FACTS ABOUT PLACES AND THINGS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1717, 25 January 1905, Page 61

FACTS ABOUT PLACES AND THINGS

In Yucatan there are no- fewer than sixiy-two ruined and auandoned cities.

The re is one lighthouse to every fourteen miles of coast in Great Britain.

Nineteen out of every hundred person s convicted of murder are executed. A good railway engine will travel about 1,000,01)0 miles before it wears out.

The cost of feeding the horse- in the British Army is about £2o each per year.

The annual income from the Monte Carlo- ganung tables exceeds £1,500,000. Over 3,G00,000,000,000 envelopes me immufacin.ed m Britain annually. Two hundred and fifty thousand persons emigrate from Great Britain every year.

In the United States a ton is not 2240 pounds, as in Britain, but 2000 pounds only.

The Freuc-li tobacco monopoly brings in a profit ol JCIO,OOO.GOO sterling every year.

Iwo bundled and eighty million pounds’ weight of tea are annually imported into London. Fully 10,000 domestic servant® in London are always out of situations or cnangtng their places. The Government of the United State® gives away each year to farmers seeds to the value of £32,000.

Every inhabitant of the United Kingdom may be said figuratively to hold sway over 130 acres abroad.

France lias four classes of reads. They are respectively fifty, forty, thirtythree and twenty-five feet wide.

Bricks made of coal dust are used for paving in Russia. The coal dust is combined with molasses and resin.

Great Britain requires 12,000,000 pounds’ worth of leather every year for the boots and shoes of its inhabitant®.

The largest proportion of single persons is found in Ireland and Scotland, and the smallest in the United. States. In Spain street performers on the guitar are licensed, while organ-grind-ers are rigorously suppressed.

The stars o-n the United States coinage are six-pouited, while the United States flag carries five-pointed stars. Within the past ninety years the Spa msh -s pea King population of the world has increased from 20,190,000 to 43,000,000. Figs have been used as food in the Orient fr-om the earliest times, and were also believed to be an antidote to poison.

Vesuvius and Etna are never active at the same time; when one is most violent, the other is most quiescent.

There stands at tlie fo&o of Mount Etna a chestnut tree which is said to be 2000 years old. It is 213 feet in circumference.

It is estimated that -only one in six of the population of London leaves tho City ror mere than a day at a time in the summer. The best cheese made in Switzerland is usually exported, and is seldom to be had even in the famous hotels of that country.

The French Government makes £550,OvA) a year out of the very bad matches of the manufacture of which it holds a monopoly. Tilie longest continuous stairway in r.he world is that which leads to the tower n f the ‘PhiDdielphia City Hall. It comprises 598 steps. A bee, unladen, will fly forty miles an hour; but one coming home laden with honey does not travel faster than twelve miles an hour.

In the reign of -George Ilr. hats were taxed. The least tax was threepence. Those above twelve shillings in value paid a tax of two shillings. The crange is one of the most generally used articles of feed in Paraguay, especially among the poor in tho country districts. Pigs are fattened on them. Of dried anu bottled fruits for dessert the majority of the muscatels come Malaga districts in SpYn, although California sometimes supplies us with a consignment. The dogs of Portugal are passionately fond of grapes, and sticks arc purposely fastened to tne animals’ necks, to inpode or prevent their entrance to Ihe vineyards, in search of the luscious fruit.