TIT-BITS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 8, 29 January 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

TIT-BITS.

, Only one man in 203 is over 6ft. in height. * * * Great Britain makes over 130j000 bicycles a year. '* * * Forty thousand m?n desert from the Germany army every year. * * * A florin in the tune of Edward 111. was valued at 6s. * * * Tarring and feathering was once a legal punishment for theft. * * * Montreal is equipping a motor-cycle corps for the Canadian Expeditionary Force. * * * Nearly GO per cent, of pronintu.e deaths can ho traced to excess of strong drink. * * * i A week's collection on Manchester tramways jaised £385 for the War Relief Fund. * * * Most Continental army corps comprise about 50.000 men, as against 40,000 in Great Britain. * * * The first torpedo-boat in the British navy was the Lightning, built thirty - eight years ago. ° * * * Mosquitoes will fly ' for miles, but never very far over water. It is the female mosquito only that bites. * * * An authority on cats .says that hlueeyed cats are always deaf, and that pure white ones ar e afflicted in the same manner. * * * The improvement upon past experience in feeding the fighting forces is due in great measure to the use ot motors. * * * The Canadian Pacific Railway is ploying 6000 extra men in order to relievo distress brought about by the war. * * * Bv command of the King all blanksss belonging to his yacht Britannia at Cowes have been forwarded to Aldershot for the use of the troops. * * * Steel liar, been used for shipbuilding only about thirty years; yet it is estimated that 96 per cent, of the vessels launched at the present day are built ot it. * * * In Sweden the railway stations where meals are served are known b\ the s' ni~ pie but suggestive picture of crossed knife and fork against the name or the station. * * * Suffragists are refusing to ha\> the " Encyclopaedia Americana " in their libraries (savs an American paper), for under +he subject "Eve" it merely say*. " Adam." * * * By unwritten law. only noblemen are admitted to the commissioned ranks of the German Death's Head Hussai". of which the Crown Prince of Germany is commander.

Louvain University, destroyed in August by the Germans, was for centuries tW resort of Irish theological students, and of its priceless manuscripts a large numiicr were Irish.

Christopher Sulavicx. a chemist's ass'stant at Budapest, confided to three girl friends his intention to commit sinride and thev poisoned themselves in sympathy. The girls died, but Sulav:cz recovered.

The King has presented a white goat to the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 7th Battalion (Reserve) Royal Welsh Fusilier-. A whUe goat liafi always been a mascot of the Fusiliers.

The Czar of Russia probably owns a greater quantity of china than any other person in "the world. He has the china belonging to all the Russian rulers ns far back as Catherine the Great. It is stored in the Winter Palace ai Petrccrad.

The old women of Cleveland. Ohio, organised a sporting event. Elaven, all of them over 7o years of age, walked four and a quarter miles in an hour and three-quarters. The winner was aged 7S. and the second and third 80 and 7"> rcsoectivelv.

If a single Dreadnought battle squadion of <>ight ships were ordered to steam at full speed for '2', hours and to fire each gun and each torpedo tube once. the cost to the nation would be approx;inatoly £"200,000. allowing nothing for the depreciation of material.

'1 lio new pointed bullet—itself a German invention—now for the. first timo being employed in warfare in Western Europe, iitbcts at short ranges, asserts Mr. F. (.'. Selous, the big-game hunur, more griexous wounds than any form of ■ ot't-nosxl expanding bullet.

Women and girls in large numbers are trying to enter the Russian Army in various disguises, and several worrn-u have already succeeded in deceiving the military authorities. The most .successful have been the- masculine-looking peasant women of the northern provinces.

Tlh> Forth Bridge receives a new coat of paint every three years. ;md on«'tliird is done each year, so that the painters are continually at work. Besides tho painting, ♦■very part of the structure is carefully examined, and loosp or defective j-iv ,'ts removed and new ones put in their place.

The Zeppelin is a great and striking testimony to the value of advertisement. It is something almost useless in war. yet th •> mere mention of the name strikes terror into timid folks. And why? Not because it has done anything terror-striking, but because it been well advertised.

Tim officer who knows his business will not allow his m-m to drink whilp on the road. They tak> a drink before starting, and they can drink a« much as they liko when the day's march is over. Be-

ween times the water in the waterbotile is used for gargling the mouth. * * *

The Russian soldiers have an abnormal liking for tea, and they find means of preparing it, even under fire, somewhere behind a rock or in a hole, and they always very amiably offer some to their officers, who must never refuse, for if they do it giV3.s offence. But a Russian never by any chance refuses tea. * * *

Monte Carlo is practically at war with Germany. The Prince of Monaco, the tiniest of countries, lias ordered all Germans and Austrians out of his territory. It is said that Germany will take its revenge by reviving the gambling attractions of Hamburg, at one time the most notorious gambling den in the world.

• * * Madam Clara Butt, tho contralto, probably receives a greater number of letters demanding favours than any other singer. Perhaps the coolest request sbe ever received was from a girl who asked for a loan of five pounds on the ground that she had once served the distingir'shed vocalist over the counter.

Tin finest tomb in Britain is undoubtedly that of the Duke of Hamilton in "the ground? of Hamilton Palace. It cost £IBO.OOO. It is r. model of the castle of San Angelo at Rome. The gates arc a copy of the Ghiberti gates at Florence, and the coffin of the duke is enclosed in an Egyptian sarcophagus of black marble, which was brought from Alexandria.