GENERAL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2206, 2 June 1908, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Neither body nor bruin arc safely, truly and happily rested by doing notliing, The only "healthful rest, as long as our physical and mental constitution remains as it is, is to bo busy. Mon of force and industry will everywhere' tell you, “It is the hardest' thing in tlio world to do nothing.” No mortal man was over made to bo a loiter,, to bo a miserable drone. The true idea of rest is recreation, a making over again, a return to our accustomed vigor; ami this is not accomplished by allowing the machine to como to a standstill—for inactivity is rust and ruin to all mechanical contrivances and death to all physiological structures. It is said that mahogany was first known to Europeans through the fact that iSir Walter llaleigh, when at Trinidad, in 1595. used planks of it to repair one of his vessels. The samples thus carried to England \vero much admired; but for over one hundred years tho wood was put to no practical use. In 1720, however, a Dr. Gibbons, of London, received a few mahogany planks from a friend in the West Indies, and employed a cabinetmaker to work them up. Eroni that time to the present the wood has boon a staple article of commerce. Unlike other headache medicines, Stearns’ Headache Cure does not cause that.stupid druggy feeling. It always cures headaches, and is as refreshing as a night’s sleep. The largest mass of ice in tho world is probably tho one which fills up nearly the whole of the interior of Greenland, where it has accumulated since before the dawn of history. It, is believed to form a block Goo,ov/O square milos in area -and to averago a mile and a half in thickness. According to these statistics, tho lump of ice is larger in volume than the wliolo body of water ill tho Mediterranean; and there is enough of if to cover the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with a layer about seven miles thick. Take Zy mole Tro'keys for your cough. They will stop it by soothing the irritated membrane of the throat. Hoarseness is relieved and tlio throat strengthened. The cost of an Atlantic voyage increases in direct ratio with its speed. Twenty years ago the cost of each voyage made by a twenty-knot ship was about £9,000 to £11,000; tlio expense of a Mauretania or Lusitania trip,, at the speed of 24| knots, is nearly £OO.OOO.

-Champagne takes up much time and care in the making. Altogether a bottle of champagne goes through two hundred different operations, covering n period of two .and a half years. And, in addition, it is sometimes kept two or three years longer in the vaults maturing. The value of tlio Westinghouso brake, and of skilful officials who can apply it promptly was strikingly exemplified at Timaru on Saturday, when the second express for tho South was leaving the,railway station. A man who had not taken his seat in the train soon enough, attempted to board his carriage after the train was in motion, with the result that lie fell between the carriages. Assistance was promptly to hand, and with marvellous celerity tho brakes were appLied and the train was stopped before there was time for serious injury to result to tho passenger. The owner scratched his favorite horse,

The punter scratched his head, And gazed distracted to the course; Then to his friends he said:

“This punting may allure, but not As other things allure. And I would sooner put my lot On "Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.”

The bridge across the Zambesi It.iver, Africa, is the highest in the world. It is of a cantilevei\style, and crosses the river for a distance of 650 ft at a height of 420 ft from the low-water level to the rails, or about 380 ft from high water. It consists of three spans, and is about 30ft wide.