NEWS AND NOTES.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 25 November 1901, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

British ironclads cost £4B a ton to build, French £55, and German £CO.

Groat Britain’s wealth increases about £400,000 every clay—that is, 3d a head a day. Italy holds the European record of 505 men per 1,000 inhabitants. In England, 515 of every 1000 people are women. According to the Japan Advertiser a band of Mormon missionaries in Yokohama have concluded that Japan offers an unfruitful field for enterprise, and have abandoned their plans. Of foreign settlers m the United States, 20 per cent arc Irish, 12 per cent English, 3 per cent Scotch. Gormans are 31 per cent, and Canadians no less than 11 per cent. Owing to the dearth ot coal in Germany the utilisation of peat for fuel purposes is attracting some attention in commercial circles. A company is working an invention by which peat is reduced to coke, suitable, it is claimed, for use in furnaces. A London cablegram in an Australian paper, dated November 7, states that Frank Slavin, the Australian pugilist, who is now at Klondyke, is reported to have fought Peter Kenney, and to have won on a foul after three rounds, which were all to the advantage of the Australian. A New York paper calls attention to a new food for sheep. It seems that on the State of Maine, and in the small islands which dot the coast-line, the sheep are fed largely upon fish, and are declared to do fairly well on this unnatural diet. The animals, however, got plenty of grass in summer and seaweed in winter. Do yen think the world is growing better, George ? Do I understand that you want me to decide whether I am a hatter man than my father, or not ? How funny ! Oh, I dont know. Are you a better woman than yonr mother ? Why, of course not. How absurd I 'I hen how do you expect the world to grow better when you fail to help it along ? George, you are very rude. Fabulous prices are obtained for land in the City of London. That a freehold on Cornhili should hare sold for a little over £53 3s per square foot is surprising, but not so much so as the sale of the Sr. Pcter-upon Cornhili land which, a few months ago brought over£6o a foot. Land within a furlong radius of the Bank of England is worth 7s an inch. Five hundred feet of land in Cheapside, was sold recently for £12,000 or £26 a square foot. Mr Webley, senr., (of Webley and Sons, Christchurch), pianoforte tuner, etc., is now in Greymouth, and will take the earliest opportunity of calling upon clients. Agents for the sale of Brinsmcad and Sons, Lipp and Haake pianos; also Mason and Hamlin organs. Address— Gdmer Hotel.—Anvr. To those who arc about to furnish—We have just landed an exceptionally fine lot of floorcloths, linoleums and carpets from 18 inches to 4 yards wide. The patterns of those have been specially selected, and being imported direct from the manufacturer we can guarantee the prices to be absolutely the lowest.—W. McKay and Son.— Advt.

In Sumatra the wind decides the length of time a widow should remaid single. Just after her husband’s death she plants a flagstaff at her door, upon which a flag is raised. While the flag remains untorn by the wind the etiquette of Sumatra