World Wide Jottings.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 1 June 1911, Page 4

World Wide Jottings.

A GIGANTIC liO'lTX. New York will shortly possess the largest hotel in the world, built at am outlay of nearly three million pounds, the site alone costing one million five hundred thousand pounds. It- is planned to have one thousand six hundred rooms and one thousand baths, and ilie structure, which will lie erected in a central district, is to be twenty-live storeys Ifiii.lt. THE WORLD'S LAZIEST PEOPLE. There is no doubt that the Malays are one of the laziest people in the world. Except in rare cases they will not take the trouble to learn when tliev are young, and afterwards if they have learned, they will not exert themselves to apply theiv j knowledge to any object which requires a sustained effort. That tihey possess energy is known to any one who has .«een Malays engaged in any enterprise' which savours of sport. Thev do not mind the trouble if there is only some risk and excitement in the work. '' SNEEZE-WOOD.'' In South Africa is to bo foundtOio "sneeze-wood" tree, which takes its name from the fact that one cannot cut it with a saw without sneezing. Even in planing the wood the same effect is sometimes produced. _ Nn insect or worm will touch it: jt is very hitter to the taste, and its specific gravity is heavier than water. The colour is light brown, the grain running very close and hard, and ittakes a. good polish. For docks, piers, or jetties, it- is a most uselul timber, keeping sound a long while under wator. A POSSIBLE MIRACLE. The conversion of 35,000 square miles of intolerable nuisance into a mine of wealth is the miracle Egyptian engineers hope to achieve. The obstruction of the Nile by floating water plants, or sudd, has become a serious problem, but experiments in a small wuy give promise ol actual profit from the removal of this waste material to use as fuel. Suitable machinery is to be provided for drying, disintegrating and compressing the sudJ, and it is expected that the briquettes formed will be extremely useful. "With coal iat a ton at Khartoum, the new luel's prospects seem to be good. THE THEATRE IN PORTUGAL. The heavy Government tax imposed on all places of entertainment in Portugal obliges the poor to circumvent the law if possible and so it often 'hapens that >a theatre is run as a club, and the tickets are shared out among the members. The native talent of the village provides both the orchestra and the actors. No actresses appear as Eastern ideas of female seclusion are sufficiently strong to forbid the girls appearing in public, so the female parts are taken by smooth-faced boys. The orchestra consists mainly of guitars, and although not one in ton of the adult population can read or -write, not one in ten is ignorant of how to play the guitar or some other musical instrument.

WHERE DOCTORS DIFFER. Doctors arc divided in opinion as to the antiseptic properties of tobacco. A practitioner recently remarked that the antiseptic power of tobacco, in hi.s opinion, wa.s not so good as was generally thought, and he supported his view by citing the frequency of the smokers' sore throat. Dr. Cornet, of Paris, lias recently contributed a paper to the Paris Medical, in which he claims that the weed possesses great powers as a bactericide. Tt sterilises the saliva and dues not hurt the teeth. Ft is an error, the doctor assorts, to attribute inflammation of the gums or of the mucus glands ti> tobacco.' It wa.s the same with cancer. Tt could not be traced to tobacco exc 111 si re ly. a onuors colony. The C'olonia Cosine, on the Para guay. 'above Asuncion, is one of the most curious in the world. The members of the—colony make or grow everything they need and import nothing. The workmen do seven hours' work a day, and earn, not money, but time. Their wages are hours and half hours. These they sometimes save up til! they have a week in band and then go off on an'excursion. If a man wants a. chair or table, lie pays for it in hours of work, which arc deducted from the balance to his wedit. Three men went oil' the river in a canoe for three weeks' holiday. They sold their canoe at Asuncion for a pound, and came home overland in ten dnys. bc'gcd in the best houses in the villages on the way, and yet had some in hand at the end. THE XEW YEA i! IN' JAPAN. The New Year i* inhere?] in amid great rejoicing in .Jap:;'!. On the last day of the old viar no one goes to bed, the bolls ring all night long, and on New Year's morning the usual sweeping and dusting of rooms is .not permitted lest any good luck should l>e swept nwav. All the gateways are decorated with straw ropes, oranges and lobsters, the last because of its crooked back being regarded as the symbol of old ago— and from .January Ist to 3rd. the "three chief days of the New Year," the people regale .themselves with "Zoni," a stew of rice cakes and greens boiled in fish gravy, which is the JapiTiTese .substitute for our own Christmas pudding. The *New Year holidays last until January 16th, winding up with a Feast of Return to labour.