INTERESTING ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 333, 1 February 1911, Page 3

INTERESTING ITEMS.

! Captain Scott's South Pole cxpediI tion will cost between £IO.OOO and | £45,000. I Mr F. C. Sclous, the big game j hunter, has been a total abstainer and a non-smoker all his life. The University of Calcutta is said to be the largest educational corporation in the world. It examines more than 10,000 students annually. Major Philip Maud, R.E., C.M.G., | who has been appointed as Chief I Officer in charge of the London parks, I was formerly captain of Blackheath, ; and gained his International Rugby cap. Willie Park, the famous golfer, travelled no fewer than 1400 mile 3 during three clays recently in connection with his work of laying out golf courses. He went from Killarney to Grantown-on-Spey in the North of Scotland, and then down to a course in Gloucestershire. From May Ist, 1908, to April 30th, 1909, the tobacco cleared for Home consumption amounted to 102,413,6261b, while from May Ist, 1909, to April 30th, 1910, the amount was 3,289,90071b, the decrease being 9,124,6191b. The French Consul at Tientsin reI ports that the cinematograph has j caught the Chinese taste to such an | extent that German and Japanese i firms are mkaing enormous sums in China with moving picture shows. A law which was only struck oil" the statute book in 1819 allowed a man who appealed against sentence of death to fight with the nearest relation of the murdered person and thus make proof of his guilt or innocence. Captain Manning, of the New Zealand Union Steamship Company's screw-steainer Mararoa, making an approximate calculation, considers that he has made 6000 trips across Cook Strait during the time he has been in the maritime service in New Zealand. Not one of the sovereigns who have sat on the English Throne since William the Conqueror has acceded in May. Each of the other eleven months has been notable for one accession or more, but until now no monarch has ever ascended the throne in May.

Something like a quarter of a million sterling has been spent on erecting the new building of the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall. It contains a swimming bath and a gymnasium, so that the drenched and dusty motorist coming to the club after a long ride can change into flannels, have a turn with the horizonal bar or the vaulting horse, and then take himself off to the invigorating water.

Sir Thomas Liptou tells a story concerning a certain office hoy who worked for him. "He only worked for me about two days," says Sir Thoma3. "The last day he was with us I sent him out for fifteen shillings worth of stamps giving him a sovereign. When he came back with the stamps he didn't offer me any change. "Well," I said, impatiently, "where's the change, Alfred?" "There an't any, sir," said be. "Stamps has riz." Lord Ronaldshay has had many amusing adventures. During his trip across Asia, he visited the capital of Szechauw, China, where he was received in audience by the Viceroy, and his account of the pitfalls of social etiquette was highly amusing, particularly when once visiting an official he mistakenly took off his hat and found the official immediately jump ofl his chair and begin to take off his outer garments. He learned afterwards this was to get quits with Lord Ronaldshay for his unwitting lack of respect. "Lord of the White Elephant, Brother of the Moon, Half-brother of the Sun, Possessor of Twenty-four Gold Umbrellas." These are some of the titles of Maha Vajiravudh, the new king of Siam. He was educated in England, spending his last year at Christ College, Oxford, where be wrote a treatise on "The Rise and Fall of Poland." From the start he proved to be of a studious disposition, and Oxford undergraduates circulated a story that,after successfully tackling an examination, he cabled home, "Sacrifice five hundred persons, I have passed !" Robert Loraine, the actor aviator, is a sportsman to the backbone, and very fond of open-air ilfe. During the South African war he volunteered for service, and saw a good deal of fighting. Shotly after his return from the front hj? was sitting in the Carlton Hotel, surrounded by an admiring throng of fair cousins who looked upon him as a hero. Altogether lie was quite pleased with himself. A brother actor, whom he had not seen for some time, happened to pass, and, looking at the battlestained actor, remarked, "Hullo, old chap, you are looking lit. Been to Brighton?"

Mr Tobin, K.C., once had a marvellous escape from death. On January 3rd, he was at Hooton Railway Station, Cheshire, and started to cross the line for the down train without noticing the approach of the up train. A porter saw the danger, and with remarkable quickness dragged Mr Tobin into safety. The latter gave the porter and on each anniversary of the day sends him a sum equal to "is per week. And as long as Greenhouse remained in the service of the company he. was allowed an extra shilling a week. He is now driver of the post-oilice mail cart from Leominster to Weobley. On the 21st January the New Zealand Dairy Association, Limited, distributed amongst its milk suppliers £.1:1,411 ;is. These payments cover butterfat which was supplied at thenseveral creameries during the month of December, 1910. The corresponding payments last year were £28,783 2s 7d,