Europe. Lemon baths are popular in the West Indies. Three or four lemons i are but up and left to soak in water Half an hour. The bath is very refreshing. Plates made of compressed paper are used in cheap restraurants on the Continent, so that falling on the fioor or other rough usage does not harm such dishes. All the fire-alarms of London are the work of the Port Office, and between twenty and thirty other towns have adopted its apparatus. Mr. Edison is inclined to feci contempt for those who limit their working hours to eight •; he often works sixteen, and is sorry, that he cannot work eighteen, as he often did when young. The red grouse is found nowhere outside the British isles, except where it has been exported. Coffee-leaf smoking, while absolutely harmless, is said to impart to smokers a strong dislike for the flavour of tobacco. *?« The Governor of South Australia, who is at the same time Comiuamler-in-Chief of the Forces, is paid £4, 000 per annum. This is the salary also of the Governor of Western Australia. The federal Governments In the German Empire prohibit the wearing of corsets by the pupils of girls' schools and colleges. —*— A There are several voleanoos in Now Zealand, and the Maoris who live in the mountains make u*« of them in various ways, but the queerest is for 1 cooking. * The parchment used for banjoes, etc., is made from the skins of asses* calves, or wolves, those of the lastnamed animal being considered th best.. * Fewer children are being born into the world in proportion to the number of parents. The latest returns of the Registrar-General maim th*s fact very clear*