TIT BITS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 150, 25 February 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

TIT BITS.

A ton of coal is needed to produce three big .shol's. * * * X i lie French armies are being supplied with 200.000 shells a day. * * * The 11 umber of people in Brussels without any means of subsistence in -100,000. * * *. Xo fewer than 05 Austrian generals have been compulsorily retired for negligence. * * * * The grapes on the famous vine at Hampton Court are a'l to be given to wounded soldiers this year. * * * Over ;i hundred Victoria Crosses have been waarded in this year. The personnel of the Greek Xavy re given as 8000 officers and men. A number ot famous American airmen are flying for the French Army. *"* * * With only one exception, every bank in Manchester is now employing girl clerks. A penny match-box was sold recently in Rome for £2OOO for the bunefit of crippled Italian soldiers. # * * * The amount of parattin that is used by householders in Germany is now regulated by the Government. * * # The war so far has cost Canada £18,000,000. The expenditure is estimated by the Finance Minister at £OO,OOO a day. * * * * The men of the French Army wear their identification discs round their wri-ts. British soldiers wear them round their necks. * * * Universal service has ruled in Greece since 180'/, and within recent years both Army and Navy have been remodelled under the impetus lent by the great Military League. * * * * The record for bullet-holes in a Hying machine, a much prized record, is heid by a pilot who returned from one light recently with over 300 holes, the previous record being '240 odd. The London County Council refuses to give special war allowances to servants who obtain commissions, taking the view that if the salary is not sullicient it should be increased by the Government and not supplemented out of the rates. * * * Frogs have the power of changing their colour very much as chameleons do. * # * * When you move, to stop your cat from running away immediately from t!ie new house, rub butter well over its feet and legs. By the time it has finished licking off the butter, nil idea of flight wii! have disappeared. * * * *, Of all animals, tigers are the most susceptible to sea-sickness. * * * The value of the British Army horse is oifan average, between £-10 and £'3o. * * * * Before turning their attention to aeroplanes, the Wright brothers ran a bicye'e shop and edited a magazine. * # * * There are shells on the sea-shore oT Barbados m> small that a hundred of them can be laid on a space covering only an eighth of a square inch. * # * A rhinoceros rolls in the mud because little insects get between the fo'd; of its skin and worry it. If it get«» its body covered with mud, they are unable to reach the skin. * * * If n eomnuted that nearly lialf a million of .lew sh soldiers are fighting hi the war, 20,000 in our ranks. Two of them—one an officer and the ofbei a private—have been awarded the Victoria Cross.