NEWS IX BRIEF,

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13235, 21 July 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IX BRIEF,

This Swedish mil© is the longest in th4■■'":J^i world.' •■■'■ \ :*".■;■.;'v. "\-::'^'/'-':y3M A ton of coal produces nearly 10,000 cubs* feet of gas. ■:\'}. [ - : :i\;x t : : Fully 3 CO. COO inhabitants of London «* night workers. Brussels sprouts we by far th« mewl valuable, green vegetal)]* fowl. ' The first lighthouses bad 'fires of wood and ■ ; ■ :V-. coal kindled at the top of s hem. The smallest bone in trip human body !«.' I; to be found within the drum of the ear. * Vegetarians claim that hair grows le*» luxuriantly on the hod» of moat-rater*. The thickness of the crust, of the wrth is •: -./4 : ' variously estimated at from 70 miles ■ t<» 2m. Pawnshops are'run'by the Governmenb .7' — in Italy, and no interest is required oa loans. It would take about 1200 globes as targe as oar earth to make one equal in site to Jupiter. About 300 species of turtle and tortoise* arc known. Some of these attain a very large wise. ;<Ji| California has the smallest horse in the world. It is only 22in high and weighs Tib when shod. Since- 1895 fourpence ■ has been added to the. income tax and fourpenc* per pound to the tea tax. Too large a percentage of clay used in th» manufacture of paper makes it weak and liabie to b» easily torn. . ~ . i r The sound of a bell which can bo heard 45,000 ft through the Water can bo heard through the air only 456 ft, . . , »-.,..- The " weather forecasts" which appear in the. morning papers of ;:Great Britain each: day cost the country -£6000 a year. The following notice appear* in the win« dow of a public-homse.in tbo East End: -; •' Billiard tables upstairs. Is per 100." Denmark has 187 soldiers to every 10,000 ' ' of her population, possessing the largest, army, in proportion to size, in this world, . '/'-[ Grapes are squeezed fix times in making champagne, yielding win©* different, flutits* tics. . • The total number of newspapers published in tho world is about 40.000. I^dly 17,000 of these are published in the United States. The members of a Bristol church on » recent Sunday had the unusual experience of listening to the same sermon from two preachers. ' . ;"

William Spascde, tb« oldest resident ol . Windham, Maine, who 'has just observed liis ninety-fifthbirthday, is cutting a new set of teeth. - .[

A casually'company at Hartford, Conn., las paid Miss Annie Lochs, of New York, 23200 lor the loss of her scalp in a" ma* ihinery accident. Prince Edward of Wales has » remarkably :ollection of picture postcards'.. Ho ha« nore than 10,000 already, and the collection ~ « rapidly increasing. -. The Llanh.illeth colliery strike, has been? settled, after lasting eleven months. ■Fifteen hundred workmen were idle, and the ■oss in wages waa £120.000. AUhallow's ■■Church, at Exeter, has boon iomolished after an existence of nearly 700 ■ years, the site being wanted for street videning by the City Council. There arc 372,302 .persons in tho United. Kingdom'.whose incomes are from £160 to £50,000 per annum, t!ao number of people receiving more than £50,000 a year being 19., , ' A citizen of St. Helm d© Levis, Quebec has complained in the Policy Court th.it the Mayor Of the cilvwn. neither mp«d hot - - - write, and is "therefore ■'■ Ineligible IV iho office, ■ '[Iff! John Jacob, a tramp who" was locked in i railway goods waggon for three- week? wthoul food or drink, died from exhaustion it PotUville, Pennsylvania, a few days after . lis release. .'" , '■" " : '" '''■- ■■ "'' : : :; ■i^v^^'Ss§ •

' While excavations were iK-ing earned out; | at the Shire Hall, Chelmsford, twelve lovI ing cups of old Staffordshire waro and some old Dutch pipes were discovered about | 12ft below the surface. A team of farm hoist's which won tim l ; first prize at a parade at Bisbop'e Stortford tor the second year in succession wore harness which the farmer purchased second* • hand twenty-three years ago./ , It was announced at the last meeting «f the Omagh (County Tyrone) Urban Council I that the clerk had received £1 from » ! woman, who stated that the amount had [ Uen duo for rates for tho last 18 year*. Two churches possess trees growing within their walls. One is at Ross, the otter iat Kempsey, in Worcester. The latter free ' .: "" is well developed, and grow* from the tomb "■_' of Sir Edmund Wilde,: which standi! on the left side of the chancel. - ■' The Committee of Cardinals appointed to consider the question of the finances of the . .-.'■ Vatican, which are not in a wry satis- " factory condition, has proposed ; a universal annual; tax of a penny a head. It is e>fimated the tax would bring in £.1,000,000 . to £1,200,000. The corporation of Southwold is about to sell its harbour for a nominal sum. to a / company which intends to develop it at * cost of £40,000, and adapt it for the Scotch boats which visit the east coast during ;" the herring season. ; There wilt be accommodation for 250 boats. In Switzerland goods are weighed'with ' i glass weights. In fact, on the Continent generally glass W. taking the place of wood I and iron in many directions, for it can be | made stronger even than stone, and th« day is probably not far off when houses trill 1 be built entirely of glass. i In the year 1900 a seedsman whose gardens are near London bought for a pound or two a large consignment of ixia seed; '_'j'o"ii, When the plants flowered they had produced blooms of a delicate and brilliant ' green. By the sale of this new stock the seeasman made several hundred pounds. ,-\ Between forty and fifty scythe blades were placed in the parish "church at Horncastle to commemorate the zeal of the peasants who used them in the Pilgrimage , ■of Grace,'a rebellion which originated sit Louth in 1536. Of this; number all but * 13 are now misting. Where they have gone, is a mystery. Coal should a'wayii be kept in the. dark. Its nature changes unde. the influences ofstrong. light, especially under sunlight.- It is less able to give nut a strong heat when burnt. If salt is sprinkled over it at once- . -■;■; it will keep in better condition, and will not depreciate, it is stated, in quality by getting too dry. . The Rev. John Williams, speaking at j the annual meeting of the Monmouthshire Baptist Association at Rhymney, recently, stated that during the last year the names .': of 1219 members had been erased, as compared with 433 in the previous year. For .' £ every two persons baptised the names of three had been erased. The tallest people in the British Isles are to be found in the district ot Galloway, ; ; ; in South Scotland, where records of stature -\ij give an average- height of sft The . shortest stature is tound in Wales and South-west England. The people of Midland and eastern counties, of Saxon descent, are of medium stature. In speaking incidentally of the Chinese pigtail at the Royal < Institution''Professor Barker said that " very few people know* that it. was worn by the Turkish and Tartar nations many hundreds of years ago. He quoted from some inscriptions jvears v old, in which it was stated, "The Turks let down their pigtails when they came before ■ their generals." .' ,' Quito, tho capital of Ecuador, is built- ," , immediately beneath the terrible volcano i>f Pichiiicha and within five miles of th-a ' I actual crater; while all tound the towns ] are similar smoking giants. Some cay » v 1 cycle of seismic activity will recur in this M region of the globe, and.the tragedy <>S St. Pierre and Mont Pelee will be repriced, but on a iar vaster scale. " " ' ' ■ '