GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2088, 10 February 1920, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The estimated population pi New Zealand (exclusive of Maoris and residents of the Cook and other Pacific Islands) on, 31st December, ID IS, was £1.108,373 (512,040 jhalcs and 500.327 females). The Dominion'.-, population, ineluding Maoris (4!),77(i) and residents ,of -the Cook and other Pacific Islands, at the end of last year was estimated at 1,225,981 (621,393 males and 005,588 females). The Taj Mahal, at Agra, is Hid world’s most famous mausoleum. Built of white marble and inlaid with precious stones, it cost £2,000,000, and 20,000 men were occupied twenty years in the building' of it. Its builder-was Shah Jehan, who wished thus to do honour to the memory of his favourite wife. Erected in the .seventeenth century, its dazzling beauty is said to remain unimpaired. Sir'Albert Roiiit, who lives at St. Anne’s Hill, Ghertsey, owns a number of trout which know the voice of their master, and at his call will come to the end of their tank and 'wait patiently for bits of bread when it is held between Sir Albert’s lingers. Sir Albert says that the trout are still in their summer quarters, “except one which has to be kept in solitary confinement because of its c;; nni b< 1 1 is 1i c ten den c ies. A tragedy took place at the hamlet of Aubeingues, near Wimereanx, when a French girl named Looullet shot and killed a British soldier with a revolver. The soldier, a private in the Royal Engineers, named Hammond, is said to have promised to marry the girl, who was 2S years old, and in domestic service at A-m bjeteux. He was, however, already married, and was walking with his wife wh.cn Houelici met him. Drawing a revolver, she shot Hammond, and then tainted. She was taken to hospital, where she was put under arrest on recovering consciousness. Provision for tho payment of an annual sum as a prize for tho “worthiest girl” in the City of Providence, Rhode Island, is included in -the will of Count Paul Bainotti, a millionaire of Turin, who, while in the Italian diplomatic service, met and married Miss Carrie .Brown, a. member of a wealthy family which founded the Brown University in Providence. The testator set aside a sum of £2,000, the interest, from which is to he given annually “about July 17th,- to the young lady in Providence, who, being 20 years old, marriageable, and a daughter of the common people, will best deserve it by her conduct and family virtues." A blue sun has appeared once only, and will probably never be seen again even to the end of existence. This occurred in August, 1883, at llie Sarnia States. The (guise was the eruption of a large volcano, in the terrible shock Hint followed, a great range of mountains was blown completely into the air. The reader will'mm what the explosion was like when i! is said (hat a! Batavia, exactly 100 miles away, the street lamps Had to be lit, although the time was not yet noon. The sun up to this time was completely obscured; but towards sunset —the sunset that only the tropics know—came the magnificent phenomenon known to astronomers as the Blue Sun. This was seen by everyone within 30 or 40 degrees of the Equator.