BRIEF MENTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXIX, Issue 12111, 4 July 1903, Page 3 (Supplement)

BRIEF MENTION.

The oat and sugar crops of the United States have each increased sixfold in fifty years.

Sunday labour (laments the "Globe") is on the increase at one end of the scale and Sunday entertainments at the other. The British Postal Department uses eighty millions of envelopes yearly for telegrams alone—a quarter of a million per day.

Owing to public improvements the famous old ruins of Swansea. Castle, which dates from the twelfth century, are threatened' with demolition. Over 200,000 people travelled on the cam of the London United Company on a recent Sunday, most of them proceeding by the new line to Hampton Court. Great Britain has a longer sea-coast lino than any other nation in Europe. It mea- „'!£? 2755 miles, Italy coming second with, 4172 miles. Russia ranks third and France fourth.

I One of the rarest and most expensive of Chinese goldfishes is the brushtail, a pair of which sells for'£2oo. Probably there is no other, living thing of its size and weight that is worth so much money. In Anglesey there are thirty-five parishes, containing in the aggregate 6850 people, without a single public-house, and in Carnarvonshire thirty-two parishes, with a population of 3459, without a public-house. . Only two Popes have lived to a greater age than the present one. Saint Agathus, in the seventh century, lived to be one hundred and eight, and Gregory IX., in the thirteenth centurv, lived to be ninetveight. " J There are hopes now that tho Simplon tunnel will be finished by the summer of 1904. Nine miles of its twelve have been pierced in four years and a half, and progress is being made at the rate of twelve yards a day.

Mrs Van Alstyae, authoress of the hymn " Safe in the Arms of Jesus," has just entered her eighty-fifth year. Blind from a few weeks old, in 1858 she married a blind musician. It is estimated that 100,000,000 copies of her hymns have been sold. Russian exiles to Siberia will gain one advantage by the Siberian railway being pushed on so rapidly. Much of the line is being constructed by exile labour, so the convicts are rewarded by each day being counted as two of prison work, thus halving their sentences.

Steam and its accompaniments, electricity , and the Press, have more materially altered the circumstances of life than most peopleperceive. The average civilised human being has now a, hundred matters of interest to attend to in order to keep on a level with his surroundings.—" Truth." In speaking of cigarette smoking, the " Southern Tobacconist" says there are business men of biggest brain in railroad presidents and great factory managers, etc., who prohibit cigarette smokiDg in old or young, based on the fact that cigarette smokers are far less useful and reliable morally and physically than non-users. A fakir in Benares, instead of reclining, like other mortals on an ordinary couch, stretches himself daily, in the presence of a wondering throng, on u.plunk bod which is studded with a forest of sharp spikes. Stoically lie endures his suffering in silence ; indeed, the expression on his face seems to indicate that he rather enjoys his uncomfortable position. The output of coal in .New Zealand shows a steady increase during the past quarter of a century. In 1878 the output was only 162,218 tons; last year it was 1,362,702 tons; in 1901 the output was 1,227,638 tons; amd in 1900 (the first year when over a million tons were produced), 1,093,990 tons. The approximate total output to Dec. 31, 1902, was 17,143,210 tons.

The " Echo des Mines'' (Paris) points out that in 1802 there was a considerable increase in the world's production of phosphates. Thus, in the United States the production was 802,086 tons, or 10 per cent more than in 1901. In Christmas Island the output was 57,544 tons. In Algeria tho phosphate trade was also prosperous. Active search is at present Being made' for phosphate deposits in the department of the CKse.

The remnant of a strange tribe of Esquimaux has been discovered on Southampton Island, at the north end of Hudson Bay. These people had never seen a white man until recently. Their huts are built of the great jaws of whales covered with skins. In the middle is an elevation,- on which is a stone lamp used for lighting, heating, cooking, melting snow, and drying clothes. The tribe is almost extinct, only some sixteen being left. Vanderbilt has long spelt money, but no Vauderbilt, past or present, has ever been, or can hope to be, a? wealthy as will almost certainly become little William Henry Vanderbilt, who is just one year old, and who will ultimately inherit a fortune of £25,000,000. The Vanderbilts, from time immemorial, have followed the British custom of leaving the greater part of a fortune to the owner's eldest son. This fortunate baby is, of course, a cousin of Lord Blundford.

A motor vehicle which can be driven only when- tlie' attendant is in the scat has just been invented. It is not an infrequent thing for automobiles to run amok. Tliis newly-perfected vehicle is so constructed that if an attendant should be accidentally thrown from his seat the automobile would come to a stop. When at rest it cannot be started on a wild career by a jarring of the motor or through the meddling of mischievous or inquisitive persons. Even if the starting lever is pushed it will not stir, for none of the of propulsion, can be set in motion until the attendant is in his proper place in the seat. The seat is provided with a spring lever, which operates a switch. When the attendant takes his seats springs are compressed and a mechanical arm is brought into such connection with the other appliances of the machine that then, and not until then, the lever can be moved to start the vehicle.

An incident is recalled of the naval manoeuvres of 1888, which bears on tho importance of a ship canal between the 'Forth and the Clyde. Admiral Sir John Baird was blockading Admiral Sir George Tryon in Bantry Bay. One dark night Tryon, witk three of the fastest cruisers in the navy, escaped, and proceeded to "ravage" the west coast of Scotland. Baird followed in iiot haste, but he was several hours behind, and so, when he arrived in the Clyde, he found that Glasgow had been put to ransom, and that Tryon was flying northward, with tlie evident intention of dealing with Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh. Pursuit was hopeless, but there was just a chance that, if torpedo boats could be sent through the Forth and Clyde Canal Edinburgh and Dundee might be saved. But the locks in the canal were too short to hold the torpedo boats, and Baird, turning southwards, raced for the Thames, which he eventually reached in time to save London. The celebrated bronze horses at Venice have been removed frum the front of the Cathedral, as they are in need of renovation. These horses arc one of the 'most precious possessions of Venice, and are great travellers, as it has been their fate to be stolen many times during their centuries of existence. They are believed to be of Greek origin, and to have been taken by force and set up in Constantinople. From there they were brought to Venice, which in her turn had —iliem taken from her, much against her will, by the " great thief of Europe," Napoleon I. They were brought to Venice about the seventh century by water, and during the transport a hind font of one of them was injured. The (Doge Morosiui was so in love with the new acquisitions that he insisted on keeping the injured foot as a souvenir, whereupon rose great discussions in the Council. However, he gained his way, and a new fo-t- was given to the manned horse. The original foot has now been iost sight of. It passed from Morosini to AlessandroContarini, and from him to the celebrated Marco Tiepolo, where it disappeared,