BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7203, 14 September 1901, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

The average price of new books is £10 11s a cwt. Bees suck over 3,000,000 flowers to gather lib of honey. Europe has had 391 monarohs since the Battle of Hastings. ' , Of all men. who die do England-, one in every 260 is killed by a cab * or other vehicle. , The College of Ada, Ohio, ihas a statue of Apollo Belvedere in red velvet knee breeches. . , It is likely that the " heathen Chinese will shortly be imported wholesale into Rhodesia. The first English canal connected tne Trent and the Witham. It was cut in 1134 by Henry I. Bees always place their honey an tne coolest place im the 'hive ; the young brood in dhe warmest. Japan is protected from the sea by a Bysbem of dykes even more extensive than, those of Holland v Ten million eight 'hundred thousand English people live in the country; ove* 16,000,000 in towns. There are 281 bof blood in, the body of an average grown-up person, and at . each pulsation the heart moves 101 b. •Russians "drink one gallon a head of beet in a year. The average Englishman drinks thirfcy-two gallons in the same time. The cost of wire rope tramways is said to be in proportion to the work required of them; they occupy scarcely any la-nw, 1 only requiring a post every 200 or 300. feet. Love is sparingly soluble in the words of I men, therefore they speak much of it ; but one syllable of woman's speech can, dissolve ! more of it than a man's 'heart can. hold.— ! Oliver W. Holmes. t Female barbers are numerous in Austrian i cities. They are compelled to undergo an examination before being permitted to go into business, and must demonstrate their, ability in shaving, hair-cutting, and haircurling. , Au^ralia is twenty-four tunes as large as the United Kingdom, but the latter s population is ten times as large as hers ; to every square mile of -the United Kingdom there are 135 persons/ but to every square owl© of Australia there are only one and a half inhabitants: Private postal companies do most of the business in China. They use no stamps, and it is necessary to prepay only about a third of the postage, as the rest 4s collected from the recipient. Chinese stamps are reckoned in candarines', approximately equivalent *o halfpennies*. Many countries have curious methods of making money <to reduce taxation. ' In Hesse, Germany, a tax has been put upon bachelors, who wow have to pay 25 per cent more in taxes than married men. The result has been that many well-to-do bachelors 'have emigrated to Prussia. The largest "gushing" oil well an the world is now fhat of Beaumont, Texas. The outflow is estimated at 25,000 barrels every twenty-four hours. A 6in jet of oil shoots to a, height of 200 ft. The tapping of the oil has led to a rush, for waste land in the district, and almost fabulous prices are paid for it.' . Some very remarkable statements have been made by Mr Bird, the superintendent of the London Shoeblack Brigade, which celebrated its jubilee recently.: Mr Bird said that one boy earned 2658 pence last month, which is just over £2 15s a week. •It appears mat many of the London shoeblacks earn over £2 a week. A Parliamentary return just issued shows the .number of licensed houses owned|jby peers. The list includes the following :— Lord ' Derby, 72; Duke of Bedford, 50; Duke of Devonshire, 47 ; Duke of Rutland, 37 ; Duke of Northumberland, 36 ; Lord Dudley, 33 ; Lord Cowper, 22 ; Lord Salisbury, 11 ; Lord Dunraven, 11. It is calculated that the- respectable sum of £12,000,000 is spent annually by about 270,000 visitors who frequent the Riviera during the winter season, which lasts about 150 days. This makes an average of £80,000 per day, or £3333 per hour. Of these visitors about one-third, or 90,000, are of the English-speaking race— 6o,ooo British, and 30,000 American. Whatever has happened, to cause the appearance of a new star, it may surely be termed a catastrophe; so sudden and tremendous la the outburst of light, and of the heat which doubtless must accompany at. The 100,000-fold increase in the light of the recent new star, in the course of not more than three or four days, is a sufficient proof of this. The suddenness of, the effect has been compared with that of the. pull of a tr-igger. Blind creatures are common in situations not otherwise hostile to the existence of animal life. The want of sight in these, creatures is believed to be the direct effect of the absence of the stimulus of light, for in 'most cases rudimentary eyes are found, proving the fact of degeneration. To make up ivx lack of sight, they are provided with feelers most delicately constructed.- Blind insects, as well as fish, are found in. the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. Although the Eskimo are dependent upon the sea for everything they eat and for the clothes they wear, they do' not know how to swim. This- sounds rather strange and incredible at first, but the explanation, which amply accounts for their inability, is that the temperature of the water in the region in which they live is never above freezing point, and is therefore prohibitive. In the Island of Terra del Fuego the women are all good swmmers, but none of the men can swim at all. The Navy debates have cleared the air and dispelled many vapours. They have shown the Admiralty to be strenuous, vigilant, progressive, not impatient of criticism, alive to the manifold requirements of national defence on the seas, and earnestly striving to satisfy them. They have gone far to check — we would even hope to checkmate — the sinister efforts of certain self-confident "sea-gallopers" and self-ap-pointed "messengers from the Mediterranean" to stir up panic. An expedition has already left th© shores of California to discover whether or no Adam was an American. Mr Morris K. Jessup is the capitalist who will spend 50,000d0l on this research, and the scientists chosen to undertake the task of locating the Garden of Eden are two Russians, Waldema Bogaras and Weldemar Jochelson, and an American naturalist, Norman Buxton'. These gentlemen expect to show ' that the first man was created in the Klondike, which was the former Eden. Few are aware of ike fact that in a watch they have a very excellent compass. If you wish to use ifc as such, all you have io do is to point 'the hour-hand to the ' sun, and the south is exactly half-way be-tween-the hour and the figure XII. on the face of the watch. Inasmuch as each minute is marked off there n«ed be no difficulty •in calculating this accurately. For instance, suppose yem pulled out your watch exactly at four o'clock in the afternoon, the figure 11. on the dial plate would be duo souuh if the hour-hand were facing the sun. Th? f-ecir t of breathing is to a great extent the secret of health, and all those wbo j dwell in towns should, therefore, pay | especial attention to this subject. Normal, unconscious breathing sustains life, but it dees nnt thoroughly expand the lungs nor oxygenate the blood. Deep, voluntary, systematic breathing strengthens weak lungs and protects the strong: Quick and deep inspirations of fresh air warm the blood when chilled by standing in the open air. Inhale always * through the nostrils, so that the air may bo warmed in the nasal passages, and any impurities arrested there. A distinguished physiologist asserts that "many people c!i* for want of breath," adding, "it is their own carelessness alone that prevents I hem from breathing." Half-breathing is half-living. Many of us use only the upper half _of the lungs -irhen breathing. Sometimes (his arises from want of thought upon the subject, sometimes from constricted clothing, which renders deep inspiration impossible. To increase the lung power is to increase the life power. Deep breathing strengthens the entire muscular system.