BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5861, 1 May 1897, Page 4

BRIEF MENTION.

— — .» An old Roman well has been discovered at Windsor. The old Scots Parliament met for the last time on March 25, 1707. • Nearly 1,000,000 telegrams pass through the General Post Office of London every week. The average residue of ashes left after the cremation of the human body amounts to only Boz. If cork is sunk 200 feet deep in the ocean, it will not rise again on account of the pressure of the water. Mrs Graham, aged 104, died recently at Johnstone, Renfrewshire. She performed her domestic duties until two monthß ago. A widow named Jones has died in Chester Workhouse, aged 106. A female inmate of Cefn Workhouse has died in her 107th year. The entire population of the United Kingdom could be placed in Hyde Park, and that of the world in the Isle of Wight. A " mummified man," with a skin like parchment and hardly an ounce of flesh on his body, is astonishing Paris with his heavy weight-lifting feats. The skull of Corporal Shaw, who during the battle of Waterloo fought seven hours at a stretch, has been placed on exhibition in the Royal United Service Institution. An English clergyman of sixty-four, who married a girl of seventeen eight years ago, has been granted a divorce, the wife having eloped with a professional singer. A whale recently captured in Arctic waters was found to have embedded in its side a harpoon belonging to a whaling vessel that had been out of service nearly half a century. The wild tribes of the Caucasus, Russia, teach their children the use of the dagger as soon as the youngsters are able to walk. They are first taught to stab water without making a splash. Two parishes in Berkshire have four inhabitants each ; in Buckingham there is a parish with seven inhabitants ; Oxford, one with eight ; and some other counties have parishes with less than twenty. A clerk aged nineteen, who came out at the top of a list of 300 candidates in a Civil Service examination, shot himself in a London railway carriage as the result of mental aberration occasioned by hard study. In order that St Mildred's Church, Bread Street, London, may not be interfered with by the new City and West End Railway, a tunnel for foot-passengers will be bored seventy feet below the surface of the street. A woman has been sentenced in Germany to one month's hard labour for criticising the appearance of the Empress. The woman merely said the Empress was somewhat coarse in appearance, which did not appear in her portraits. The period of a " generation " has been lengthened. It used to be thirty years, and later increased to thirty-four ; now \a scientist says the average term of human life has increased in the last fifty years from thirty-four to forty-two years. A fleet of a hundred vessels is engaged from January to August each year in the capture of sharks near Iceland. Only the livers are sought. That of each yields five gallons of oil, which has medicinal virtues resembling those of cod-iiver oil. Professor Thomson sums up our knowledge in regard to the true nature of X-rays in the following words: — "Though there is no direct evidence that they are a kind of light, there are no properties of the rays which are not possessed by some variety of light." Pellets for producing "Pharaoh's serpent" when ignited were sold as sweets by aLon. don confectioner. Each contained a grain of mercurial poison. A child who bought and ate a number of them was ill for eleven weeks, and the parents recovered .650 damages from the seller. A guard who had been employed on the Great Western Railway running between London and Liverpool, on retiring, after fifty years' service, was presented with an address and 100 guineas. He is said to have travelled four million- miles, and nothing had gone wrong during his long service. The proprietor of a dog's infirmary in London recovered j625 for board and lodging of certain prize dogs. The animals had medical treatment, and were fed on meat essence, eggs, milk, arrowroot, and port wine. They had medicated baths, and were occasionally taken into the. country for a change. The late Lady Malcolm of Poltalloch has left the greater part of her estate to the' trustees of the " school recently founded in America for the revival of the lost mysteries I of antiquities for the purpose of establishing a college in Scotland, Switzerland, Italy, North America, or Canada, for the study of Raja Yolga." A thousand forged i>lo notes of the Bank of England are in circulation. The reproduction of the Bank's peculiar watermark in the paper is said to be perfect. The secret cypher marks, however, are lacking. The notes were printed in Vienna, and were all exchanged in one day, at the same hour, at twenty-five different moneybrokers' offices in Paris. The best steamship passage across the Atlantic during 1896, according to the showing of the Cunard Company, was that of the Lucania, which, leaving Liverpool on August 15, covered the distance between Queenstown and New York, 2783 knots, in 5 days Bhrs 45min. The best homeward passage was made by the same vessel in 5 days lOhrs 34min, leaving New York on August 29. An odd privilege is that possessed by Lord Inchiquin, the only non-Royal person in the United Kingdom who holds the hereditary right of making use of Royal liveries for his servants. It was granted to the ancestors of Lord Inchiquin, who is the head of the Irish house of O'Brien, by King Henry VIII., as compensation for the O'Brien of the day giving up his sovereignty over the South of Ireland. Mr Hiram S.Maxim's new light automatic gun weighs 251b, and is mounted on a tripod weighing 151b. It fires at the enormous rate of 600 rounds a minute, and has made as many as 99 per- cent of hits at 1000 yards. It may be packed in a knapsack, with tripod, spare lock, spare parts, and implements, and carried on a man's back, the total weight being 63£lb. Or it may be packed for the use of cavalry. The weight is then 561b, the gun being carried on the right side of the horse, the ammunition on the other. An amusing incident occurred during the last cruise of Her Majesty's ship Royalist in the neighbourhood of the New Hebrides. The time arrived for the holding of the annual prize-firing, but no suitable place could be found for the erection of a target except a small island in Southwest Bay. This, however, was tribal property, and as the natives had been taught to fear the power of big guns, they bargained that they should be paid for the island, as it was sure to be blown to pieces. Elaborate negotiations ended in a chief going off to the ship, when the requisite agreements were entered into, and Captain Rason, of the Royalist, became the owner of the island, the consideration being five sticks of tobacco. A target was then erected, and some excellent shooting took place. Reviewing the trade of the past year the Engineer denies the oft-repeated and vague assertion that Germany is leading the United Kingdom in many of the world's markets because her artisans are more technically taught than the mechanics of Britain. In the opinion of the writer, success in the markets of the world depends not so much on the cost of production as on| the art of selling. Much, too, of the trade in which Germany beats England is really not worth having. Tablo knives at two shillings a dozen, and forks at less than a penny each, can scarcely represent large profits. Indeed, to accuse us of neglecting our opportunities, as some of our Consuls do, is about as sensible as it would be to call a West End carriagobuilder a fool because he lid not push trade in costermongers' barrows in the^ East End. ■