BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7417, 31 May 1902, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

The world takes 236,0001 bof quinine in a single year. Fifty^six different authorities exercise control over the Port of London. Corean paper is so strong and dense that it can be used to cover umbrellas. Norway has to import 250,000 tons of grain a year. She exports 135,000 tons -of fish yearly. . A sea anemone, taken from the Firth of Forth in 18iS8, lived and flourished in captivity until 1887. x : Three hundred thousand African war medals will probably be distributed. These will require 75,000 yards of ribbon. Australia's output of copper is already over 7,000,000 tons. England has only produced 11,500,000 in the last century. The anchors which a. large ironclad carries are eight in number I—two1 — two bowers, two sheets, one stream, one stern, and twor kedges. ; ' The lowest tide in any large sea is in the Mediterranean. At Toulon there is about 4in, which is the average for the whole Mediterranean. Portugal's Custom duties are the heaviest of any European nation, amounting to 18s a head of her population. England's are about lls a head. ■ ■ ;. A baron's robe has two rows of ermine ji that of a viscount, 2£ rows; an earl's h&fl three rows ; a marquis 3£ ; and a duke's robe 4 complete rows. The richest bed of nitre in the world is at Atacama, in Chili. It . covers 500Q acres, containing 25 million tons,- and is valued at £300,000,00 Q. The gross increase of the valuation of the County of London during the past year was £540,409, the- increase of the ratable value £440,920, and of the assessable value £441,135. The two cities of Manchester in England and Boston in the United States are almost exactly equal in population, while Birmingham and Baltimore are also very nearly alike. A curious instance of the conductive power of water is that divers are able to converse under water by placing their helmets, which are . invariably made- of copper, together, and shouting to one another ; the 'sound, they sayi is swiftly and distinctly conveyed. Much of the " diawn gut " which anglers use in their finer fishing is manufactured on 'a little island in Naples Bay. It is drawn from the pickled bodies of silkworms, and the worms thus utilised never produce silk, for they have to be skinned and pickled just in their prime, before they have commenced spinning silk. It is comparatively little known that King Edward is one of the very oldest of living cyclists. Forty-three years ago he became the proud; possessor of a tricycle, which was one of the wonders of its time, since it could travel at the phenomenal rate of eight miles an hour. On it the youthful Prince spent many a happy and exciting hour. i Over eighty years ago an Act of Parliament was passed for the prevention of Sunday desecration by London bakers, who were forbidden under a penalty to bake or sell on the Lord's Day. This law has never been repealed, but it has not been invoked for several years. The operative bakers are taking steps to have the old Act enforced. One of the strongest centres of trade unionism among women is in Denmark. The number of women organised in* trade unions in that country is 7243, of whom 5244 live in Copenhagen, The organisations embrace 14 trades, and include about a quarter of the women wage-earners of the country. They are best organised in the bookbinding, textile and tobacco trades. Apropos of the forthcoming Coronation ceremony of our King and Queen, it may •be mentioned that the ,Coronation robe of the Empress of Russia \cost no Jess a srnn than £40.000. arid took sometnin-g like twelve months to complete. The gown was covered with a decoration of pearls and tiny diamonds, secured by a fretwork of golden wires, so arranged as to fall into a conventional design. • It is proposed to utilise acetylene gpw in future by the Army for transmitting signals at nieht. It has been found that the gas is superior in many ways to oil lamps and limelisrht, which are commonly used for signalling purooses. The Tient of acetylene gas is 'brilliant, and 'has great penetrating powers, It- can 'be easily prepared, and the plant necessary for its sreneration is carried 'by one man without •difficulty. The Government announcement 'is made that the unclaimed funds now amount to £1.050,000. distributed over more than 3200 separate accounts. One-half do not exceed £150. In some cases the funds have remained in Chancery for over a century. It is stated that many so-called lists of next-of-kin heirs to unclaimed j money are not official, and sometimes contain gross misrepresentations and exaggerations. . '■ . Remarkable . electric steel . works are about to be opened at Elizabethtown, Tennessee. They will be equipped with electric furnaces of the highest power. It is said that the electric process will enable steel to be produced directly from iron ore in <tlhirty minutes. The company operating the new works will be practically, able to advertise " Steel made while . you wait." , 1 Not since the days of Chang, the Chinese giant, has such a great person visited the House of Commons as crossed the lobby a few days ago. It was a Mr Skinner, from the United States, who is no less .aan 7ft 7in in height. By no means reluctant j to enter into conversation, he remarked ; that there might be men as tall as himself in the United, States; but, he shyly added, 1 " I^have not seen them." He was given a place in the distinguished strangers gallery, and his hat touched the top of the j porch leading up to it. The world's best timekeeper is said to be the electric clock in the basement of the Berlin Observatory, which was installed by Professor FcErster in 1865. It is enclosed in an air tight glass cylinder, and has frequently run for periods of two or three months with an average daily deviation of only 15-1000ths of a second. Ye* .astronomers, are not satisfied even with this^ and efforts are continually made to secure ideal conditions for a clock by keeping it not only in an air-tight case, but in an underground vault where neither changes of temperature nor of barometric pressure shall e^er affect it. It is recalled that Coronation Day has already attached to it in the calendars a number of happy events and* a few of dark complexion. Some are connected with the Royal House. June 26 was the date of William IV.'s accession in 1830. On that day, in 1857. Queen Victoria dis- | tributed the first Victoria Crosses in Hyde Park, and forty years later held the great naval review off Spithead at her Diamond Jubilee. It is tie anniversary of the^i Duke of Edinburgh's home-coming from has Australian trip in 1868. In the political calendar it is marked by the repeal of the Corn Laws. In the calendar of the Roman Church it is dedicated to no fewer than seven saints. In the "Contemporary Review," Mr J. Holt Schooling) compares the increase and decrease in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Germany has increased by eighteen millions in twenty years, while France has increased by five ; in twenty years, estimating by five-year periods, the birth-rate has fallen by 28 in 10,000 in France, by 10 in Germany, but by no less than 32 in the United Kingdom. Then it is shown how the relative positions of 1 Germany and England have been reversed during twenty years, for while in 1880-84 Germany's natural yearly increase was 113 per 10,000 and England's 128, during 1895-99 Germany's was 148 and England's only [ 112. This, says the writer, is a notable fact of great importance. "We are almost compelled to believe," he says, " that the cause which has so weakened France during one generation has become operative . to some degree in England, and if this be indeed a fact, we may well take warning j 1 by France's example." 1