Facts About the Beginning of a Few Things Familiar to Every One. WHEN OLD THINGS WERE NEW.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 222, 1 October 1887, Page 7

Facts About the Beginning of a Few Things Familiar to Every One.

WHEN OLD THINGS WERE NEW.

The first coining of money is attributed to Pheiclon, King of Argos, 885 B.C. Coined money was first used in this country twentyfive years before the Christian era, but gold was not coined here till the eleventh century, and money was not given the round form to which we aie accustomed until the lapse of another hundred years or so. The first geographical map of England was made in the year 1520. Handerkerchiefs were first manufactured at Paisley in 1743. Post Offices were first known in England as early as 1581, and exactly one hundred years later a penny post was introduced for London and its subuibs by an upholsterer named Murray Pens were first used in the seventh century. They were, of course, quills, and steel pens did not come into use until 1820, when the first gross of them was sold wholesale for £7 4s. The quality ot these pens was greatly inferior to that of those for which we pay 6d a gross. The first navigable canal in England was made in 1134, when Henry I. joined the Trent to the Witham. Spectacles were iir.st used in the latter part of the thirteenth century. There is no certainty as to who was the inventor of them, but the distinction is geneially claimed for Alessamlro di Spini, wlu is said to have made some about 1285. Woollen cloth was first made in England in 1331. though its making is one of the most ancient arts. It was not dyed or dressed by Englishmen until 1667. Cricket was first played about the year 1300. It was then, and for a long time afterwards, known as "club ball." The first dictionary was compiled by Paout She, a Chinaman who lived about 1100, B.C. The first voyage around the world was made in the Vittoiia, a ship which formed part of the expedition that sailed under Magellan in 1519. w^iSfß^ The fh'st London directory was printed in 1677, and contained sixty-four pages, with the names of 1790 persons or firms.

There is a disposition to transfer ot Melbourne the Iribh Court at the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition, with additional manufactures, if allowed a separate court. Sir William Jervois has recently bear consultedthe Victorian Government on by the subject of the defences of Melbourne. He favours an inner line of defence, instead of depending on bafctoriey at the Heads. _ A convict just released from a ten-yeais 1 imprisonment in Pennsylvania killed one of the jurors who convicted him KMnn , WOra ? ?f? f Nebr «»ka havo planted 50/100 trees during the last three years. Queen Margherita, of Italy, has established an asylum for the blind in the Baths Diocbtian at Rome.