ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16815, 5 June 1926, Page 13 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

FROM THE WORLD’S PRESS.

There are 2000 silver mines in Spain.

The pneumatic tube idea originated in IGG7.

Japanese women are almost wholly vegetarians. (

Fly Cathedral has the only Gothio dome in existence.

The first census in England was taken on March 10, 1801. Two thousand varieties of apples are raised in the United States. The Royal crown of England is the most magnificent in the world. In proportion to its size, a lly walks 35 times as fast as a human being. There are 300 livings in the Church of England worth over £IOOO a year each.

One of the peculiarities of the coconut palm is that it never stands upright.

The oldest watches bearing an inscribed date are of Swiss make, and the date is 1484.

It is supposed that the average depth of sand in the deserts of Africa is from 30ft to 40ft.

An acre of good fishing-ground will yield more food in a week than an acre of land in a twelve-month.

The biggest British salmon come from the Tay. One has been caught weighing 701 b., and sft ain long. The rose was introduced into Europe from Damascus by the Crusaders. It first appeared in England in the year 130 G.

In 1790 a postchaise for four persons, from London to Illyhead, cost £75, and took four days to do the journey.

Indiarubber used for erasing pencil marks was known in England as early as 1770. A cube of it half an inch square cost a shilling.

In some parts of New Zealand orange growing is a very profitable industry. Sometimes the crop from an acre of, trees amounts in value to £2OO.

Horseshoes are not known to date back further than the sixth century. They are found in the tombs of that age throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The tarantula, the immense and hideous spider of Natal, is a miner, burrowing deep into the sandy soil. Unlike the English spider, this huge insect is easily tamed. The first envelope-making machine was invented by Edwin Hill, brother of Rowland Hill; and Dc La Rue’s machine for folding envelopes was patented on March 17, 1846. Cloche hats, now so popular as to be almost universal, are made much too tight, according to a statement recently made by Sir Robert ArmstrongJoncs, the famous physician. Some very ancient books are to bo found in the sacred relics of Ceylon. They arc formed of palm leaves, written upon with a metal pen, and ara bound merely by a silken string. Mosaic floors, laid with small pieces of different coloured stones set in regular patterns were known to the Egyptians 2000 B.C. In Babylon floors of "this kind dated from 1100 B.C.

According to an expert on Vesuvius, no danger need be expected from the volcano, as, in spite of its recent eruption of lava, there is room for twenty million cubic metres inside the crater.

As long ago as 1544, an engine of the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway ran a mile in 44sccs., and in 18-iS a Great Western train travelled the fiftythree miles to Didcot in 47 minutes. An organist says that a cow moos in a perfect fifth octave or tenth, a dog barks in a fifth or fourth; a donkey brays in a perfect octave; and a horse neighs in a descent on the chromatic scale.

Grog, the sea term for rum and water, got Us name from Admiral Edward Vernon, who introduced the mixture in the Navy. He was nicknamed “Old Grog,” because he wore gingham breeches.

A French naturalist has made the startling discovery that, if a sparrow is put in Hie same cage with finches, it will soon learn to imitate their song, like a mocking-bird; also the chirping of a cricket.

The baya-bird of India spends his spare time catching mammoth fireflies, which he fastens to the sides of his nest with moist clay. On a dark night a baya’s nest is said to look like aa electric street lamp.

The ant is provided by nature with iis own brushes and combs. lour of ils legs are filled with hairs which can ho used as “clothes” brushes, and its forelegs are fitted with a fine and coarse toothed comb.

According to a speaker at tile Dullstable Fanners’ Union meeting, a lag brewery firm in London recently ordered a thousand sets of harness with the intention of replacing its motor fleet by horse traction.

The Natural History Museum at South Kensington lias issued ten more new sets of picture cards, bringing Hie total number of picture postcards to 210. There arc no better picture cards than these in llie world. Tlie longest time during which a note has remained outside the Bank of England is 111 years. It was for £25, and it is computed that the compound interest during that long period amounted to no less than £OOOO.

Oyster cultivation is a very important industry in many parts of the Continent. At Arcachon, on the French coast, there is a huge saltwater lake, open lo the sea at high tide, and tiiis has become the centre for rearing and fattening the oysters. Built in Thorne, in Yorkshire, anil intended for use on the Mersey, a petrol barge recently had to travel SOD miles, through the North- Sea, Caledonian Canal, arid Irish Sea; she was sixteen feet too long to cut across England'by the canals.

Clergymen installed in certain benefices arc still compelled, by a charge levied by Henry VUI., to pay the whole of their first year’s, salary and onetenth every year after to a fund. This charge amounted to £15,000 last year.

As an example of the enormous amount of practice required to make a first-class billiard player : may be mentioned the fact that for four years Pcall devoted six hours a day to the cultivation of the “spot-stroke" alone..