WORLD-WIDE NOTES.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 17, 1 March 1918, Page 2

WORLD-WIDE NOTES.

SIGNS WHICH PUZZLE YOU. Strange signs frequently hang from ships which puzzle even dwellers in seaport towns. A basket slung from the mainmast head is a sailor’s sign to notify that the cargo has been loaded or discharged, as the case may be, and that the ship is ready to start on her next trip. A generally mysterious emblem is a broom lashed to a mainmast or bridge railing. This is to signify that the vessel is for sale. Occasionally., a dark blue stripe may be seen running fore and aft on a vessel ; as a matter of fact, this is a sign of recent bereavement. Blue is the sailou's mourning, and the stripe of this colour takes the place of the black margin or band used by the landsman as a notification of death.

INQUISITIVE M.P’s. How extremely inquisitive some M.P.’s have been of recent months is revealed in an interesting little Parliamentary handbook recently issued in London. During the Session which ended just before Christmas, Mr Ginnell put no fewer than 869 oral questions to Ministers. Mr. J. M. Hogge is next on the list with 606. It will surprise few people to learn that the man most frequently under fire was the representative of the War Office. This was Mr. Tennant, who, when Under-Secretary last session, answered 2,111 questions on the floor of the House. Mr. H. W. Forster came next with 1,685, Mr. Asquith third with 1,652. Mr. Samuel, the ex-Home Secretary, answered questions numbering exactly 1,200. Pew, perhaps, suspected that Mr. Walter Long talked more during the Session than anybody else. As a matter of fact, he heads the list, having spoken 229 columns of Hansard, Mr. J. M. Hogge coming second with 219, and Mr. Asquith third with 202.

A TREE THAT OWNS ITSELF. At Athens, Georgia, U.S.A., there is a giant white oak tree which no one may buy or sell or cut down ; nobody owns the land in which this three stands. The tree owns itself. It stands on top of one of the hills of the city, and is said to be between 400 and 500 years old. Early in the nineteenth century the owner of the plantation on which the tree stood often used to sit in the shade of the huge oak. Finally, he became so attached to the tree that he made a will which deeded the tree to itself. He wrote : “For, and in consideration of the great love I bear-this tree, and the great desire I have for its protection for all time, I convey to it entire possession of itself, and all land on Bft. of the tree on all sides." And so the tree came to own itself and Bft. of ground surrounding it.

FOREIGN NEWSPAPERS IN U.S.A

One of the difficulties of newspaper censorship 'in the United States, is the namber of journals in foreign languages published in the Republic. These total close upon 500—sixtythree being daily newspapers—and the majority have a circulation of over 5,000 copies per issue. Italian journals are the most numerous, totalling ninety-five ; then there are fiftyfive Polish papers,' fifty-four Swedish, and twenty-seven Hebrew, besides Norwegian, Danish, and, of course, a considerable number of German prints. French journals, including Swiss and Belgian periodicals, number only fifteen. Two Japanese and five Chinese papers represent the Oriental communities in the States.

A WONDERFUL TIMEPIECE. With a view to. providing the exact time for chronometers used on American warships, the Navy department has a master clock in a vault under the Naval Observatory, where the temperature is never allowed to vary more than the hundredth part of one degree. This evenness of temperature is ensured by means of a thermostat and a small electric stove. When the temperature rises the 200th part of a degree above normal, the thermostat automatically turns off the stove, and when it falls below normal the stove starts working again. Sometimes the electric bulb is switched oR and on again over a dozen times a minute. Before being despatched from the Observatory all chronometers are kept under close scrutiny in a room hung around with wet clothes. This is done so as to accustom them as far as possible to the conditions of moisture which prevail at sea.

ATTILA’S FUNERAL. The Kaiser, looking forward to the time when he had overcome our “contemptible little Army” and had become the ruler of Europe, imagined perhaps that when the great reaper Death severed his connection with this world, the German Empire would give him a funeral on the same lines as those given, to the ruler of the ancient Huns. Attila, who died in 453, was interred in a coffin which was enclosed in one of gold, one of silver, and a third of iron. With his mortal remains were interred the spoils of the enemy, harness- embroidered with gold and studded with jewels, rich silks, and whatever had been taken most precious in the palaces of the kings which the Huns had pillaged.