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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8352, 12 February 1913, Page 9

In many English towns the election ot the Mayor is accompanied by much Old World ceremonial. The Mayor of Lincoln. for instance, is duly elected by having placed on his finger an ancient ring; at Chichester the Mayor Is armed with a gold-mounted malacca cane; at York hie Worship is presented with an oak stave which has been the mark of Mayoral authority for centuries. The Mayor of Grantham is installed by a tap on the head with the _ town clcrk’e hammer; at Dunstable the time-honoured custom of "bumping" is observed, and at both Bournemouth and Hanley the now chief magistrate has to submit to a kiss from the retiring Mayor. Southport (England) has a machine which, it is claimed* will revolutionise street-sweeping. As it passes over a street it sucks up every particle of dust or damp dirt winch may be lying in the track, no matter how stony the Bettsor deep the indentions _in the road. The machine is also, said to bo a labour-■v-ing device, as one will accomplish with greater efficiency the work of at least a dor.en men who work on the ordinary methods. In appearance it, re-orclin-arv motor-car. it is petrol-driven, and it moves along tii© at lumi seven to ten miles *n ~~ lias deeapmed by an Italian In Milan, hut a member of an English ordnance firm has puri,ho patent right*. The millionth man for the year passed the turnstiles at the London Zoo, on Christmas Eve. Ho received a free pass admitting two for a year. Denny postage was established between Great Britain and every part of the British Empire, except Australia and New Zealand, on Chnatmaa Dayi 1898.