General News.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 31, 28 February 1913, Page 4

General News.

Thus “Atticus” in his notes in the Melbourne Leader. “The practice of mixed bathing in crowds offers curious possibilities. Last Saturday night a young electrician, whom. I may as well call Smith, wont in with the crowd at St. Kil la. After about hglf an hour in the water, he picked out his little heap of garments on the sand, and dressed himself. On coming into the strong light shed by Luna Park, he discover- ' ed to his amazement that his suit had changed colour. It | fitted perfectly, but was blue in- ' stead of dark grey. Hi- socks were brown, instead of black, and hi- hat, although otherwise correct, was blue instead of grey. Stranger still, there were two ’ sovereigns in the vest pocket, and Smith had gone bathing without a cent about him. Of course, there had been an error somewhere. Smith dashed back | to the bathing-place in time to | discover a bather of his height j and build clamouring for the i police, because some infamous I rascal had stolen his clothes. | Smith had dressed at the wrong | heap.” | The English language, accordI i ing to a statistician, who has . . made a study of the comparative j wealth of languages, heads the 1 j list with the enormous vocabulary of 260,000 words. German comes » next with 80,000 words, then Italian with 75,000; French, with ' 30,000; Turkish, with 22, 500; and Spanish, with 20,000.' In the days of his ymth Lord j Kelvin was a keen athlete and a distinguished oarsman. His i athleticism came to a cimfortunate ending, h >wever by his falling ; over a curling-si- n,e on the ice and fracturing his leg. The distinguished scientist was at one time very fond of working on h : s yacht at sea. From Ireland during the past j fifty "four years 4,000,000 people ! have emigrated, the number of i males and females being about I equal. The highest number in 1 | any one year was 190,322 in 1852, : and the lowest was 32,241 in j 1898. > j Some 932 lives were saved by the Royal National Lifeboat In- | stitution’s boats during the past ! year, and forty-three vessels were j saved from partial or total loss. j The durability of timber kept ‘ in absolutely dry situations is * almost unlimited. The wood on I the roof of Westminster Hall is j more than 450 years old. ! The estimated mean population ;of the Dominion exclusive ot Maoris and Cook and other Pacific Islands on December 31,1912, * was 1,114,987 persons. The num- ; her of Chinese on the -ame date j was estimated at 2520. including | ' I the population increased by 27,139, ;! To this increase, excess of births over deaths contributed ‘ i 18,212, and excess of arrivals over departures 8927. The birth I rate for the Dominion last year i wa- 20-48 per I<>oo »f pieau population. and tin* death rate 8.95. as against 25.97 and 9.39 respectively in 1911.