ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16152, 29 November 1924, Page 11 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

FROM TOE WORLD’S PRESS

Turtles often Rve from £SO to years.

Prime white ostrich feathers worth from £3O to £7O a pound.

A Manitoba (Canada) man, M OMj Ytvier, has just died at 113. A coat made from rabbit skin, and valued at £l2O, was reoently shown in Manchester.

Kent farmers are complaining of not being able to get labour to gather in the harvest.

At the height of one mile the average velocity of the wind is four time* as great as at the surface. Depositors in the Yorkshire Penny Bank, had £20,165,012 to their credit at the end of June.

Advertisements dispiayed in British post-offices brought in a revenue of £427 a week during'the last financial year. ■

Tiny animals, suoh as lizards and marmosets, are popular as pets In England, their owners carrying them about in their handbags. A wonderful rope of perfectly matched pearls, valued at £250,000, was recently offered for sale in a West End shop in London. The fishermen of St. Ives, Cornwall, play marbles in their spare time with- as much zest as the average schoolboy. . :

Grapes contain from 12 to 26 per cent, of sugar—more, that is, than any other fruit.

The first temperance society In England was 4 formed at Bradford in February, 1830. A diamond of exceptional value has been found in a fowl by a French farmer near St. Etienne. Glow-worms are much more brilliant just before an approaching storm than they are at any other time. It is claimed that of the 100.009 cripples in Britain to-day, 00,000 could have been strong and whole if treated in iime.

Cinohena trees, from which quinine obtained, h<ve been responsible lor the saving of millions of lives in the East.

-.lie sun gives us 36 million times as much iight as all the stars put together. It is 600,000 times brighter than the full moon. . .. „

Oven a million people have visited the Queen’s Doll’s House at Wembley, and over £25,000 has been thus raised for charities.

School playgrounds to the number of 80 were kept open in London during the summer holidays,, to keep children off the streets. Half a million people enter La»don evety morning from north of tub Thames, and 300,000 from the south of the Thames.

With the help' of a Government grant it, is hoped to raise £IOO,OOO to establish light aeroplane clubs ’ to bring flying within the reach of all. The knowledge of a doctor of 300 years ago, compared With to-day. says a professor, is like the knowledge A savage would have of a motor-car. Specimens of sago, rice, rubber, tea, and many other household commodities in growth can be seen in tha green-houses of Kew Gardens, London.

Grouping continents Into Grreo “north-south’ ’strips is an educative innovation which the inventor holds would help the study of both geography and history. Experiments are being made with aluminium wheels for ’buses in London. Some have already done 30,008 miles of service.

Glass windows in England, except in churches and in the houses of wealthy people, were rare before the reign of Henry Vil.

In Birmingham (Eng.) Public Libraries nearly three million books were lent last year, the highest number ia the history of the libraries.

Lord Harris, who is seventy-four years of age, played in a recent cricket match, in which he scored 18, including two fours, and broke his bat.

“All men ana women over • forty years of age should visit their doctors at, least once every six months for examination,” says a well-known doctor.

A means of weldins small diamond* together into one big stone is said to have been discovered. The joints cannot be detected with the naked eye.

The L. M. S. Railway (Eng) has pointed out to its workers that if every station and depot used one foolscap sheet less a day £SOO a year would bo saved.

In the sandy deserts of Arabia, whirling winds sometimes excavate pits ‘2ooft in depth, extending down to the harder stratum on which the sreai bed' of sand rests.

In England babies are now being dressed from birth in hand-knitted woollen garments. At one year old, girls and boys wear the same “woollies”—vest, knickers, and a jersey.

When a camel is pressed beyond its speed, and is spent, it kneels down, and nothing in the world will make it budge again. The camel remains where it kneels, and where it kneel* it dies.

Old London Bridge took the record time of thirty years to build. It was in i-on in i 1 ;o. and not completed till 1209. The present bridge was begun in 1824, and finished in 1831. It cost £500,000. An international society of women doctors has been formed in Geneva. There will be an annual conference, the first to take place in London next summer.

Babies in perambulators are now “parked” outside many big American stores. An attendant gives the mother a numbered check and takes care of the infant.

Crops are being harvested somewhere in the world during every month in the year. South Africa and Peru harvest in November, and Bengal and Burmah in December.

Gold was probably the first metal to be used by man. Metallic gold was found in the beds of streams. It was used for ornaments before any other metal was discovered. The first metal put to practical use was copper, made into knives and other implements, at least 6000 years ago.

In Belgium cook-crowing competitions are very popular among tha working classes. The cooks arc arranged in cases, and markers note the number of crows. In a competition held at Poulser a cock gave voice 134 times la aa hourt