FROM FAR AND NEAR.

North Otago Times, 2 December 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

FROM FAR AND NEAR.

I Bricks made of coal-dust are used for paving in Russia. The coal-dust is combined with treacle and resin. It is estimated that to meet the demand of tho now King George post-age-stamp 1,000,000 atamp3 will have to be printed every hour of the working day throughout the year, Miss Dora Harrison, of Evergreen, Long Island, U.S.A, has walked 1,100 miles-from New York to Tam-pa-Ho get thin and to win a bet of £2OO. She Intends to return on horseback,

i Mr. Thomas Bell, a local conductor on the Canadian Pacific Railway, recently took bis brealifast in a Fort William restaurant and ordered a dish ol oyster stow. In the stow he found a pearl that has been valued by a local jeweller at 2,500 dollars. J Nina TurataviloD, a peasant wompn at Telcv, in tho Caucasus Is probably the oldest person in the world. Recently *Bhe celebrated her 160 th birtbdaj. Though she ia now incapable of using her limbs, she is still in possession of her mental faculties,

I The Norwogian Government has 'submitted a Bill entitling women to bo appointed to, all the offices of State excepting only military, diplomatic, and clerical posts. The Government was inclined to include even clerical posts, but the bishops opposed this plan. A Yorkshire collector of medals, Dr, A. A. Payne, Hillsborough, Sheffield, has been amassing medals for over twenty years, and has a collection of 2,500, worth £26,000. He has fifty medals that have been connected with either the peerage, baronets, or knighthoods. Seventy people sat down at Gorleston to a huge sea-pie, made by Captain Harman,. skipper of a smackj, Its crust was 3ln. thick, and it was tightly packed with rabbits, kidneys, beefsteak, potatoes, turnips, carrots, and sprouts, the whole taking eight hours to cook, As the result of a three weeks' Ashing trip to Iceland, the Grimsby trawler "Barl Monmouth" has made £1,221. Her catch was mostly cod, and with tho present scarcity and the huge demand for fish, prices have advanced enormously. The skipper received about £IOO for his voyage. In the window of a well-known taxidermist In Edinburgh Is to be seen the figure of a starling perched on a golf-trail, and enclosed in a neat glass case. The poor bird Is mounted on the sphere that caused its death, The incident happened on the golf-course at Bile. The bird was struck while, in flight, and instantly killed. Owing to the reports of cases of smallpox within tho London radius a large amount of insurance business has already been placed against the risk of the disease, It is atated that as much as £IO,OOO has been covered in respect to a single case, and It is generally known in the market that . £I,OOO. policies have been freely issued, , Mr, A, J, Gorringe, a tradesman, of Dltchllng, bos a bantam which lays her eggs in different parts of the yard, but his cat never falls to find; them, She takes the eggs between her teeth, carries it to the back, I places It on the step, and rattles, the door-handle with her paws until her mistress arrives to take in the egg. Not one of the eggs has yet been *«**. ■','; \