ALL Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 17 December 1908, Page 38

A LL Sorts

A peer cannot resign his peerage. About one-third of the houses in Great Britain are lighted by gas. Extreme heat is more fatal to human life than extreme cold. The occupants of a balloon a mile high command a radius of ninety-six miles. Fully one-third of the land in Great Britain is owned by members of the House of Lords. There £s said to be no record of the existence of the camel in a wild state. The rairesia of Sumatra is the largest flower in the world. It has five petals, each one a foot wide. Only 6 per cent, of amputation cases result fatally at present, owing to the improvement in antiseptic surgery. Some of the screws made for the use of watchmakers are so tiny that 100,000 could be placed in an ordinary thimble. Among elephants both sexes of the African species have ivory tusks, while in Asia these are generally restricted to the male. The two deepest water wells in the world are those at Buda-Pesth and at ...t. Louis, U.S.A. The former is 3180 feet, the latter 3840 feet deep. In Italy there are cultivated every year 1,200,0000z of silkworm eggs, and there are produced 110,000,0001 bof cocoons. Lombardy produces fully half of this total. It has been comptited that there are eight liundred millions in gold and jewels at the bottom of the sea on the route between England and India. A Dunedin man whose bicycle was stolen from a stand in a right-of-way now politely asks the stealef to send for the pump and lamp, as he has no further use for them. During the last year Canada drew upon the United States for 58,312 immigrants. Over 120,000 came from the Mother Country, and 84,000 from the Continent of Europe. In some of the Austrian schools elocution is taught to a certain oxtent by the use of the phonograph, through which the pupils aro made familiar with the famous speeches of history. During a lecture at one of the leading colleges on the subject of ' Ventilation and Architecture,' the temperature of the room rose to a very high pitch. ' And now we will turn to Greece,' said the lecturer. ' So we will,' said one of the audience, wiping his brow, ' unless you open some of the windows.' Rome a city of the Italian Kingdom (says the Daily Chronicle) was one thing, and Rome the capital of that kingdom was another matter. It implied the gradual loss of everything for which the educated world held Home in unique honor. Unfortunately the modernising process is done in the last and lowest taste of architectural vxilgarity. Rome is becoming not only a parody, but a very dreary and silly parody of Paris. A nervous man took the chair, or rather was forced into it, at a political meeting in the North Island the other day. When the candidate for parliamentary honors had straggled manfully through a speech, which lasted nearly two hours, the chairman stood up and asked someone to propose ' a vote of thanks for the instructive speech to which we have so ably listened.' An able listener is not to be despised, but a patient one would be more at home on such an occasion. The customs of old times are brought to mind when one visits Breadsall Parish Church, near Derby (says the London Standard). In this church is a set of chained books which are kept in an old oak desk at the eastern end of the north aisle. The desk is a double one, with hinged lids which can be locked. One recess contains Burnett's ' History of the Reformation,' published in 1679 and 1681, and the ' "Works of Josephus,' printed in 1702. On the otlier side of the desk are ' Works of John Jewell, Bishop of oalisbury,' 1605; 'Discourses of Some London Divines,' 1694 ; ' History of the Early Martyrs,' 1687, by William Cave, D.D.; 'History of the [Fathers to the Fourth Century,' 1683, by Dr. Cave, and ' History of the Apostles,' 1684, by Dr. Cave. Each book is attached to the desk by a light chain two feet long so as to prevent any unauthorised persou from removing it,