BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6090, 29 January 1898, Page 4

BRIEF MENTION.

The coinage of \ a sovereign costs the English Mint Jd. The common pond frog's natural lifetime is twelve to fifteen years. Five hundred years ago the rent of arable land in England was 6d an acre. in some London hotels the waiters receive as much as £500 a year in tips. There will not be a total eclipse of the sun visible in Great Britain for about 500 years. The money invested in English railways exceeds the National Debt by .£120,000,000. It takes about three seconds for a message to go from one end of the Atlantic cable to the other. A man in America, who had been blind for twelve years, has been able to see objects by the light of the X-rays. Of the 4200 species of flowers now cultivated in Europe, it is said that only 10 per cent give forth any odour. It takes the tusks of over 76,000 elephants a year to supply the world's piano - keys, billiard - balls, and knifehandles. The returns on the Railway Clearing Houseshow that of an average 10X10 parcels a day are lost on the railways of the United Kingdom. Somebody has calculated that when riding a bicycle at the rate of twelve miles an hour we consume 2300 cubic inches of air per'minute. At Epworth Turbary, near Epworth, there are only eighteen houses, but the inhabitants include nineteen persons above seventy years of age. The number of sheep in the world is estimated to amount to 650,000,000. Of this number, between one-third and onehalf are believed to be merinos. More than 40,000,000 of humming-birds, Bunbirds, orioles, gulls, sea-birds, waxwings, birds of paradise, and fly-catchers are annually used in decorating women's hats. .' A paper watch has been exhibited by a Dresden watchmaker. The paper is prepared in such a manner that the watch is said to be as serviceable as those in ordinary use. Measurements have shown the thickness of the human hair to vary from the two hundred and fiftieth to the six hundredth part of an inch. Blonde hair is the finest and red the coarsest. Russia is demanding immediate payment by Turkey of .£1,150,000 out of the Greek war indemnity on the score of arrears of the old Turkish war indemnity due underthe Treaty of SanStefano. A London Jew failed to recover a sum of money from a Hebrew benefit society bocause he had married a Christian girl in a registry office. The object of the society is to discourage mixed marriages. The ancient custom of beating the bounds has been revived atjDunstable. The Mayor, town councillors, and other leading townsmen were in turn taken by the arms and legs and unceremoniously "bumped." Mr Goelet, the American millionaire who died on his yacht off the Isle of Wight, has left eight millions sterling. His wife receives an annuity of .£30,000, nearly the whole of the residue going to his two children. Mrs Keeley, who was an actress when the Queen ascended the throne, and who some little time since was received by the Queen at Buckingham Palace, has just completed her ninety-second year. She is said to still enjoy good general health. The Russians axe experiencing some difficulty in the construction of the Siberian railway. The people regard the locomotive as an emissary of the devil, and tear up the rails to prevent the evil which the puffing monster is expected to bring into their midst. It has been computed by geographers that if the sea were emptied of its waters and all the rivers of the earth were to pour their present floods into the vacant spaces allowing nothing for evaporation, 40,000 years would be required to bring the water of the ocean up to its present level. A Chicago Court has awarded a railway conductor .£4300 damages against a railway company for having "blacklisted" him, He struck work three years ago when ordered by his Union, since whioh time the plaintiff alleged he was unable to obtain work from railroads because of blacklisting. An Italian named Gabellini has recently ! made a boat of cement. The framework is of small steel bars covered with a wire netting, the latter being, in turn, covered with cement. The surface is then polished. It is claimed that such a boat costs less than a wooden one, and despite its extra weight glides more easily through the water. A steamer has just left New York for Klondyke carrying sixty women on board. Each puts dßl6ointo a common fund. When the women get to Dawson City they are going into various businesses. They take with them a portable hospital, four of the women being trained nurses, and there is one physician. Some of the women will open a hotel and boarding houses, and run stores. One of them will start a circulating library. There is not a single female voice in tbe choir at St Peter's in Eome, and yet the most difficult oratorios and sacred music written are rendered in such a manner as to make one think that Adelina Patti's high soprano is leading. The choir is composed of sixty boys. They are trained for the work from the time they get control of their vocal chords, and some of the best singers are not over nine years old. At the age of seventeen all boys leave the choir. The number of discharged soldiers or army reservists chargeable to the poor-rates is indicated by a Local Government Board report. In one night 7323 men, classified as above, were given shelter in the casual wards of England and Wales, out of a total number of 82,917 men. In one day 1070 were given out door relief, out of a total number of 90,822. A poor law inspector states that 20 per cent of the "casuals' have been at one time or another in the military service. The Belgians are extremely careful of their historic souv«nirs. In tho front of a house situated in the Faubourg de Shaerbuch, in Brussels, there is to be seen, halfburied in plaster, a cannon-ball which was fired from a Dutch cannon some time during the Eevolution of 1830, and has ever since been permitted to remain where it struck. Eecently it was determined to restore and re-front the house, and it was decided to make the repairs without disturbing the cannon-ball. The most extraordinary forest in the world is one discovered by Dr Welwitach, which occupies a table-land some six miles broad, at; a height of 300 ft or 400 ft above the sea, near the West Coast of Africa. The trunks of the trees of this peculiar forest are 4ft in diameter, and yet they only attain a height of lft, giving the tree the appearance of a round table. There are never more than two leaves, which attain a length of 6ft and a breadth of 2ft,", the flowers forming crimson clusters. In the last twenty-five years women have entered the occupations of men in increasing numbers. There are now four female clerks where there was one in 1871. In the manufacture of tobacco only forty - two women to each 100 men were then employed, but now there are 121, and women workers in hemp and jute have increased from sixty-seven per 100 men to 195 per hundred men to-day. On the other hand, in the making of lace and .gloves the proportion of male workers has largely increased. It is doubtful if the recor of letter carrier Chas A. Tyler of the United States Service, who has travelled no less than 210,000 miles, during his fifty-two years of service, can be beaten. When ho entered the service he walked twenty miles a day for six days. Allowing two weeks' vacation every year, there would be fifty working weeks in whioh Tyler travelled 6000 miles. . He kept this up for thirty-five' 1 years. Ho estimated that he has walked no fewer than 210,000 miles" during his term of service, a distance which would go round the world at the equator eight times with a few miles to spare. i