MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Waikato Argus, Volume IX, Issue 775, 9 October 1900, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

In Pckin there is published a newspaper which possesses a somewhat mienviable notoriety, inasmuch as it is recorded that over 1900 of its editors have been beheaded.

The little Grand Duchess Olga of Russia may be said to be the richest baby in the world. The week she was born £1,000,000 was settled on her, and it is said that this huge sum was safely, invested iu British and French securities, for iu a eouutry like Russia no one knows what may happen to members of the reigning house. An extraordinary illustration of the increase in the value of land in London was offered at a public inquiry into the parish charities at St. Mary-lu-Strand. In the year 1G67 Alice Lovcday bequeathed an annual charge of £7 on seven acres of land in Camberwell. This land now produces £2275 a year, and out of the surplus the nc-.w model parish hall iu Drury Lane has recently been built. Cigarette smoking is henceforth to be a bar to umployment on the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railway. At the foot of every application form there is printed the question : "Do you smoke cigarettes ?" The answer affects the nenou's chance of employment, as the ' general superintendent of the line considers that cigarette smoking vitiates a man's capacity, enervates him, and renders him listless aud occasionally reckless.

A Paris paper tells this story of Sandow, the strong man. A gentleman hailed a cab in Paris the atlier evening, and stated where he wished to go. The cabman made a face, a rude remark, and drove off. At least he tried to drive off, but the gentleman jumped behind the cab, seized the axle, aud held the cab still. Whereupon the crowd applauded, and the cabman swore, and nearly fell off his perch with dismay. The irace gentleman was Sandow. A former rector of a certain Lancashire town was walking one misty night through a street in his parish when he fell into a deep hole on the top of water pipes which were being repaired. There was no laddor by which he could make his escape, and he began to cry out for help- A labourer, passing by, heard the cries, and looking down, asked the rector who he was. The rector told him, whereupon the labourer said : " Well, tha' can stay down there till Oi come back ; tha'll. not be wanted till Sunday." s . , Pigeons are used extensively on board warships of some nations for the purpose of intercommunication and corresponding with the land. The pigeonhouses in these ships are most ingeniously constructed. They have two storeys, arc painted in bright colours in order to attract the pigeons, and are fitted up with every convenience for the comfort of birds. Not long ago nine of these 11 messengers on the wing " were brought to London from Boston and set free three months later. Three of them crossed the Atlantic.

A corporation has applied for permission to lay underground pipes in the streets of Washington (U.S.A.) for the purpose of distributing cool air through the business buildings and residences of the city. The scheme provides for the erection of a refrigerating plant at some central point, from which cold air is pumped for distribution ,through the system of pipes. The flow of cold air will be regulated in a manner somewhat similar to the measurement of gas, and can be turned on the same as hot air is turned on from a furnance.

Engineering says that a Scotch firm has recently iutroduced a circular saw set with diamonds, and cutting hard sandstone blocks at the rate of five inches per minute. Each diamond is fixed in a small steel block or die, which is afterwards fitted into a dovetailed recess in the periphery of the saw. The blocks to be cut are merely laid on a travelling table, and are not clamped down in any way. The rate of cat can be varied to suit the kind of stone. A saw at work at Portland, England, is 7ft 4in in diameter, and cuts a stone 3ft thick.

There are few settlers of New Zealand (says the Lyttelton Times) who are able to poiut in their homes to oaken doors and panels that they themselves have had the pleasure of planting, and have seen grow up from the tiny acorn to the sturdy oak tree fit to yield timber, but this can be done by Mrs Deans, of Riccarton. An addition is beitig made to Riccarton House, and the doors and panelling of the new hall are of oak grown at Riccarton from acorns shed by the trees planted by Mr William Deans when he came out, and gathered by Mrs Deans and planted by her. Physically, the Boers are the equals, if not the superiors, of their oldtime enemies, the Zulus. It would be difficult to find anywhere an entire race of such physical giants as the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The roving existence, the life m the open air, and the freedom from disturbing cares have combined to make of the Boers a race that is al.noat physically perfect. If an average height of all the full-grown males in the two Republics were to be taken, it would be found that it was not less than 6ft. 2in., and probably still more.

A married couple (says the Press) had been living happily together for thirty-six years uutil about eighteen months ago, when the harmony was destroyed, and quarrels and bickerings became frequent. The wife had been in the habit of pouring boiliug water over her husband, and throwing jugs and other utensils at him. The husband, in self-defcuce, admitted to the Magistrate yesterday that he had frequently " smacked " his wife. The wife applied for a summary separation order, but his vVorship declined to grant it, telling the parties that the blame was six to one and half a dozen to the other, and that as they had lived together for thirtysix years they ought to be able to do so a little longer.

A collection of Indian weapons and relics from the war in South Africa were sold in London on August 21st. A complete set of Mafeking siege stamps, including the rare Bechuanaland sixpenny stamp, realised £39 18s, and 16 Mafeking siege stamps £27 16s. Eighteen small blue " Badeu-Powell" stamps realised £ls 15s, and a bet of Mafeking siege money, consisting of money between a shilling and a pound, brought £6O. Some of the other prices were : Six envelopes with 14 stamps (various), £l3 2s Bel ; 11 Kruger coiuß, £4 ; the Mafeking Mail, printed on various coloured papers, two volumes, £9 19s 6d ; the " Mafeking Ape," which rang the alarm bell when the Boers began to fire their cannon at the town, £42 ; and four Free State and Mafeking stamps, £7 7s.

The result of recent developments in the new Ontario goldfields is something phenomenal (says the Winuepog Tree Press) and, as soon as the inevitable Europeon capital commences to flow iu this direction for their development, cannot fail to have an important effect on the world's gold supply. A prominent South African, who has lately reported upon them for tlie Central Canada Chamber of Mines, has stated without reservation that,they are destined to become the most productive iu the world, covering such an immense territory, some 350 by 1.10 miles in area, and he was specially struck by the pluoomenn! size of the bodies of high grade ore. In comparing them with the enormously productive African mines, from Odol. ores extracted from 10ft reef bodies, by shafts averaging 30U0ft in depth, the advantage in greatly iu favour of Canadian ore?, which are of infinitely higher grade, and will undoubtedly lead to surprising results iu the near future.