ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16125, 25 October 1924, Page 13 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS The Thames tunnel cost £630,009. . About 1,500,000 persons are employed in the coalmines of the world. An old Chinese bottle, 13J inches high, was recently sold for £4305. Honey is a good substitute for codliver oil. Sugar is found in Gre~s"ap of nearly 200 plants and trees. Only one pair of eyes in every 15 jfl perfect, says a well-known oculist. Wooden sleepers on railways last about 15 years. Londoners use on an average 34 gallons of water per head per day. Developing the British telephone system will cost £17,000,000 during the next two years.

A crop of potatoes on an acre of ordinary soil can be made to produce 30 gallons of alcohol. Prismatic Lake, in the Yellowstone Park, U.S.A., is the largest body of hot water in the world. A caterpillar in the course Of a month will devour 600 times its own weight in food. Seventeen cyclists riding "push" cycles were killed during April in the streets of London.

It is only necessary to boil a cork for five minutes to make it fit any bottle. , v

Fear of death shortens the average span of life, according to a French scientist.

A.passenger locomotive needs about 120 gallons of oil each year to keep it in running order. One farm in Surrey makes a specialty of growing wood suitable for turning into walking-sticks.

The Avebury Stone. Circle Is the largest in Britain, being 1400 feet across, and was originally formed of 100 stones.

Wallasea Island, within a two-hour journey of London, has a population of about 100, and no school or church. |

A cafe to . seat 800 was recently built and opened ready for business at the British Empire Exhibition in 22 days.

Modern burglary alarms are so

Bananas that had gone bad, prunes, charging lower, premiums where they are fitted., ...,.-..

Bananas that had gone bad, prunes, and cigar ends are said to have been found when the- American police raided an illicit still. Truant schools and reformatories are -being -closed down all over Eneland,- as there are not sufficient "incorrigibles" to make them necessary.

Street collections in London during 1923 numbered 351. In six cases only £SOOO or more was collected, while 5:26 yielded less than £IOO. Pink-hued stone for paving the promenade is being tried at one seaside resort. It is believed that it will lessen the glare on sunny days. Aeroplanes are being used for transporting racing pigeons. Hundreds of birds were recently taken from Belgium to London by air. • The central half of London's Law Courts has recently been cleaned and re-decorated, for the first time since it was opened, 42 years ago. Dancers to the number of 10,000 can be accommodated on the new dance floor at "Wembley —this ie the largest in England, if not in theworid. Clolh made from wool of Wensledale (English) sh6ep can, after weaving, be induced to acquire the natural wave characteristic of those sheep.

Willow-growing for making cricket bats is a profitable occupation for tho'ie who arc prepared to wait the 16 years the willows take to mature.

Volunteer workers from among the Baptist congregation have just built a new church hall at Biggin Hill, Kent. The new work has taken six years to complete.

The great clock at Rouen has been measuring the time and striking the hours and quarters for over 500 years, running all this time without interruption.

One of London's worst "black spots" from the slum point of view is Ware Street, Hoxton, where nearly 2700 persons will have to be housed before the slum clearance can be made.

The hair and beard of a man rarely grow grey together, the one being almost invariably darker than the other for several years. There is no rule as to which changes first. The normal weight of an elephant when full grown is 70001 b. The smallest seen in modern times was I.ili, a Sumatran elephant, which was only 3 feet high, and weighed 1721 b.

Glasshouses and forcing frames covering three acres are hidden away in the centre of Hyde Park, where all the bedding plants arc grown for the ilowcr beds in London's central parks.

Swallows fly high during fine weather and low before a storm, because the insects upon which they feed fir high in calm weather, but just over the earth and water if the weather be rough.

The first gold in Klondyke was found in 1886, by a man named Franklin. Since then Alaska has given the world nearly 6J million pounds' worth of gold. « Three golden rules of life of a centenarian who recently died aged 107; were: Never to enter a ballroom, never to talk scandal, and never to enter a bar. When a man walks a mile he takes on an average 2263 steps, but when he rides a bicycle with an average gear he covers a mile with an equivalent of only 627 steps. Many of the stones forming the rockwork surrounding the Great Lake at the British Empire Exhibition are portions of Old London Bridge, discovered during recent excavations

After 30 years' service as steward of Erighton Beaoh (Eng.) Swimming Club Mr James Hatton has retired. He bathed every day, summer and winter, for iO years, until quite recently.

Dogs live on an average from 10 to 12 years, cats !) to 10, rabbits about seven years, and squirrels aud hares eight years. Foxes average from it to 10 years.