News Items

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4377, 23 February 1909, Page 1

News Items

A single crow destroys 700,000 insects a year. A giraffe’s tongue averages two feet in length. Au Arab drinks nine or ten ' cups of coffee every day. Twelve per cent, of sugar is J the average yield of good beetroots. x • J One million pounds is the |jj average annual profit at Monte Carlo. Few know the meaning of sea level. It is half-way between J the high and low-water marks. | It is estimated that the Kaffirs | steal £250,000 worth of diamonds every year from the Kim - berley diamond mines. In Japan the children of the | poor are nearly always labeled, in case they should stray from home while their mothers are ,at 1 work. The oyster is one of the strongest creatures on the face of the earth; the force required to open an oyster is more than 1300 times its weight. The greatest hailstorm on re- ; ’| cord was that on the Continent in 1788; the biggest stones described as having then fallen were more than half a pound in j weight. Flies are not the only things seen in amber. In a big mass | of clear amber found recently there was distinctly visible a{ small squirrel— : fur, teeth, and | clu Vv o intact. A remarkable clock at St. Petersburg has 95 faces, indicating simultaneously the time at 30 different spots on the earth’s surface, as well as the move*-" ments of the earth and planets. v 5 Hungarian fillies, it is said,; are turned out by the hundred [j into vast plains until they be-* | come three*yearmolds. In order* jto restrain their propensity to wander, an ass is placed in the midst of the herd. ; I v| The absence of all fear oft death, which is such a striking characteristic of the Chineserhas a logical explanation. The Chinese are taught that onlyv those who face death fearlessly enter into happiness iuthe other world.

Divers in the clear waters of the tropical seas find that fish of different colours when frightened do not all dart in thej same direction, but that each different kind takes shelter in that portion Jof the submarine growth nearest to its colour.

It is estimated that the total loss by wear and tear suffered each dav by the rails of thei world’s railways is about 600 tons. The 600 hundred tons of iron are lost in the form of a fine powder, and are carried back to the earth in the shape jf soluble iron salts.

When a person falls into lh> water, a common felt- hat Jbe made use of as a life-preser-ver. By placing the hat upon the water, rim down,' with the ai-m round it pressing it tightly to the breast, it will bear a man up for hours. . A jet black rat of large proportions has been shot by a gamekeeper at Boyston (Eng.j. Its skin was as soft as that of a mole. The old English rat driven out by the Hanoverian grey rat is fast disappearing c::~ pt in remote country dis« triets. In former times, many credulous love strickeu females werf made to believe ih. if they could only have a luck of the person’s hair whose affection! they wished to gain, and wear il next their hearts for a certanE time, a reciprocal passion would be created. v-”' v|