GENERAL INFORMATION.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 16, Issue 94, 5 December 1902, Page 2

GENERAL INFORMATION.

Budapest is to hava an exhibition of calculating machines. The finest looking people in Europe are the Tziganes, or gypsies, of Hungary. * In Germany there is one physician to every 2,058 persons, but only one including areas known, but as yet chemist to every 10,393 persons. + ; The coal areas of Canada are estimated at 97,000 square miles, not including very extensive areas undeveloped, in the far north. The French submarine boat, ” Espadon ” can remain for four hours at a depth of 50 feet, without her crew becoming distressed for air. The building material of the future, it is predicted, will be glass. The foundations and walls of the houses will be of thfe lately invented “ stone-glass.” French economists declare that Europe can become independent of United States cotton if it will only encourage the natives in Persia and Africa to grow it. More books are written on theolog ical subjects than upon anything else In one year 708 were published in the United Kingdom ; next came clas sics, 507 : and then fiction, 380. Among the persons who lost, their lives last year in the Austrian Alps was a girl of thirteen who' was lot down a precipice by her father to gather eidelweiss, when the rope broke. ■ $ The yellow-and-red Spanish flag is the oldest now in use by any European Power, yet it was not flown till 1785. The French tricolour came into use ton years later, and our red ensign in 1801. According to news from Cape Town, emigration to South Africa is increasing daily, in spite of the war. The majority of the emigrants arc; Jews coming from the east of Europe, Russia, and the Balkan States. Stunted dogs are very much admired by Parisian ladies. The demand for them is met by at least forty professional ” dog dwarfers ” who bring up the pups on an alcoholic diet, which has the effect of stunting them. The Argentine Republic has been obliged to put the telegraph line between RoSario and Buenos Ayres underground, because - on wet days the electric current is dissipated through the numerous, spider webs attached to the wires. Wood-pulp paper as a military clothing is used by the .Japanese troops. It is marvellously tough and has an appearance that might well be regarded ' with satisfaction for summer wear. It holds stitching uncommonly well, while its warmth is undoubted.

Slabs for ballroom floors have been made from sawdust, as well as plates for bas-reliefs, art castings, panels, and decorations. Terra cotta lumber and artificial lumber are both instances of the utilisation of sawdust. Sawdust compositions have also been used for pavements and dinner plates.

In a certain class of Russian schools the highest reward given is the initial letter of the Empress’s name. It consists of the initial in gold, an inch and a quarter in height, on a blue bow. Should its possessor ever become a governess, it will entitle her to a higher salary than she could otherwise obtain. The average number of children per family in European countries is lowest in France, with 3.03 ; Switzerland, 3.94 ; Geimany, 4.1 ; Holland, 4.22, ; Scotland, 4.46, Italy, 4.56, ; Spain, 4.65 ; Russia, 4.83 ; while Ireland is the highest, with an average of 5.2 children in each family. + The Amazon is in every respect but length, the greatest river in the world. At many points in its lower course so vast is its tide that one shore is invisible from the other, the observer seeming to look out into a rolling sea of turbid water. It has over 400 tributaries, great and small, which rise in so many different climates, that when one set is in flood the other is at ebb, and vice versa, so that the bulk of the great river remains unchanged the whole year round. At 1,000 miles from the mouth it is navigable for largesized ships, and at 2.000 for steamboats of the largest size.