OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 18 August 1909, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Eleven blind men recently rode in ix.<-:i-»any on bicycles from London to Birmingam, a, distance of 100 miles. The Administrative County of London contains 2JS4 miles of streets, 632.591 touses, and 329 railway stations. During the year 1908 433,263 tons of fish were landed in Scotland (exclusive of shellfish), the value being £2,512,162. An Austrian scientist has discovered a method of making boots and shoes out of a mixture of paper pulp and sawdust. There is living in Txuro a woman who iias had 23 children, and whose living children and grandchildren number 132. There are not mote than 7000 resident 'Americans on the Island of Cuba, or a third of 1 per cent, of the total population. Believed to be the smallest horse in the S»orld, a tiny black more, standing only 17in high, was recently sold for 230 guineas. "With a flying machine capable of travelling 80 miles an hour, practically the whole of Europe would be-within & dS&j'e journey of Berlin. Two rare Transvaal stamps (Is, yellow green), formerly the property of the lato Sir E. J. Nankiveil, were sold by Messrs Giqrodining for £86. Europe has 20,003 newspaper, of which Germany possesses the largest number. England, however, has the greatest numier of daily newspapers. •Vha Farthine Gazette, probably the

cheapest daily newspaper in existence, ha« boon started in Moscow, and has already a considerable circulation. Concrete lamp-posts ate being tried in the District of Columbia. They are made in the form of a Grecian column, and support a frosted round globe. In orc'er to stop a p!a gue of locust 3, every rural inhabitant of Northern Syria has to collect and deliver a.t least 2Jlb of locust e<f£S to the Turkish Government. A notable event in the world of Freemasonry is th© resumption of friendly relations between the German and French Masons, which have been interrupted since 1870. Taxi-cabs will soon carry an instrument which will automatically indicate at what speed the vehicle -is travelling. Should the speed exceed 20 miles an hour a bell will ring. j, The London Zoological Society has just received from Thibet a fine young speci1 men of the takm, which, next to the okapi, ! is the -rarest and least known of the riuniDAnts. Silver-grey has been adopted as the colour of the uniform for the entire German arnav. It is considered to be more suitable than khaki for campaigning in Europe. . A dog which had been washed in paratfan was set alight by a spark at Kingston (Eng.), and rushed into a storeroom full of inflammable material, which caught fire and was destroyed. Only 150 out of 1500 miners employed by