News Items

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4369, 4 February 1909, Page 1

News Items

■ Su -wm i - .:sSB , ‘|| I To crush a half-inch cube of fl granite requires a weight of 11 9 tons. I Since 1838 the population of I the German Empire has doubled I Under normal conditions, teflCja inches of snow yield an inch of I water. 9 The nearest approach of the * planet Mars to the earth is 9 36,000,000 miles. v 9 The first submarine boat was 9 tested in Plymouth Harbour, 9 England, in 1774. 9 The annual expenditure on I the roads of the United King- 9 dom is about £18,000,000. 9 A trap baited with sunflowers® seeds is the most efficacious >1 means of catching rats. I Sixty languages are in every- I day use in Freetown, Sierra I Leone. I The annual consumption of I sugar for jam-making is 50,000 I tons. I Russia has the highest death- fl rate in Europe. It is 41 per I thousand a year. I Notwithstanding its thickness I the elephant’s skin is very 1 sensitive. I Scientists assert that a fly I can make 600 strokes a second I with its wings. fl Two ounces of attar of roses fi represent the refined product of || a ton.of rosebuds. I 9 Of all newspapers in the 1 world, 68 in every 100 are ;_v| printed in the English language. The capacity of the Atlantic || cables is 300,000,000 words I annually. Only 25,000,000 are I sent. M Living in London is 40 per 1 cent cheaper than in any of the large cities of the United States. U lii some of the, cheap restau- j|| rants in German cities food is; 9 served on plates made of com ] pressed paper. I The Queen’s crown weighs I only 390 z. sdwt., though .ijpil comprises precious stones to the I value of £360,000. ' " V HB The Christmas of 1836 was |j signalised by a snowstorm that |l lasted six days. Six mail- 'M coaches were lost. I More books are printed in ■ < i| Edinburgh in proportion to the population than in any other i city in the world. The largest window in Great, I Britain is the east window in | York Cathedral. It is 75ft *J high and 32 ft. wide. • x jm Of three wires of the same Cl thickness, one made of gold will fi sustain 1501 b; one of copper, | 3021 b ; and one of iron 549 Lb. \i Lightning, when it strikes a ,/ tree, sometimes converts the | sap into steam.with such euergy.g.S that it explodes, scattering the wood in every direction. The world’s steepest railway has a grade of 70 per cent, at its upper end, and an average grade of 66 per cent. This is the Virgibahm cable, up the " side of a mountain in Southern, j Tyrol, Austria. The length of';! the line is 945 ft. Near the field of j topaz seal set in gold was foun ’.l .C in 1895, bearing the* arms and ? motto of Tiscount Barrington. t It belonged to Ensign Barring- ' ton, who was killed at Quatre Bras, June 16, 1815, and lay undiscovered for 80 years, v.j ' CCH