GENERAL NEWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1816, 29 July 1891, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

One can cat a piece of glass with a pair of scissors as easily as though it were an autumn leaf. The entire secret consists in plunginj* tho pave of glass into a tub of water, submerging also the hands and scissors. The scissors will cut in straight lines without a flaw. This result is achieved in consequence of vibration. If the least portion of the scissors is left out of the water the vibration | will prevent the glass cutting. ' THE Elections Amendment Bill introduced into the Queensland Parliament provides that candidate* must receive an absolute majority of the votes polled to entitle them to be elected. If there is only one member to be : returned, and should no candidate receive an absolute majority, a secoud poll must be taken whereat the two candidates heading the list shall contest. Ttie same rule is to apply where there is more than one member to be chosen, subsequent polls are to be taken if necessary. The New Zealand Pine Company is said to have the control of over 28,000 acres of timber land,and,according to a speaker in Parliament, lately wauted to acquire the right to about 6000 acres more. Sir Robert Stout does not think a monopoly in a commodity like timber should be placed on the same footing as a monopoly in land, yefc he will hive some difficulty in convincing most people that a monopoly of any kind is altogether a good thiug, or that there is much difference between the two. I AN American company is now supplying milk to different local dairies in New York by a system of pipes like that used in distributing water. The milk is contained in a central reservoir, and retailed to customers at the dairies from the tap. The Academy of Sciences, Paris, has recommended that all milk used in a liquid st.itc should previously be boiled in ordei" to destroy any germs of ■ disease there might be in it. Itseeut investigations have shown the sanitary imyortao.ee | of this measure. I The curiosities of the Pension List comi prise few cases more rcmaikible than that to | which Dr Clark lately cilled atteution in the 1 House of Commons. About two years ngo i the honourable member aud Mr J. W. Phil- ! lips, as director of a South African mining company, advertised for a manager at a salary of £2000 per annum, and from amongst 1 numerous applicants for the post selected a , gentleman who was employed under the y I Homo Office as assistant inspector of mines '• at £400 per annum. .He resigned his offioial j eugagement; but notwithstanding the fact j that he is now earning five times his former salary his name appears on the list of public J servants pensioned on account of " ill-health j and defective eyesight," The Chancellor of i the Exchequer has undertaken to m ike a | searching examination into the case. I At the suggestion of Dr Verincourt, of bhe Dep irtment of Agriculture of Russia, a large number of farmers have had recourse to blue spectacles in order to preserve the sight of their herds of cattle, and in one province over four thousand animals arc now meandering about with the aid of blue glasses. This has been found necessary became the reflection of the light upon the snow has been so blinding that tens of thousands of cattle h-ivo been attacked with ophthalmia. According to a recent despatch- from Vienna, the eutiro supply of blue glass in Vienna his been exhausted for this purpose, and it has been found necessary to obtain additional supplies from Paris and London. A farmer, who ia now in Vienna, says that the sight of thousands of cattle groping their Way through the snow with their eyes c ised in immense goggles, is one tint can neither be imagined nor adequately described.