NEWS BY MAIL.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1054, 23 November 1903, Page 3

NEWS BY MAIL.

This season La Camaigo, a French horse, won £10,280 in. slakel, and to date her total winnings are over £54,000, There are only 2000 Catholics in Sweden, A woman’s ibrain declines in weight after the age of 30. lq IUO2, the lT«rlin hanks paid an average dividend of / per cent* At Athens, a bride nine years old

has been married to a man of 25, Tito oldest of the Great P.ublio Schools is Winchester, founded in 1773. Oakum-p eking has been abolished in Camberwell (England) workhorses 'by the guardians. Rabies has been absent from Ireland for two years, but recently, a case appeared in Sligo-.

Indian and Ceylon tea increased in quantity from 152 million lb in 1800 to 300 .milli'ojnj lb iiv I‘jOO. In setting and distributing type, a compositor s hand travelt on an average 11 miles a day. Recent returns show that 1 out of ,18 million inhabitants of Spain nearly 12 million cannot read. In proportion to its population, New Zealand is the richest country in public libraries. It has 208, About half a million pairs of. boots are stored every year at tho Army Clothing Factory in England,, A you’-ng Englishman swam across Lake Neucliatel, a distance of four miles and a-ba.ll, in 2h. 50min. The Berlin police are about to ho provided with bloodhounds, to he used in the tracking of murderers.

.The average ago of batehelors who marry spinsters is 26 ; of widowers who marry, widows, just under 50.

Owing to tho rising price of whalebone, German corset-makers are to increase the price of their goods. Frau Herman, the wife of a professor, lias taken the degree of Doctot of Philology, in the Berlin University.,

During tho month of July, forlyseven wrecks were reported to the British Board of Trade, involving a Joss of 41 lived.

If you savo the ash o£ all th» cigars you .smoke, you will have consumed 1600 before you have a pound of ash.

During excavations' at Rickmaosworth, Herts, a metal bowl and a spoon, supposed to he of the time of Charles 1., wero found.

The feathers of the mirasol, an Argentine bird, are worth £220 per lb. live times the price of the most perfect ostrich plumes.. ■The sun’s light is equal to 5563 wax candles at Ift. from the eve, It would take 800,000 full moons rto equal cloudless sunshine.

The biggest match factory iu the world is the Vulcan at Tidaholcn, Sweden. It employs 1200 men, and makes 900,000 boxes a. day., Hungarian peasants have a superstit on that fire kindled by, lightning can only he extinguished by, milk, and owing to their refusal to ■ use water a barn with a farmer’s whole hay crop has been burnt in one of the provinces.

Tickets available for 'travelling anywhere on the system during five days are now being sold by all the Belgian State railways.. A Gesman innkeeper lias undertaken, as the result of a wager, to roll a barrel full of wine across Switzerland and Italy to Rome. Through' refusing to see a doctor when he had injured himself by falling on a post, a member of the i‘Pcculiar People ” died in London. In some Swiss schools, summer classes for children are being held for the purpose of giving object-les-sons and interesting nature lessons. Sheriff Blair, of Dumbartonshire, Scotland; refused to allow a witness to give evidence who came to Court with unwashed hands and face.

Japan has 255 people to the square mile ; China (usually considered the most densely-populated country in the East) has only 236. While mending his children’s shoes, an Amsterdam man accidentally cut his wrist, and bled to death before medical aid could he obtained.

Several church synods n Slaxony, are about to ask the Kaiser to abolish the christening &£ ships and lorts as a profanation of the ceremony. M. Sontag, a baker # of Oudres T France, has iust won £4OOO with a lottery ticket. The ticket cost a franc, and lour persons subscribed to buy it. Although Britain’s home-grown wheat would only make bread lor her people for ten weeks, yet she grows potatoes to last her lor over ten months.

The birthplace of Dickens at Portsmouth will shortly, he sold by. auction. The Dickens Fellowship is strongly opposed to the house being exploited by a private speculator, and will assist the Corporation of Portsmouth in acquiring and managing it.

Jules a Belgian,- whose beard measures lift lOin, lias just died in Outryve, in Western Flanders At one time he figured Jjt, Rarnum’s show, and was exhibited in the Paris Exhibition of 1900.

Philip Bozell and Barbara Qualtiere, of Atlantic .City,- U.S.A.,- made inquiries from a justice of the peace as to how to procure a marriage license.- The justice, mistaking .the inquiry lor a request to marry, the couple, immediately did so. ,The bride was very angry, at first. An interesting discussion is going on in one of the Belgian papers as to whether widowerhood or widowhood tends to suicide. The latter condition appears to be more conducive to self-destruction.

Statistics just issued by the Imperial Health Office at Berlin show that the total amount spent on alco r holic liquors in the German Empire in 14’02 was £125,000,000, averaging £7 per head of persons over 15; At a public school examination in Sydney the oilier day, the inspector asked tile pupils to givcf the sum of “ seven shillings ” as many names as they could. Some answered 84 pence, others said 7-20th of £l, while the clever hoy named it .35.. of £L Rut the inspector was completely overcome when one little fellow replied, “ Please, sir, the minimum wage.” It has been decided to erect, a new Presbyterian Church in Pretoria as a memorial to the soldiers, volunteers, doctors, and nurses of t.haL

communion who died while in service in South Africa during the late war. A Beigian physician declares ‘that early baldness is frequently caused ! by flic excessive eating of meat. 11c asserts that lie has often checked casts of falling hair by combining with local treatment a diet of milk, eggs, and fruit. Missionaries arc well treated in Siam, and the King, a Buddhist, is -giving the site for a new Protestant

church in Bangkok-; The Dutch Government is about to open a public international competition for designs for “ The of Peace,” of which Mr Carnegie has offered to defray the cost.- “ I hope that Willy, got a good mark at school to-day,” remarked Willy’s mother.- 11 He did not, madam, I am sorry to say,” replied the grim-visaged master politely ; “ but I think I am safe in promising you that if Willy turns up at- school tomorrow—which lie did not do to-day —lie wili receive several.”

She : 11 They, haven’t found a name for that baby, in the Hat upstairs yet.” lie : “ The one that cries so?” ‘‘iYes.” “Well, that’s strange ! The neighbors have called it everything they could think of!” *

Mrs Bickers : “ Why, the olive

branch is the emblem of peace.” Bickers: “Of course. I suppose or-ange-blossoms are the emblems of war.” “May *’2 said, a lady -of Strong mind to her youngest child, yo_u shock me with your rude heliaviour. You are a perfect tomboy'! Why can’t you be like your little playiratel Leila Green ? She is gentle, soft-voiced, well-behaved u and always ladylike.” Yes,said May,‘- 1 but so’s tier mother 1” '