Items of Interest.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXI, Issue 8959, 7 December 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

Items of Interest.

In I\itis there are 132 horse-meat shops. There are 4000 abstaining cabmen in London. The aTe.l of the West India Docks is 300 acres. There are 701 Chinese laundries in iciv York. Buttermilk is said to be a sure cure for dropsy. Men on an average weigh 201bs more than women. The egiis of ati albatross weigh about one pound each. The heads of Frenchmen grow smaller every generation. There. aTe no fewer than 17,00 public houses in Ireland. The first balloon ascents were made in piper balloons. Cccoanut shells are now ground down and used as cinnamon. Many small animals eat- their own weight in food in a day. Cigars were introduced into Europe early in the last century. Italy has the highest murder rate of any country in the world. The liaTdening power of cement is increased by the addition, of sugar. A good quality of paper can be made from the stalk of the sugar cine. A gross of steel pens formerly cost £7. To-day they can be liad for 4-ld. As 'a rule a man weiglis more at forty than at any other time of his life. The skylarks and woodlaTk are among the onlv birds which sing as they fly. It is said that the skin of the elephant usually takes about five years to tan. Four thousand sponges were recently obtained from a crop grown in Dalmatia. On an average three persons are run over ;md killed in the streets of London e\ery day. An ordinary elephant produces 120 i pounds of ivory, worth £6O. England consumes 650 tons (of which Sheffield takes iine-third), for which it is necessary to kill 12,000 elepha.nt6 yearly. In the quaint- old Anglican cliutcll of C'apel-le-Ferne, near DoveT, there is no provision made for lighting it- at night, and at the evening service those who attend are in the habit of bringing candles ar.d lamps along with them. A tunnel under the Hudson River, New York, which was commenced thirty-seven years ago and abandoned owing to engineering difficulties, has now been finished. The Cape to Cairo Railway now extends to 170 miles beyond the Victoria Falls. Oil a recent day'of twelve hours 5| miles : oi track were laid, constituting a world's record.

For tlie purpose of studying methods of Education M. Pobiedonostzefl, ex-Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod in Russia, will make a tour through Western Europe. Countess Witte, in "commemoration of the successful mission of her husband, has given £IOOO to the poor of St. Petersburg. Commander Rodney, of the United .States X'avy, has published a circular in America calling on the- Government- to make it illegal" for any person to be too rich.

"A mare's nest" is the description given given by the Berlin National Zeitiing to Capetown reports that negotiations are proceeding for the transfer of German South-West Africa to Great Britain. Owing to tho mistake of his assistant, a conjurer at a Berlin music hall was kiiied by catching on his forehead a. heavy metal ball instead of a light-weight- globe which the assistant forgot" to substitute. While taking photographs 011 the Jung-fr-.ut, M. Miiller, a -Swiss, was struck by an avalanche of snow and carried down a steej) slope towards a pTecipice, but, keeping on top of the sliding mass, ho escaped without injtrry. For picking up an apple while on tho iiiaTcli and not dropping it immediatelr when, ordered to do so by a sergeant, a soldier of the 69tli (German) Infantry has been sentenced to eight- months imprisonment at Treves.

Xlie German Government lias accepted the invitation of the Czar to a second conference at The Hague, on the condition that the points to be discussed shall be previously decided upon by the Powers concerned. At an auction in Ontario, a. chair which was used by King Edward, when as Prince of Wales lie visited Canada forty-five years ago, was sold for £69, and it is to be presented to the city for use on State occasions. The action of certain foods in influencing the formation of the features lias been watched with highly interesting Tesults. The growth, of the cliin lias been discovered to bear a very striking relation to the amount of starch consumed. . . .

alliaceous plants, such as onions, liave a strong tendency to relax the chin tissues. IJanavalona, the deposed Queen of Madagascar, who is compelled by the French to live in exile at Algiers, having obtained permission from the French Government, is now on a visit to Paris. Slie and her sister have been provided with moderately furnished apartments. The French Government has just increased the Queen's allowance from £I2OO a year to £2OOO.

A tiny kind of 6luirk is a noted lightgiver. Specimens captured and taken into a dark apartment present an extraordinary spectacle. The entire surface of the head and body emits a greenish gleam that is constant, and is not, as in the case of most of those luminous inhabitants of the sea, incvTeased by friction and agitation. The small ness of "the fins of the fish show that- it is not an active swimmer.