NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13355, 8 December 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There are 11 orders : of British knight hood. . ■ . - The polka was originally a Servian war* . dance. , ' London consumes yearly over 50,000 tons of oysters. Of 50 women convicted of murder only 9 are executed. , ' ;' ';. The sit highest mountains known are all in the Himalayas. Clouds have, been observed to rise to »' .'■ height of 43,800 ft. There are about 4000 burglaries yearly, in England and Wales. " Lake Ladoga*, near St. Petersburg, has 50 rivers flowing into it. Covenfc Garden receives over iOOO tons , of cucumbers in a season. At a .Jewish wedding the woman stands on the right of the groom. A horse has 40 teeth. 21 being grinders, four tusks, and 12 front teeth. The largest cigars are made in tha Philip- : pines. Some are 18in in length. A herring lavs 36.000 ec«s, at sol» 1,000,000, a sturgeon 3,000,000. Italy claims 191 out of the, 254 Popes. * France comes next with 15 Popes. .< ■ ..... ' A squadron, in army parlance? consists of two troops, each of 60 to ICO men. At Brooklyn. New York, is a bakery , which turns out 75.000 loaves a. day. ? ; ;^ In Norway every bride must exhibit *» certificate that she knows how to cook. Savings banks were suggested by Defoe,; author of Robinson Crusoe," in 1704. Louis XIV.. when a child, was given a ' set of silver toy soldiers, costing £1000. It was the Third Crusade that paved tho way for (lie fixed use of armorial bearings. r The record price for lace is £40 an ounce, Mrs. Ast or once paid £5000 for a lace dress. ; In the Isle of Mahe. in the Indian Ocean, is a church built entirely of blocks of coral. v The average life of a horse is 20 years, but horses have been worked up to 4b years. ?, ?"^sj

Between Richmond and the Tower, in- ; , eluding both, the Thames is spanned by 24 ■.'■■:, bridges. :■' "'• . - To see » distance of 100 miles an ob- :; server must be at a height of 6667 ft above sea level. ■ l - - / For joining lead piping plumbers use a .••older composed of two parts of lead and one of tin. ; / ' Willi the naked eye, objects less than the 118 th part of an inch in diameter are not discernible. • '/ British warships carry 36 out of every-..''■',■ hundred of the total number of naval guns, in existence., At Wimbledon the longest available rifle range was 1000 yards; at Bisley 3000 yards is obtainable. ''-.-' Port Said, in Egypt, gets on an average only 2in of rain yearly. London has 24ia;, New York, 38in. J .', The Laxey (Isle or Man) waterwheel in - ft in diameter, and gives the equivalent: < of 200-horse power. .-..■"-■■ Three Presidents of the United States— namely, Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinlcy— have been assassinated. / Pictures for the Royal Academy are paw-' ; ed before the Selection Committee at the ■-':'- rate of about five a minute. ,'_-_ The Worksop Estate, in Nottinghamshire, was sold by the Duko of - Norfolk to the Duko of Newcastle; for £370,000. : ■ J ■ "Blue blood" is an expression of Spanish j origin, it was imed fin 'speaking of those . ; who had never intermarried with 'Moors. , lii 186 A' the late Duke of Edinburgh was I' elected King* of Greece bv 230,016 out of 241;202. He, however, refused the offer. ; "Bonanza" is a Spanish word meaning , ; "best" or "prosperity." It is frequently used when speaking of a rich mining stake. ) The. Duke of ißuccleuclr holds the odd re- }j\ cord of possessing more residences than any* i other British nobleman. He has eleven in . all. Mr. John Jones, who is 80 years old, :; and Mis. Morris, who is • 73, "have i>justW : been married -at Pentredwr, near Llangol- % len. . ■, . ' - i ;•■ ■ • ■ '*' Germans eat more bread ' thair any other -vf European nation. Next in order of bread-A;, eaters come France, Russia; Denmark,' and > Italy. , The origin of the supposed ill-luck ;of a <; May marriage is traced oy, some ,to the fact ■#> that Mary Queen of Scots was married to Bothweii in May. e '. The largest amount of bail ever asked for ! by- an English magistrate was . £15,000. This was for the appearance of Captain Hope Veruey in 1891. : . ' Horse-power applied to engines means :* power equal to raising 33,0001b one foot in : one minute. It is really half as much work ";■ again as the average horse can do. • Mr.'!. Fannic James was married recently | : f at Fulton, Missouri, for the eighth'*| time. ; She has been divorced seven times, and in each case her suit was uncontested. ' v An eagle has been observed to rise from§| the ground and completely disappear into: m the sky within three minutes., Eagles sometimes soar to heights of 15,000 ft or - upwards. '.-..The Colonial Secretary of the Bahamas ; states in his report of the islands for 1905-6 that no complaint of error or delay has been received by the Telegraph Department for 14 years. A man, who said he was 102 years" old, applied at the M'arylebone Police Court ~ for assistance, saying that he only needed : help until Christmas. He was referred to the court missionary. " ; - An inquest was .held at Greenwich on Henry Stockwell, a Woolwich Arsenal labourer, who committed .suicide by taking i oxalic acid. It was stated that he was to have been married on that day. A leather-covered Testament has been dis-, - carded after 70 years';, continuous , service at Wisbech Police Court. A celluloidcovered copy, which will he washed after V each sitting, has been provided. " . ■ " People think it is easy to make money at coining,- but it is worse than hard work," said Arthur Richards after lie had been v sentenced at the Old Bailey to five years* V penal servitude for making money.' An old lady ' who has just died at Wis-' . bech at the age: of 84 wrote her own obituary notice on the day before her death, and r v also made a list of all;the friends to whom ?; she wished memorial cards to bo sent. Captain A. McLeod, of the ocean-going v • tug Prudence, of Nova Scotia, was suddenly stricken with blindness while entering the harbour at Rockland, Maine. He steer- . ed the tug safely through a dangerous channel and then surrendered the wheel. An elephant ranch has been started near: Valentine, Texas, by Mr. J. F. Adams, of : , New York. - The first shipment of five elephants has arrived, and 100 more are on the way. Mr. Adams intends to, go in for elephant breeding on a large scale. . Silver medals and vellum diplomas from the National Lifeboat Institution have been awarded to John and Walter Haylett, of Caister. near Yarmouth. Their father was the holder of two silver medals for life- r saving and. their grandfather of a gold , medal. .. : : ■..-■.. : ■-- ..The, Kent Education Committee decided. to allow instruction in gardening"'• to be given to the children in the county schools, - provided that land can be obtained at a r low rental and instruction given by a regular member of the staff without any additional payment. "-. - - Burglars who broke into Mr. ; Melville Moss' house at . Billericay. Essex, during his absence packed up a bundle of i plate, iV and then treated themselves to Mi. Moss* !: beer and cigars. After this they;; played *v, game of dominoes, and went to sleep in separate beds, but in the morning they for- : got to take away with then* the plate that t