GENERAL INFORMATION.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 18, Issue 11, 5 February 1907, Page 2

GENERAL INFORMATION.

Denmark’s army is the cheapest in Eiu’ope. It costs only ,£24 a head, against £ll3 spent by England. “—*;• On a rough average, 45,000 sovereigns pass over the Dank of England counters daily. j. The water is so clear in the fiords of Norway that objects-Him in diameter can be distinctly seen at a depth of 150 ft. —*r Every inhabitant in London eats 11731 b. of potatoes in a year. A Parisian consumes on an average but 491 b. per annum. * Medical statistics have established, the fact that in winter there are three times more men than women suffering from cold, neuralgia, toothache, and influenza. , 1 Wives of 'Siamese noblemen out their hair so that it sticks straight *p from their heads. The average length of it is Him Sweden and Norway are the only two countries where practically every; grown man can read and write. Bavaria comes next in this respect. ; ■ 1 The total- number of lives for the saving of which the Lifeboat Institution has granted rewards since its establishment in 1824 lias lieei/ 44, 880. Russia with a poj illation of 127, 000,000, has only 18,334- physicians.In the United States, with a population of about 75,000,000, there are 120,000 physicians. 1 In boring an artesian well in California, charred wood was found at a depth of 500 feet, and at 580 foot shells and a portion of the skull of a bird were taken out. — ►!- ; In several battles of the FrancoITwssian War the soldiers ran down to the same watering-place, and returned to their positions to recommence slaughtering one another. ; Twenty years ago the wages of. Nottingham lacemakers were as high' as £6 and £7 a week, and the profits of the employers ranged up to ipth per cent. To-day if a man is working full time he may earn from £2 10s.; 1 to £4 a week. ; —-* ; The inhabitants of Prance insure more heavily against fire than any! other nation. Compared to Great' Britain and Russia, the total amount insured for averages at £66 per inhabitant for France, £39 for Great Britain, and £1 for Russia. —.[• — It Has been reckoned by an'ingenious handler of figures that Strat-ford-on-Avon gains £IO,OOO a year by Shakespear. Every year from 20, 000 to 30,000 people go to Stratford from all parts of the world, and a trifling average expenditure from each makes up £IO,OOO. The biggest water-pipe in the woylci —capable, it is said, of holding any average river—is owned by the Ontario Power i Company on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The gigantic pipe, which is made of steel throughout, is a mile and a quarter in length and 60fl. in circumference. * . The natives of India are in th« habit every year, in the summer, of digging the dry river banks for fish, which they dig out by hundreds, just as they would potatoes. The mud lungs are broken open, and the fish, perhaps Sim or lOin, long, will always be found alive, and often frisky; as if just removed from its supposedly native element—the. .watey.. 1512,,