GENERAL INFORMATION.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 324, 15 January 1907, Page 6

GENERAL INFORMATION.

A ton of coal produces nearly; 10,000 cubic foot of gas. The longest-lived trees'in Northern Europe are the pines of Norway and Sweden, but 070 years is their greatest period. Germany’s oldest oaks live only a little more than 300 years. » There were IST more casualties ar mong railway passengers on British railways in 1903 than in 1902 J, ’but 6,613,731 more people travelled. Generally speaking animals require much less sleep than human beings. The most hard-worked member of the four-legged creation, the horse,, is invigorated and ready for work after only four hours of repose, -- In Turkey there arc two prfeliminary conditions stringently requiircd in the case of marriage ; both parties must be able to walk property, and both must be able to understaaid the necessary religious service. The Koh-i-Noor diamond belongs to the Crown. It is impossible to say what it would fetch if it found its Way into the market, but some idea of its value may be gathered from the fact that the cutting and polish-* ing of it. alone cost £8,000.; The oldest chemist s shop in England is said to be at Kuai'esborough, a quaint old \orkshir(_; town. The earliest date to which it can be traced back is 1720, but how much older than that it may. be cannot be ascertained. In China, if a man is sentenced to a flogging oi, say, 500 .strokes, he can often hire a man to take his at a lixed fee per stroke, though even the Chinese', with all their stoicism, are not particularly keen on this form of employment.

There is a church at Borgund. in Norway, which is believed to -be the oldest wooden building in the world. It dates irom the eleventh century, and has been protected from the weather and other destructive elements by frequent coatings of pitch. Abergeldie is in some ways the most ronmtic of Royal residences on „ Oeeside. The estate is, held by the King on a long lease from Mr.' H. M. Gordon, who is the fortunate owner of this Castle, said to be the most pei-fect example of* the old Scottish naronial style in the Highlands. 'Vbergeldie was at one time the Scottish home of the Duchess of Kent ; inter it was often lent by the late liueen to the Empress Eugenie. The rooms have been left by Queen Alexandra as they have always been, and ■mvc many interesting portraits of the Gordon family in the principal living-rooms. Birkhall, which the Duke and Duchess of Connaught sometimes visit, was the first Scotch ionic of the present Sovereign and nis Consort. It is a quaint old mansion in Glen Muick. The severest punishment meted out to a. British General for failure in war was that inflicted on Major-Gen-eral Whitelock, in 1808. By utter iack of cajfacity and even cowardice, .ie failed to reoccupy Buonos Ayres, the capital of what is now the A.rgentinc Republic, and so lost to Great Britain what would, under British rule, have certainly been the Canada of the South. He was retailed, court-martialled, and degrad}d. The judgement of (he court declared him to be “totally unfit and airworthy to serve his Majesty in any japacity whatever.'' 1499.