INTERESTING ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 318, 7 December 1910, Page 6

INTERESTING ITEMS.

India's net revenue from opium in 1908-1909 was £4,615,900. The "Short - Lived Parliament," under the Earl of Bath, in 1746, existed only two days. Exclusively of the Royal and Sovereign Duchies, British dukes own over 4,000,000 acres of land. The cost for one year of maintainng and cleansing the public roads of London is given at £1,469,2;)1. The salaries of members of the British Cabinet amount to £75,425 a year, those of United States Cabinet to £20,800. In the cabin of the Kaiser's new racing yacht Meteor IV. is an oak armchair, presented by King Edward, made from the bulwarks of Nelson's Victory. In the United Kingdom there is no State bank, but the Bank of England, ihe Bank of Scotland, and the Bank of Ireland, have Royal charters, and the first and last lend money to the Government.

Sidney Kidman, the "Cattle King" of Australia, who began life as a stock-rider, now owns 100,000 cattle and 10,000 horses, as well as 32 runs comprising 49,209 square miles. Arid withal he is a simple unassuming man, of whom Australians are justly proud. The greatest market-place in the world is not located in any of the world's great cities. It is found at Nijni-Novgorod, in Russia. The annual fair held there brings merchants from all parts of Asia and Europe, and thirty million pounds change hands in six weeks.

Britain's biggest school is not Eton nor Harrow, or Winchester or Wellington. Its headquarters are in London, and it is bigger than any or all of these. It numbers 100,000 pupils, ranging in age from seventeen to seventy. There are Canadians in it, adn Australians, Africans, Indians, Bermudans, and Jamaicans. The contingent of students from Shanghai alone numbers 200.

Born of humble parents, Senor Pedro Alvarado, the Mexican millionaire, in his younger days worked as a peon, or common day labourer, on a ranch, but his honesty and industry earned steady advancement, and he soon became his own master and one of the wealthiest men in the country. But he never forgot his class, and always set himself to alleviate the none too happy lot of the peon. "Not many people know how to pet a hnrse —from the horse's standpoint, at any rate," said an American trainer. "Every nice-looking horse comes in for a good deal of petting. The trouble is that people don't pat him in the right place. If you want to make a horse think he is going straight to heaven hitched to a cab or delivery waggon rub his eyelids. Next to that form of endearment a horse like 3 to be rubbed right up between the ears. In petting horse 3 .most people slight those nerve centres. They stroke the horse's nose. While a well-behaved horse will accept the nasal caress complacently he would much rather prefer that nice, soothing touch applied to the eyelids."

A good stury is told concerning the Grand Duke Peter Nicholaievitch. One evening he went to the theatre in Paris and sent a bouquet to the principal actress, Mdlle. Lolita, who happened also to be a Russian. Some weeks later his servant announced that a lady wished to see him, and the actress was ushered in. "I am Lolita, your Highness," she said, "and I have come to thank you for your daily tokens of admiration." "I know you well by sight, madam," replied the Grand Duke, "but I think you are mistaken. lam only guilty of having sent you one bouquet." "But it was your servant who brought them each evening!" replied Lolita. The servant was called, and with great confusion admitted that he was the culprit. When he delivered the Grand Duke's bouquet the actress had given him a pourboire of five francs, and as the flowers had cost only forty sous he had repeated the performance nightly! Lord Tweedemouth, the First Lord of the Admiralty, entered Parliament nearly 30 years ago aa Liberal member for Berwick, and since then he has done much useful and solid work for the Liberal party. It wa3 while he was acting as Chief Whip in the early 'nineties that Lord Tweedemouth —he was then the Hon. Edward Marjoribanks, succeeding his father in 1894 earned his first and only tip. Two American ladies approached him in the House of Commons and asked if they could be shown round. With that courtesy which is one of his marked characteristics, the future First Lord acted as their cicerone, and performed his duties so well that one of the ladies presented him with half a crown. What is more, the coin was accepted. Lord Tweedemouth, by the by, lives in a house in Park Lane which he bought from Mr J. B. Robinson, the South African magnate. On the staircase is the first Beer flag brought to England during the South African War. It was captured near Kroonstad by his lordship's son, the Hon. Dudley Marjoribanks, A holder of a dignity conferred in reward of valour kept his seventyfourth birthday the other day in the person of Sir Francis Boyd Outram, second baronet and only son of General Sir James Outram. That soldier returned from Persia, where he had fought a decisive campaign, to India, to carry his courage and ability into the suppression of the Mutiny. His relief cf Havelock, their joint attack on Lucknow, and his famous stand until Lord Clyde's arrival are among the most inspiring incidents in heroic annals. Sir Francis, who attained his majority as his father was nearing Lucknow, was himself in India at the time as an officer of the Bengal Civil Service. He volunteered for service, and was wounded during the fighting. Sir Francis was married fifty years ago, and has four sons and three daughters. One son is a soldier, the others are in Holy Orders.