NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2163, 14 August 1920, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Ran .Merino is the oldest, as well as the smallest, republic, and it only covers an area id' 22 square miles. This liny republic is lo he found in Central llalv. on the Adriatic.

Of land animals (he longest lived is I he elephant, which takes 40 years lo mature, is said lo live 150 years, and is believed capable uf still grealer age, given abundance of food.

Salving operations*were conducted during and after the war, with the result that of the 5,(112 allied -hips sunk', 500 have been salvaged, the value of the recovered ship.- ami cargoes being estimated at fOO,000,000. A sickroom clock invented in Switzerland has an electric lamp behind a translucent dial, so that when an invalid in lied presses a button the dial throws the shadow of the hours and bauds magnified upon I he ceiling. Prince George, the youngest surviving .-on of the King', intends lo follow a naval career. Me was 17 years old hist December, and entered upon his duties in the navy when he joined 11.M.5, Temeraire, at Portsmouth, ms a cadet.

The biggest clock' in the world is the Colgate clock in .Jersey City, Hniled Slates. The diameter of its face is 2f-H feel —compared with “Big Ben's” 22A feel —the minutehand being 20fl. long. This minutehand weighs about a third uf a ton, and travels, at the lip, more Hunt half a mile a daw

It was announced In the British House of Commons that there were approximately 2,500,0(10 persons, including wives and families and other dependents, receiving pensions arising out of the war. The wives, children, and other dependents, numbered approximately I,HIM),000 of the lotah

A way of realising the meaning of a million is to think of what it means in lime. Eew people realise that there are less than a million days hi the whole Christian Era, in fact, if we count hack a million day- from 11)20 wc conic to a dale well before the founding of Home, while, a million hour- would lake us hack almost to the Battle of Trafalgar, and a million minutes have not yet elapsed since Ihe armistice was signed.