INTERESTING ITEMS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 18, 6 March 1917, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The Ixworth Sparrow Club, in Suffolk, in twelve months has destroyed sparrows at a cost of £l9/8/.

Parisian barbers are legally compelled to wash their hands after attending a customer and before waiting on another.

A typewriter is being introduced into India which will write the 360 characters and signs of the Bengali alphabet.

In time of peace Switzerland is the country best supplied with hospitals, having nearly 18,000 beds, or about six to every 1,000 of tbe population.

In order to make gunners the best in the world, the Admiralty has even gone so far as to use one of oui battleships as a target. This was the “Empress of India,’’ which originally cost £900,000, and was sent to the bottom in 1913. • .

A fire which occurred recently at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, U.S.A., was put out by 300 men, women, and children throwing snowballs against the roofs and walls of a house and barn. The alarm brought the congregation from a neighbouring church, and when the water supply was found insufficient the fire was snowballed.

“Island of Black Oats.” This is a name applied to Chatham Island, in the Pacific Ocean; about 730 miles west of the coast of Ecuador. It is overrun with black cats. Indeed, cats of no other colour afe seen there. These animals live in the crevices of the lava foundation near the coast, and subsist by catching fish and crabs, instead of rats and mice.