All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 10 December 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

Coroners' juries found that 46 persons- died from starvation in London during 1907. The three great blessings looked for by the average Chinaman are — male children, official promotion, and a long life. Some time ago the stationmaster at a small country village received a cheese addressed to a Mr. Blank, and labelled ' to be called for.' A fortnight passed, but no one came to take it away, so the following note was despatched to the senders : 'If the cheese which was sent here, addressed to Mr. Blank, is not claimed in two days, it will be killed.' German capitalists have established a glass factory at Poshan, China, a town on tie Tsingtau-Chinan-fu Railway ; a sugar refinery at Tsingtau, of which the daily output will be two hundred tons, requiring eighty thousand tons of raw material annually ; and a soap factory. Lady (to husband) : 'My dear, did you think to order a ton of coal to-day?' Husband : ' Yes.' Lady: 'And my hat?' Husband : ' Yes (peering through the window). There is a truck backing up to the door now, but it's too dark to see whether it's the hat or the coal. The one public observatory in the world is situated in the little Swiss town of Zurich. It is open to the public every evening, and during the last six months ended June was visited by no fewer than 25,000 persons. It is in every respect an up-to-date observatory, possessing a fine instrument, which was built by the world-famous optician, Carl Zeiss, of Jena. This telescope, which is mounted in an entirely new and ingenious way, is 17ft 6in long, and weighs 14 tons. Its object glass is 12in in diameter. An interesting device attached to the instrument is the projecting screen, upon which objects in the heavens are thrown. One of Dean Swift's friends sent him a fish by a lad. The boy burst into the room, exclaiming very unpolitely: 'My master sends you a fish.' 'That is not the way a gentleman should enter,' reproved the Dean. ' You sit here in my chair while I show you how to mend your manners.' When the boy was seated the Dean went out. Then the Dean knocked at the door, bowed low and said: ' Sir, my master sends his kind compliments, and hopes you are well, and begs you to accept a small present. ' * Indeed,' replied the bo;y, 'return him my best thanks, and there is a shilling for yourself.' The Dean, caught; in own trap, laughed heartily, and gave the boy a half-crown for his ready wit.

There is a great contrast between the manner in which the Government of England and that of the United States treat the old soldiers. Although there are fewer persous in the United States drawing pensions to-day than at any time during the past fifteen years,, still the number, which is equal to the whole European population of New Zealand is still very large. The last pension bill introduced into Congress appropriated an annual distribution of £24,000,000 —a sum about equal to the cost of the whole 'of 'the railways of New Zealand. The United States pensioner is evidently a long-lived individual, for forty years after the Civil War there are 951,867 of them on the pension, roll. The high-water mark in pensions was reached in 1904, when for a brief period there were more than 1,000,000 persons on the roll. The Civil War cost £1,200,000,000. Up to the present time half as much again has been 'paid out for pensions, and it is predicted that, before' all tie heroes of that war have died but the first cost' of the warwill have been equalled. At present the pensions 'cost the Government of the United States 'just one-fourth of all its expenses. Compared with the £24,000,000 spent annually by the United States, France spends £5 200 000 ' Germany £4,200,000, Austria £2,000,000, and' Great Britain £1,800,000. In other words, the United States spends' more than two and a half times that of these four great European powers together.