New, Odd and Interesting.

Waipa Post, Volume VIII, Issue 354, 2 October 1914, Page 1

New, Odd and Interesting.

Japan has a written history extending over 2,500 years.

A ton of oil has been obtained from the tongue of a'single whale.

One pound of sheep’s wool is capable of producing one yard of cloth.

The best marksmen are usually those with gray or blue eyes.

The annual value of the world’s poultry is stated to be £250,000,000.

Monkeys are the exclusive food of the harpy eagles of Brazil.

South American ants have been known to construct a tunnel three miles in length.

Nearly all savages have sound teeth. Imperfect teeth are a sign of civilisation.

The population of Ireland in 1841 was 251 to the square mile; now it is 144 only.

The dolphin is the swiftest fish'. For short distances it can swim at the rate of 25 miles an hour.

Of the 51,000 breweries estimated to bo in the world, 26,000 ara in Germany.

It is said that a hair from the tail of the horse is the strongest single animal thread known.

Whistling, according to some physicians, will do much towards the development of a robust physical frame.

Grass is the natural food of the horse. On no other food will he keep so healthy, become so strong, or live so long.

Russia’s population is increasing at the rate of 2,500,000 a year. It now stands at about 147,000,000, ,of which 100,000,000 arc peasants.

The cost of fuel on steam railways is about 10 per cent, of the operating expenses; on electric roads it is about 5 per cent.

All the employees of the literary paper in Paris, called “La Fronde,” editors, compositors, press-workers, etc., are .females.

It is estimated that greater quantities of gold and silver have been sunk in the sea than are now in circulation in the whole world.

The head of a man or woman in normal health contains about 80,000 hairs. Each hair grows at the rate of .1095 inch a day, and lasts from two to six years. Many Greenland women are bald on the sides of their heads, owing to their method of dressing the hair, which is pulled back tightly and held in place by a ribbon. A novel method of encouraging children ir. their studies is practised in the schools of Mexico. Those who show profh'icncy a;.' permitted to >.inoKc cigarettes v.hih* panning choir studies. The death-rate of th 1 world is abaci 67 a minute, and a lie birth-rate 70 a minute. Thin apparently slight difference causes-a yearly increase in M:o population of over 1.500,000 souls. Tlio foot should bo as long as the ulna, or chief hone of the forearm—that is, from the small head of the hone to he seen at the wrist to the point of the elbow should be the length of the foot. In Formosa there is a tree between 2,500 and 3,000 years old, with a circumference of 65 feet, and the lowest branches 45 feet from the ground. The tree is a species of cypress, the Japanese "Beniki.”