NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13277, 8 September 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Japanese poetry has no rhyme. Russia has within her Empire 56,000 mile* of navigable rivers. The first armoured train was used at the siege of Paris in 1871. The first cotton cloth made in England was produced in 1783. ..-■', Froof spirit is a mixture of 49.24 of alcohol and 50.76 of water. A Russian woman may not enter * university unless she is married. Most. African negro races hold that after death they become while men,

Earthquakes are rather more common at full moon than at any other time. Japanese fashions in dress have hardly changed in tho past 25 centuries.

Iron was used for paving in Leicester Square, Loudon, about 80 years ago. Twenty-seven out of every hundred. people in the world live under the Union Jack. Afghan soldiers are not. admitted as witnesses in law courts of their own country. In Mohammedan countries women are not admitted beyond tho doorways of mosque*. Stockholm and Buda Pesth are the towns possessing tho best telephonic , system in existence. . < ■ .

Antiseptic surgery has reduced the percentage of deaths among the wounded in battle to six. An Englishman was fined 26s 8d because his dog barked at a public official of Purulia, in Bengal. , The number of 56 mile-au-hour runs o»i ■ English railways increased from 22 in 1901 to 45 last year. ' ' In tho navy death volleys are th> only ones fired in even numbers. All other salutes are in odd numbers. Tho only British general who was ever publicly degraded was Whitelocke, who lest us Buenos Ayres in 1808. Bees do more towards helping plants to livo than any other bisect. Blue flowers art , especially attractive to bees. British ships, when they meet foreign, ships at sea, never "dip ensign" first. They take the salute and return it. The prairie dog is one of the most dainty of animals. It makes for itself a fresh bod of grass or straw every night. The first fashion-plates were seen in France in the 14th century. They consisted of dolls wearing model costumes. A carefully-greased needle will float upon water, though, of course, the. steel is much heavier than a similar bulk of water. Quite 90 per cent, of Natal boys can ride and shoot well. The colony trains its youth bettor than any other British colony. Generally speaking, you are perfectly safe from lightning anywhere within 20ft of a properly insulated lightning-conductor. At the battle of Mollwcte, in 1741. Frederick the Great was actually in full flight when his infantry won the'battle. The largest number of people ever carried by a single ship was 3190 by the liildonan Castle. She had 2700 rank and file aboard. The total income of the 14,117 incumbents of tho Anglican Church of England and Wales i 6 just over three and a-half millions., Charles 11. had not only an income of £1,800,000 a year from the country, but 'a subsidy of 700,000 crowns yearly from Louie XIV. . Peter the Groat was the last monarch who ever acted as a public executioner. He killed several mutinous soldiers with his own hands. ■ ■~■. i ;> '■■ - < > Some of our finest victories were won by troops who--: were practically starving. - Corunna, Talavcra, and Inkerman. arc instances in point.';,'' '.' • ',',' '_"'"'',' ..,". '-.'.■ ' ..'• '*'', « '. : , The first time that England's army was provided with field . hospitals was >■ under Marlborough. Sir John l Pringlo was Bur-geon-general. , : j - ,; Odd mistakes have sometimes been made in minting British coins'. There is a-half-penny of George L which has the King?! head on both sides. - - , , Possibly no other city in the world ha* two such opposite nicknames as Edinburgh. By some it is called the> " Modern" Athens," by others " Auld Reekie," ■ • •_ ' •;"'* Astronomers are the longest-lived of "any class, not even excepting clergy .Thirteen of tho great astronomers have been over 90 at their death, and 32 over 80. ; ........ , .

The famous iron crown or Lombardy, used in the coronation of Italian monarebs, is undoubtedly the oldest i crown in existence. It was used by Charlemagne. *• A leading Swiss scientist declared tba* the Rontgen rays can be so applied that white horses become black. He is now experimenting on old gentlemen's beards. , The most expensive book eve produced was the official history of the "War of the Rebellion in the United States. - It is in 112 volumes, and cost £600,000 to produce. The people of the United States are the greatest . readers of fiction.) Their public libraries contain 15,000,000 volumes, and 80 per cent, of all the volumes lent out are tjction. . ~;,-"'-, * '*■ * Tho Westminster City Council has decided that no horse belonging to it is to be worked more than six days a week, and the gross weight of the loaded van must noi exceed three- tons. ~ ?

The master of tho Swindon Workhouse informed the guardians at their meeting that he bad just admitted to the workhouse a family which he knew had been "on the road" for 18 years. • . ' A larger proportion of Russian* weaj beards than of any,other nation in the world By a Russian law, passed in 1015, it was made a penal offence to pluck a hair from another man's beard. It Was staled during the hearing of a damage suit at the City of London Court that the'steam tug Hilda was known to Thames watermen as the " Mad Mullah," because of her excessive speed. While tho Rev. John T. Vine was preaching at Southead-on-Sea a horse walked through the vestry and into the aisle- It was driven out, and walked round the back and came in again at the other vestry door. A Bohemian coal mining company bag bought up a village named Sobrusan, near Dux, which stood on a valuable surface coal deposit, and moved all the 65 houses or which it was composed to a new situation half a mile away. The town of Naini Tal, the headquarters of the Bengal army and of the Government of the north-west provinces, is the most striking instance of a town that is literally falling to pieces. The steep elopes on which it is built are falling into the lake. A debtor who was summoned at the Romford County Court was asked if he played cricket for money in his spare time, "J*o," he replied, " I'm an amateur, and there's no pay, but 1 don't mind telling you I some* ' times get a shilling for carrying the bag." The Government of the Isle of Man is reducing its national debt of about £250,000 rapidly. Five thousand one hundred pound* was repaid at par op August 1. Unfortunately, the redemption of the British national debt of about £796,000,000 proccedi at a somewhat slower rate. * Most Chinese chauffeurs are very careless, according to the Baroness Ward,, whose husband owns one of the largest newspapers printed in China She says bha* the roads in and around Shanghai are excellent.: There is no speed limit outside the city, while in- . ski' the city s speed ot 30 miles an hoar is permitted. . . . . M. Clemencea u, the French Minister for the Interior, is causing much heartburning among Government othcials by bis activity in abolishing sinecures. ; ■ His . latest "victim" is » detective inspectoi, only "work" for 15 years past- has been to go once * fortnight to. thff Vrefecturr to sign [ the pay-sheet- ~"