News Items

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43382, 13 October 1908, Page 1

News Items

The bone frame of the average whale weighs about 45 tons.

Saxony is the most densely populated of the German States.

About 14,000,000 bunches of bananas are now annually exported from Jamaica.

The “ hansom cab ” was named after the inventor, an Englishman called Joseph Hansom. In the same way arose several other expressions, e.g., “to boycott, ” from Colopel Boycott, and “ a mackintosh ” from the name of the first maker.

Almost half of all the steel produced is used up by railways. Only 60,000 full-blooded Red Indians are to be found to-day. in the United States,

The oldest known English picture is one of Chaucer, painted on panel in the year 1380. In eluding Hayti, San Domingo, Panama, and Liberia, there are now 24 Republics in the world.

At 1000 fathoms below the surface of the ocean there is a uniform temperature just above freeziug point.

King Edward and Queen ' Alexandra have been married longer than any other pair of crowned heads in Europe.

The Turkish day begins k ' exactly at sunset, and at thfire |i time the Turks sets his clocks f aud watches at the hour of 12.

No bird can fly backwards without turning. The Dragon* fly, however, can do this, and can outstrip the swallow in speed.

The receipts of the Suez Canal Company from March 1 to April 14 were about 2,000,000 marks less than in the corresponding period of 1907.

The Calcutta constable —or para wallah, ” as he is called — lias an apparatus attached to his shoulders to support an umbrella over his head.

A horse can live 25 days without solid food, merely drinking water : 17 days with* out either eating or drinking ; and only five days when eating solid food without drinking.

Of domestic servants and labourers, 155 out of 100,000 go to the lunatic asylum, and of mechanics only 66 The .sanest people apparently, are commercial men, of whom 42 in 100,000 go m id.

Clothes-washiug by electricity without soap, is a Hungarian idea. The stream of elect rifled water is claimed to remove all spots and dirt, and the otM) garments held by the machine are washed in less than 1 j minutes. Mile. Marie llui Kovv'sku, a popular ballet dan.’•or it the Opera fJLou.-u* m Wui s ev, ii.is just received tier degree in b;,v. She inteuda to take up the legal profession, hut; v/.; i continue to dance every evening at the Opera House. i<V,r i .e-s )>'l.’nt .r !’;■•.■ •_;•>!» of a'i ‘iU -<;r: :>! iuiis L. Oai.,•:)’.> l lor . I eiso up No. 4 fo ■ v’ohii-on's S'JO"' - !uO roil',- ■ . . •) .It Juliiisoa. A'-lv!,.