BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9913, 30 July 1910, Page 1

BRIEF MENTION.

The harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, covtsrs ten square miles. , - Nearly IM,OOt#)OOib «fr ruober surf produced within the British Emnii/ annually. ■ .Exclusively of the Royal and Soveiv fnmsi? bies ' British tlukes own ovei 4,000.000 acres of land. 'f The salaries of members of the British Cabinet amount to £75,425 a year£2oßoo d Stat ® S ° abinet t0 Since .it was founded in 1849, th* I ? ercia Travellers 1 ' Benevolent Inol A n «9n * on '*- has paid u P w arda' 01 34,820 m annuities; . ' , Eli f b eth Garrett Anderson, of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, wan the only vro* [man Mayor m England to announce | Georg? v! 10n ° f Majesty Kin * ! world is a looking-glasa, i and gives back to every man the reflection •ii - S P wn f ac , e - : rown on it, and it ; wai i n turn upon you : laugh rH aU - d h 2t > aad it is a jolly, kild | companion. ' Cheques from India and the Trunk rf r^ To u , n sent to th © mother of, fn 6 i Hackney boy who was.burnetii ° some time ago while looking up the chimney and asking Santa Claus to bring him some food. \ . In a London junior county scholai*' ship examination the word "hose" is ' have been 6 p ß lt in as maw as thirty-six different ways. Oos, ose, oes, ooze, oeze, ous, ouse, owes, ows, hows and howes are a few of the farourite variations. J i Shakespeare is perhaps the on!». peat; author who disliked dogs, anil he never had a good word about them.' His writings invariably describe them' n?;, £ P cu , rs ' and although he admaied horses, he never realised any of mi® qualities of a dog. ,-. The tongue is divided into three gions of taste, the first of which U tnc+nJ P un Kent and acid tastes, the middle portion of sweets w bitters, while the back is.confined - entirely to the flavours of roast meats, butter, oils and rich and fatty sub* stances. , _The whirlpool is the mael« strom off the Norway coast. It is an eddy between the mainland and an is-' land, .and when the current is in on® direction and wind in another, no ship can withstand the fury of the wavea. Whales and sharks have been seen cast ashore and killed. The current.is estimated to rim thirty miles an hour. Mr Henry, Palmer introduced coaches for carrying the mails' in England m 1784. For. this improvement he : was appointed Controller-General of the post office, with a .'salary of £ISOO per annum, with; other advantages; and in 1813 Parliament passed an Act to secure him £50.000; so that, froin, first ito last, Mr Palmer received V [° r * n ® suggestion of mail coaches and' his labour in carrying into effect toot • less than £150,000. are at present lying in the t-ity Chambers, Edinburgh, •' the his-' torio # Netherbow , stones j of gruesome association. Some time ago thesd grim i relics of the past were recovered from a wall to which they had been removed, and where their identity was in danger; of being lost. .No suitable site for them has -yet been secured. 'Od tbem the. heads of and notable victims of political, intrigua were placed after their execution. ' Nine persons out of every ten, with a cinder,,or any foreign substance in tho eye,' will', instantly beein to rub it mth one hand while hunting for a handkerchief with the; other, whereas, according to a scientific writer, the right way is not to rub the ©ye-with .tha cinder in it, but,to rub the other as vigorously as you like. If you let tha • sore eye alone, and • work on the other / one, you will soon have the finder out. A recent four days' sale of propertv left in.'the hands of the London fin 3 South-Western Railway. Company'shows an astonishing forgetfulness oil the pari) of hundreds of people. One of tha most extraordinary lots offered was a coffin and wreath. Another lot waS "one camp bedstead, one wateroroof sheet, two.baths, two beds." Probably these were left behind by some Riverside campers. Other articles in the sale were ninetv-five tobacco pouches. 20Q silver-mounted pipes, 158 pipes, and ISCladies' handbags. j Messrs Harpers,, the lato Marfe Twain's publishers, state that- he musf have left at least a million dollars,; notwithstanding that he had to sacrificf one great fortune to pay the, debts ol the publishing, firm of Webster and Co.. of Hartford. In the last years ojt his life the royalties on his wero. enormous. More of t - his books were sold than of any other author, living or" dead. A rough estimate of the number of copies of Mr Clemens' books published in America .would be between 5.000,000 and 5,500,000. One 6i the latest inventions is that of a machine for recording and indicating any departure of a vessel from its true course. The little instrument ie being exhibited in London. It shows whe s , the steamer is deviating from its course, and jvhen that deviation exceeds a certain limit of time, an boll is rung. Thus there is a- record of the extent Of the deviation; and the at* tention of those who are responsible is* drawn to the extent of the change. 1 It is one of the electrical devices which 1 are so numerous and so useful. The '' Ancient Society of College' Youths," a team of whose members rang.tne first peal from the reinstated' bells of St Michael's, Corbhill, i is (says the '' Westminster Gaze tte '' J the •. old.-: est association of bellringers in Europe. 1 It was established in 1687;, twcno? tha founders being Lord Brereton and, Six. Cliffe Clifton, and derives quaint title from the vanished city church ofSt Martin Vintry, on College where the "youths" used to practise.; To them was dedicated Stedman's cele-' ' brated " Tintinalogic," the earliest book on the principles of change-ring-, ing, which was published in 1667. • -i' Lions, tigers, and all the cat triba dread rain, said a London Zoo keeper. On a rainy day they tear nervously up and' down their cages, growling ans trembling. We usually give them a» ! extra ration of hot milk. That puts them to sleep. Wolves love a greyday of rain. They are then very cheery. Treacherous as the wolf is, no keeper , need fear him on a wet day. Ho is too happy to hnrnj. a fly. Snakes, too, like rain. They perk up wonderfully as tlie barometer falls and the damp makes itself felt in their warm casos of glass. Rain makes monkeys glum. They are apt from instinct, when they see it through the window, to clasp their hands above their heaos, and sit so for hours.

" Not many people know how to pet a horse—from the horse's > standpoint, at any rate," said an American trainer. "Every nice-looking horse come# in for a good teal of petting. The trouble is that people don't pat him in the right place. If you want to make a horse think he is going straight tc heaven hitched to a cab or deliverywaggon rub his eyelids. Next to that form of endearment, a horse likes to bo rubbed right up between tin* ears. Tn petting horses most people snght those nerve centres. They stroke the horse's nose. While a wellbehaved horse will accept the nasiiv caress complacently he would much prefer that nice, soothing touch appliec to the eyelid#.'■