Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 31 March 1898, Page 3

Notes and Events.

Birmingham turns out 5 ions of hairpins every week. There are 7,000 hawkers of newspapers in London — big men, little boys, old women, and young girls. The London Post Office in January started a service of electric delivery vans between St. Martin's-le Grand and Paddington Station. A shoemaker says we wear out quite 2in of shoe leather in a year. A pair of boota that would " last a lifetime " would, consequently, have tn ba provided with soles from 8 to 4sh thick. A magnificent underground railway is worked in Budapestb, Hungary. The trains ate run by elec tricity, so there is co unpleasant atmosphere caused by smoke, and the tunnels are airy acd well-lighted. m , Valuable discoveries of amber have recently been made in British Columbia, which it is claimed will be able to supply the pipe-makers of the world with amber for another 100 years. Seaweed, though not the diet of an epicure, is, when dry, richer than oatmeal or Indian corn in nitrogenous constituents, and takes rank among the most nutritious of vegetable foods. It will surprise some people to know that during the busiest time on

the Atlantic cable, between 10 and 12 o'clock in the forenoon, an average of 900 messages pass each way every day. A3 the supply of ivory is becoming short, billiard balls of cast steel are being used in Sweden. By making them hollow the weight is made to correspond with that of ivory balls, More than 40 per cent of the English people could not write their names when the Queen ascended the throne. The proportion in that condition has now been reduced to 7 per cent. Golf can positively be traced in Scottish history back to 1457, and it is believed to have been played much earlier even than that date.