BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6467, 22 April 1899, Page 7

BRIEF MENTION.

The first lifeboat was launched in 1790,. Icebergs in the Atlantic sometimes laaß for 200 years. ...»■•■ ■In Prance postage stamps are sold att all the cigar shops. : In. Russia you must marry before eigfafcyj or not at all, and you may many only, five times. The last two descendants of Christopher! Columbus are said to be occupants of a, poor- ; house in Cadis. ! Tobacco-seeds are so minute that ifc-TSr. said a thimbleful will furnish enough plants 1 ' for an acre of ground. ' A jury in Mexico consists of nine men. • A majority makes the verdict. . If nine are.' unanimous there is no appeal. In' China there are at the present time coins in circulation bearing the names of Emperors who died 2000 years ago. : - • A provision dealer at Blackpool dis-, covered a. Portuguese bank note in. a hax of onions. The note huH since been cashed for £86. • According io Nilsson, the weight of the Greenland whale is 100 tons, or 224,000 .pounds, or equal to that of 88 elephants' or 440 bears. . i Only by the careful and systematic legri-.-lation of the search for diamonds can -pro- ! Stable results be-secured from any bufc-xeally i exceptional fields. ' ; GreaS Britain spends on tobacco and! pipes about £14,000,000 every year, and! more than a million cigarettes are smoked! in London every day. There is a famine of natural gas in thirty i towns of Indiana, United States, and, asi notliing else is used for heating purposes, | fully 250,000 persons are suffering from the cold. • The list of Americans receiving pensions from the United States Government has attained to such huge dimensions that the . cost of publishing it would alone amount to ±540,000. . , Nina tons of poultry from America, con- 1 sisting of 878 geeSe, 545 turkeys, 426 chick- 1 1 ea«j and 320 ducks, valued at £500, were; condemned in London recently as putrid! and unfit for food. ' Among a.large proportion of i>he Spanish'j people the thought of. Columbus and what," he did for them long ago, merely serves toaggravate the contrast between what noW is and what might have been. . The test required of gunpowder of any < and all classes is to give the projectile a I muzzle velocity of 2000 ft per second, with J a pressure not greater than fifteen tons to ' the square inch in the powder-chamber. : j In certain conditions of the atmosphere' electricity is so abundant on the top of tie volcano Mount- Loa, in Hawaii, that an. English geologist found that he could trace; electric letters with his fingers on Msblanket. A ball was held at the Hotel Cecil mi aid of the Gordon Memorial College. It! is described as being one of the most' brilliant events of the London season. The' funds are expected to benefit to the extent 1 of £10,000. • - . It is interesting to note that the crown has no part in the coronation of the Kings j of Spain and Belgium and the Sultan of j Turkey. Its place is taken in Turkey byj a sword, which is regarded as the symbol' of Divine authority. Patti's first matrimonial venture was with' an elderly French nobleman; her second; was with an operatic tenor, chiefly famoos 1 for his cooking ; and the third object of her affections is a youthful athlete and the' director, of a gymnasium.

A well-known scientist says that the true colour of pure water is bine, and that this is a characteristic of the ■water itself, Mid isr not due to reflection, from the surface, nor from suspended particles. Lake. Geneva is an example of the blue of pure water. The inhabitants of the Andaman Islands are said to be the smallest race of people in the world. The average height of a full-grown Andaman is less than 4ft, and the anthropological experts who recently visited them, found but few that weighed; over 751 b. A large paper house with sixteen rooms has been erected by a Russian gentleman at his country seat. The house was con» structed in New York by an American engineer, and cost 80,000 roubles. Its architect declares that it will last longer than, a stone building;. A famous picture by Raphael, " A<lnm and Eve," is to be exhibited in London. It was recently purchased in a, second-hand shop in France, merely for the sake of the frame, for" 20 francs. On being cleaned, the , picture was recognised as one of Raphael's, and was sold for 80,000 francs. The twelve largest land-owners, as regards area-, in England are the following : — Duke of Northumberland, Duke of Devonshire, Duke of Ceveland, Sir W. W. Wynn, Duk<? of Bedford, Earl of Carlisle, Duke of Rutland, Earl of Lonsdale, Lord Leconfield, Earl of Powis, Earl Brownlow, and the Earl of Derby. Hitherto it has been supposed that the record of national impoverishment was furnished by the Transvaal, in the Treasury of which, when Great Britain toot it over, was the magnificent sum of 12s 6&. But i Sir George Bowen, when he went as the first Governor of Queensland, founcl in the public -chest no more than B£d. | Russia possesses the largest standing 1 '< army on earth. Every year some 280,000 conscripts join the Russian forces, which in. time of peace number 1,000,000 men. On, a war-footing this rises to 2,500,000, and calling out the reserves would increase it to 6,947,000 well-trained soldiers. STioald necessity arise, the militia would be called out bringing the Czar's forces up to 9,000,000 men. ' . . ; On the report that Germany intends to prohibit the importation of American sausage and other meat products, a resolution has been introduced into the Senate instructing the Committee of Agriculture to inquire into such legislation if it become.* law, and report forthwith a Bill requiring the inspection of sugars, meats, wines and all "other food products imported into America from Germany. The most costly book in the Royal Library at Stockholm is a Bible. It is no wonder that it is considered precious, for there is not another just like it in the world. In weight and size alone it is unique. It is said that 160 asses' skins were nsed for its parchment leaves. There " are 309 pages ot writing, and each page falls but one mcli short of being a yard: in length. The width of the leaves is twenty inches. A Bible, the leaves of which are considerably longer than the largest newspaper at present issued, would bo a big thing to handle, and when to this ia added the fact that the ewers are solid planks, four incnes thick, it willl be understood that this costly Stockholm treasure is not exactly a pocket Bible.

People often ask how it is that the fntmre 1 of Palestine presents such difficulties. The reason is simply that Jerusalem — you cannot separate Jerusalem from Palestine — is the sacred city of so many creeds and warring faiths. Not only 5 sit the Holy Place of all the Christian Churches, and two of them' quarrel bitterly over it — the Greeks and the Latins — but it is also one of the most sacred places in the Mohammedan world. Mecca and Medina are hardly more sacred than the Mosque of Omar. That is a fact which is often ignored by Europeans, who forget that to turn the Mohammedans oat of -the Temple enclosure would disturb tie whole Moslem world from the Straits Settlements to Albania. We must never forget that Mohammedan pilgrims from India visit Jerusalem, just as Christian pilgrims ; visit it from Europe. Lastly, Jerusalem isi profoundly sacred to the Jews, and the Jews are beginning to be locally numerous and important. .Most certainly there are no elements of difficulty wanting in the problem of the future of Palestine.

Fashionable Wedding and Engagement Rings, extra heavy 18ct gold. Deal direct with the manufacturers, S. Clarke and Co., 148, Colombo Street. New stock just opened up of Spectacles to suit all sights. Clarke and Co., opposite Reece's.— (Advt.) Contempt of Court. — Tho Burman who was fined yesterday for expectorating in the witness box should use Grimault's Indian Cigarettes, which immediately arrest asthma, nervous coughing, loss of voice, hoarseness, and ensure a good night's sleep. — " Burniah, Herald." 22251