INTERESTING ITEMS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 48, 22 June 1917, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The champion sheep-shearing prize at Kilkrton, Exeter, has been won bv a fifteen-year-old girl. That there are 800 Joneses on one pay list was a fact disclosed in an Army prosecution case lately at Merthyr. The Standard Oil Company of America made £2,000,000 a year by the conversion of their refuse into chewing-gum. Of the men employed in the gardens of the Rugby Poor Law institution, the youngest is aged seventyfour and the eldest eighty-five. There are now 757 women tram conductors in London. Preference is given to those whose husbands have been killed in the war. The total number of £5 maternity allowances paid since the passing of the Act in 1912 to the end of 1915 was 423,106. The Russian newspapers state that 20,000 Chinese coolies have arrived in Russia to be employed as agricultural labourers in consequence of the shortage caused ■by the mobilization of all able-bodied Russians. The Minister for Lands of New South Wales recently stated that 250 farms on the Murrumbidgee irrigation area were earmarked for returned soldiers, and that this number would be extended to 1,000 or 1,500 as the occasion arises. People who wish to avoid the bite of the mosquito should wear yellow. Of all colours the mosquito is most partial to red, especially deep bloodred, although the fact has nothing to do with its fondpess for blood. For yellow' it shows the deepest aversion and shuns it on all occasions. It is said that the seeipg power of the mosquito is so keen that it is susceptible to colour even in the ordinary darkness of night ; hence nightdresses or bed coverings of a yellow colour will aid in keeping mosquitoes at a respectful distance.