TIT-BITS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 233, 8 December 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

TIT-BITS.

China has the richest deposits 0 f quicklime in the world.

* * * • The minimum height of Russian and r reach conscripts is sft.

An Englishman, on the average weighs Ulh. more than a Frenchman.

Cadiz is built of stone of such a pure white that it looks like a city of snow.

The average length of human life n the. sixteenth century was only 18 to 20 years.

'Birdie.' "Julie," and "Desire" are the French nicknames for thrvc of their new big guns.

1 ho daily cost of the war to the Central Powers is estimated 1 by the "Wall Street Journal" at £7,100'000. * * •

.several London and provincial technical schools are now organising classes m mechanical dentistry for women

ibe brain of the elephant is remarkably small, not more than one twentythird as Jargo as that of a human being in proportion to the weight of both.

The Kaiser's latest complaint is that he is kept away from the front and permitted to see scarcely anyhing except provisron columns, 'hospitals, and field bakeries.

The Turkish authorities at Smyrna have hanged M. Seizani, editor of the Greek newspaper "Aromania," and also a prominent Greek lawyer M, Argyronoulo.

The secretary bird of South America ran easily fight and conquer a snako twice its size. Snakes are so mucn afraid of it that they will even craw! away from its shadow.

"Germany's new or fifth war loan." says the Xew York 'World,' "is being advertised as 'the last war loan,' which must mean victory within six months or peace at any price."

The first Russian .women entitled to call themselves engineers are fortyseven pupils of tie higher technical schools, who have been permitted to do so by special authorisation of th'e Czar.

All the men except one who joined the Army from the villages of Crosbvi and Bretherton. Lancashire, a few months after the war broke out have either been killed or wounded. Thev number between thirty and forty.

Flight Sub-Lieutenant J. E. Boyd, who helped to bomb Zeebfugge last autumn, and was interned in Holland, a rived at his home in Toronto (Canada) recently, on two months' leave, granted because of his mother's illness.

"We have a tamo crow which flies into our ante-room and sits on the tablo while we write,'* says a South African on the Western front. "He has justleft my table to go to an officer who is offering him a piece of cheese."

Dyes from the "submarine liner" Deutschland have arrived at Peabody, U.S.A., tanneries, states the "6hoe and Leather News," and are now reing used for the manufacture of coloured leathers for autumn and winter shoes.

* * • • A French soldier helped to storm and destroy his mother's former residence, the Chateau la Maisonnette, in the Sonirao fighting, having been informed previously that his mother and her aged servants had been sent safely away

Very many short-sighted people liar* prominent eyes.

There are at least 10,000,000 nerve fibres in the human body.

As many as 4061 muscles have been counted in the body of a moth. * * *

The first envelope ever made is in the possession of the British Museum.

Tlie chance of two finger-prints being alike is less than one in 64,000,000,000.

A Turkish turban of the largest sizj contains twenty yards of the finest and softest silk.

There are only nine perfect tones in the human voice, but at least 17.09.U50,044,415 different sounds.

The London lieadquarters of the Canadian Expeditionary Force are employing women motor drivers.

The latest German officers' device to try to prewnt their disheartened men surrendering to the Canadians is 1j assure them solemnly that the Canucks cut all prisoners' throats.

When the Liverpool Provision Tral.» Association handed over to the R«?:i Cross Society ambulance car No. 31, it was explained that there were really only thirty ears, the committee having tactfully missed No. 13.

Out of sixty-nine Belgian prisoners tlied for espionage by a German courtmartial at Hasselt, twenty-two wero condemned to death and have been executed. The victims of savagery are understood to have included M. Golenvax. the Burgomaster of Xamur.

Private Leon Hildebert, of the UQ Royal Montreal eßgiment. who is a Belgian by birth, has been made a Chevalier "of the Belgian Order of Leopold 11. for gallantry in action, and the -ilver insignia of the order was pinned on tha breast of the maimed hen. at Montreal by the Belgian Con-?ul-General. * * * New Scotland Yard is the largest police-office in the world. * * * An inch of rainfall represent* 100 tons of water to the acre. * * * Spam produces, on an average, about three billion corVs every year. * * * In .Japan coins are generally of iron; and in Sum they are chiefly of porcelain. * * * Intellect and judgment are strongosl in a man between the ages of forty an: lift v. ** * • The cultivation of sunflowers it Mrampy places effectually checks mal a rial fever in those parts. * * * More than 30.000,000 GernuM needles are stored in Rotterdam awaiting shipment to the Unite A voune German woman in FrVJfl fort has become the otfeet of pnMJ mirth homnw she laid in • *£?*.% postage -tamps in fear that the prie| would l>e raised. I