INTERESTING ITEMS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 33, 1 May 1917, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The submarine’s deadliest enemy is the destroyer, which at its beet can travel at the rate of forty-six miles an hour.

Three hundred and fifty-three women and 124 children have perished at sea as the result of German submarines, not including the deaths of women and children on the “Sussex” and “Persia.”

“Oavell oranges” are being imported from Spain in large quantities. The thin paper in which each is wrapped bears a representation of the murder of the heroic British nurse by the Germans.

More matches are used in Groat Britain than in any other country in the world. They use an avarage of eight matches each person a day. It takes the constant labour of 60,000 people to make matches for the world.

The Hull trawler “Elf King” landed a catch of fish which has realised the “record” sum of £3,670. The previous “record” of £3,480 was held by the same vessel. Two other trawlers’ catches made £3,335 and £3,093 respectively.

The British Government ordered 10,000,0001 b. of jam from Australia. Much of it will be a novelty for the men, for it will consist of “piemelon” jam, made of melon, lemon, honey, and ginger.

More than 1,000,000 dozen pairs of cotton socks and stockings were during 1913 imported by Great Britain, all, with the exception of 11,000 dozen pairs, coming from Germany. In 1915 neutral countries sent 931,036 dozen pairs to Great Britain.

KRUPP’S DEBT,

Krupp’o debt to England does not end with the money received from Birmingham for a certain patent. It was the Great Exhibition of 1851 which really set the firm upon its legs, for a two-ton ingot of cast steel exhibited by Alfred Krupp on that occasion brought so many orders that the Essen works had to be immediately enlarged. Krupp’s Sovereign, King Frederick William IV., it is interesting to recall, did not view the exhibition with any favour, fearing that contact with English institutions might breed dangerous opinions among such of. his subjects as were Induced to visit it.

WHEN THE DEAF HEAR.

It has been discovered that persons afflicted with certain forms of deafness can hear perfectly in the midst of a tumult. A locomotive engineer was found to be very deaf, and although he protested that he could hear perfectly well while on his engine he was suspended from duty. Some time afterwards he applied for reinstatement, again urging the fact of his perfect hearing while on duty. Finally, the physician rode with him upon a locomotive and put him to every possible test. To the doctor’s surprise he found the man able not only to hear ordinary sounds, but also to distinguish whispers and movements that were inaudible to his companion.

EXTRAORDINARY COINCIDENCES. On December sth 1664, a boat crossing the Menai Straits sank with 81 passengers on board. The only man who escaped death was a Mr. Hugh Williams. More .than a hundred yeara later, on December sth, 1780, another vessel with a large number of passengers sank in the same circumstances and in the same place. All the passengers were drowned except one (and the facta are proved up to the hilt), a certain Hugh Williams, Again on December sth, 1820. a boat laden with thirty souls sank in the same place, tfie only man escaping death being a Hugh Williams. These coincidences are well known to local antiquarians, and are all recorded by good authorities.