All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 52, 26 December 1907, Page 38

All Sorts

ToJcio, the capital and largest city of Japan, has a population of . nearly 2,000,000. Osaka is the "next largest city, with a population of about 1,000,000. The only country where a daily musical paper is published is America. The hair of the head grows faster in summer than in winter. _ A fine ostrich is calculated to yield £500 worth of feathers in its lifetime. It is estimated that 49 per cent, of the days in London are wet". - There are seven hundred^and twenty^Tive ancient ~ castles on the banks, cf the Rhine. " . The roar of a waterfall is produced almost en-tirely-by the bursting cf millions of air bubbles. ' In order that a rainbow may be . produced, the sun must not be irore than forty-two degrees above -the horizon. Japjanese florists have succeeded in cultivatingi a rose which looks red m the sunlight and white in theshade. • The strength of the Japanese army, on a war footing, is estimated at 40,000 officers and. 1,125,300 noncommissioned officers and men. Japan did not -ha,ve a single battleship in 1895, while now she has a score of battleships of the first class. - 1 You're rather a young man to be left in charge of a chemist's shop,' said the fussy old gentleman. ' Have you any diploma ? ' • Why— cr — no, sir,' replied the assistant, ' hut we have a preparation of our own that's just as good.' ' Visitor—' To what do you attribute your great age ? ' Oldest Inhabitant — ' I ain't sure yet, sir. There be several o' them patent medicine companies as is bargainin' with me.' Bakers in France are subject to almost mediaeval restrictions. In fortified towns they m»st have a certain stock on hand in case of war. Not only this, but everywhere they have to deposit a sum of money in _ the hands of^ the municipal authorities as a surety of good conduct^ and the law, not content with merely -* looking after their weights and measures^ actually de-\ cides the price at which bread is sold. - ' Much indignation has been caused in Dublin by the extraordinary statement in the 'Belfast Northern Whiglthat the world-famous Giants' Causeway, or a portion of it, is about to be removed to America. The basaltic columns, packed in cases, are, it is' alleged, to be forwarded to the Mersey, and a low through rate is jbq be arranged between the Ulster capital and Phila-' delphiia — something like -15s or 16s a ton. The earliest English newspapers "were not- printed f -but simply written. For the benefit of those who wished to -consult them they were" exhibited in a.public place, each reader being called upon to pay a small coin.- The earliest EnglisTi newspaper was the 'Weekly New.s,' "first published, in 1622. In the seventeenth century several newspapers -were established, and in the eighteenth century we had the famous ' Spectator ' and allied' publications of the sort. The first daily appeared in' 17>92. It is also .inte-restintg. to note thatthe first serial story was ' Robinson Crusoe,'" * which . began to run in the London ' Post 'on October 7, 1719, and concluded ; on Octojbjer 19, 1720. One of the chief industries of«- Switzerland is the care -of pleasure seekers. There are 127.-1' hotels ex-clusiv&y.-devoted to strangers, with 92,33& beds Twenty of these hotels have more than 300 bed's ; 380 have between 50 and 100 ; 540 frcm 20 t0. 50. .Lucerne has .4675 beds, Interlachen 4149, Geneva, 3439, Davos 2816, Rigi 2034, .Zermatt 1253, etc.. Counting the snrialler pensions and more modest hotels, there are 1896 places for strangers in addition to the 1271 larger hotels, with 104,876 beds. The capital invested, is over £20,000;000. The hotels employ 27,000 persons. In 1899, the year of the latest report', there were 2,559,000' arrivals registered at these, hotels, which corresponded to between 300,000 and 400,000 tourists. It is estimated that '34' per cent, were German, 20 per cent. Swiss, 17 per cent: English, 11 per "cent. French, and 18 pep cent, of various other nations.