BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8832, 19 January 1907, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

Swan 9 will keep water completely free from weeds. Iron steamships were first built in Great Britain in 1843. The first expedition to the South Pole took place in 1567. A chimney 115 ft high will sway 10in in a high wind without danger. The Zambesi bridge is 420 ft above the water, against ,160 ft for Niagara. The gold and silver plate in Windsor Castle (England) is valued at £2,000,000. The salmon caught yearly in Scotland weigh 2800 tons. Its prime value is about £107 a ton. In 1904 South Africa exported to England over five and a quarter million pounds' worth of diamonds. At the Battle of Waterloo 51,000 men were killed or disabled. There were 145,000 soldiers in that great struggle. The German Empress owns jewels worth £110,000, and has the right to wear the Crown jewels, valued at £160,000. The sunniest part of the British Isles is the Channel Islands. There the sun shines four hours out of every ten it is above the horizon. The Pennsylvania miners' custom of attending the funerals of all men killed in mine disasters cost them more than £200,000 in wages last year. A part of the Persian Gulf is known by the title of the Green Sea, on account of a remarkable strip of vividly green water which is seen along the Arabian coast-. Emigration produces marvellous changes in a race which emigrates. The modern French-Canadian is two inches taller and quite 10 per cent stronger than the average Frenchman. Within the past three years imports of colonial butter into Great Britain increased from 24,000 to 57,000 tons, while during the same period importa-' tion of foreign butter decreased from 186,000 to 158,000 tons. If many silly boys and equally moonstruck girls were to devote as much thought to the future as they do toward overcoming obstacles .in the way to the parson, there would be fewer ( foolish marriages, to say nothing of divorces. James Bowman Lindsay, a Scotsman, accomplished wireless telegraphy through water as far back as 1834. He patented it in. 1854. experimented further between Portsmouth and London, and in 1859 laid his system before* the British Association at Aberdeen. A novel idea comes from Vienna. The authorities there are about to start a school for the study of criminal "cases. It is to be called " The Central Bureau of Police Science," and instruction will be imparted twice or three times a week to' members of the police force. The idea is to discuss every criminal case of the week. The tendency of naval designs in recent years has been to greatly reduce the extent of unarmoured superstructures in warships, and to increase protected areas; with the result that a much larger amount of punishment could be received by modern warships without serious consequences to buoyancy, stability, or manoeuvring power. The present condition of the 'pay of the British soldier is an absolute, dis- . f;i_ce to the nation (says " Regiment.") n point of numbers the British Army is one of the smallest in the world, yet its pay is complicated to such an extent that no one outside, to War Office, and few in it, can say with truth that they know what the v Pay Warrant really means from -cover to covei\ Forty years ago the chrysanthemum, growers of Great Britain could be counted upon the fingers. Then the late Sir Edwin Arnold came home with his wonderful stories of the East, and popularised the flower. To-day there are 3000 official varieties, which are being added to at the rate of six a week throughout the season, and sieventy-eight specialists are annually turning over £120,000 worth of cuttings. A curious legend attaching to the Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway, near Bristol, is that on one day in the year the setting sun shines through it from one end to the other. People who are interested in these matters will like to know, if they do not already do so, that after the rock and earth had been excavated, no fewer than 30,000,000 bricks were required to line the tunnel. The tunnel has just been re-opened to traffic. Among the names allowed to stand on the voters' list at Col6hester (England) Revision Court was that of Lieutenant Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Franditi - Filio Toilemache - Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet TollemacheTollemache, of the 2nd Leicester Regiment. It was auite ten minutes before the revising barrister and the Liberal agent were satisfied that the name had been correctly entered on their respective lists. Leather is dear ; and the contributing causes of the dearness are instructive. First, the long years of drought in Aue. tralia, which brought on a scarcity of sheepskins. This in turn caused a remarkable run oh goatskins. The Rus-so-Japanese War interfered considerably with supplies- from the Far East. Lastly, the Indian famins has been responsible for an enormous f alling-off in Indian shipments, owing to the premature slaughter of animals to meet the needs of the starving people. Ine oldest ' licensed village alehouse in England is claimed to be the George Inn, in North Street, Phillips. The license dates from 1307. Each storey of the picturesque old structure overhangis the one beneath. Tlie front is broken by bay windows, a porch and a flight ot etone steps leading to a doorway in. the wall. At the back are more quaint doors and windows, and a turret built against the wall encloses an outside stair, while in the 'yard still retaains part of the old gallery,, found m so many hostelries of the Middle Ages. A curious chimney surmounts each gable. The custom that prevails in Greece of carrying bodies. to the grave in coffins which allow the face to be visible is, said to liave origin, ted when the llirKs dominated the land. At that time arms and ammunition were being constantly distributed to the Greek populace in a way which baffled the Turkish officials until— -either by accident or espionage— a coffin, which was being escorted by an apparently mburning procession, was found to contain, not a body, but weapons. An order was then promulgated that bodies were to be borne to the grave only on open litters or in coffins without lids. Much amusement has been caused by Comte Potocki's threat to sue the French Government for 50,000 francs damages for having frightened his pheasants, and spoilt his shooting for the season. Comte Potocki had gone to great expense to stock his preserves at Jonvilliers: the keeper says the game cost the Count 25.000 francs a month to preserve, and he was looking forward to very good shooting, which he proposed sharing with a large party or guests, when one day a regiment of infantry, from Chart-res, passed down the road which-runs through his estate, and startled the birds with the sound of their bugles, and 100,000 francs' worth of game went off on the wing! A writer in a London paper asks exKrts in sanitation to explain why lgevity in Europe reaches the highest point in countries which pay the least attention to hygiene. The highest percentage of centenarians is found, not in Great Britain, Germany or Switzerland, but in the" Balkan Stat*-*. Bulgaria leads with a total of 3800, out of a population 'of 3,800,000. Roumania and Servia have 1657 between them, while France can only produce 213. Great Britain 146, Germany 55, and Switzerland not one. Taking acoount of the past and present history of the Balkan territory (says the " New York Sun"), one can hardly attribute the longevity of the inhabitants to the placid life they lpad.