News Items

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4418, 1 June 1909, Page 1

News Items

The idea of the torpedo-boat is two-and a*half centuries old. In most cases the hands are closed in death and during sleep.

There is about a mile of wire in the interior of an ordinary piano. -'' 1 .

Automatic slot sprays were used in Egyptian temples 2000 years ago.

Every year between 20,000 and 30,000 men leave the Brit* ish Army.

When a wife is divorced in Holland she takes half her husband’s goods. Recently, at the parish church of Hathern, Leicestershire, three sisters were married on the same day. Sake, the favourite alcoholic beverage of the Japanese, is distilled from rice, and resembles whisky in taste.

It has been estimated that rats in Great Britain do damage to the extent of some £15,000, 000 annually. - > • The railway lines of all Cau« ada are worked with coal from the Nova Scotia mines of Hali» fax and Cape Breton. A lady of Vienna has petitioned for a divorce because her husband accused her of siding with the English suffragists. At Newport, Isle of Wight, the other day, a young solicitor fell in a faint, and was suffocated by the high collar he was wearing.

The highest waterfall in the world has lately been discovered in the Sierra Madre Mountains, in Mexico. The cascade of

Basasetchie falls 978 feet at one drop.

A pig of unusually large proportions was killed a short time ago by Mr T. Farndale, of High Burrows, Egton, near Whitby, the animal scaling 51st 61b. In one year the main of a watch makes 450 evolutions, the central wheel 8760 4 the third wheel 70,080, the fourth 525,600, and the escape wheel 731,860. Thomas Crauness, a oostman, of Attleborough, Norfolk, has received the Imperial Service medal and pension; During 35 years he walked 212,000 miles. Private John Waplington, of Bolton, has been presented bv the War Office with a medal which he won in the Indian Mutiny Campaign. The decor-1 ation carries with it a pension of 9d a day.

A Lancashire police sergeant, who has just retired, weighs 25st 7~lb, is 53in round the chest, and 58iu round t' e waist. He is stated to be *he biggest constable in Great Britain.

The Eoyal crown of Eonmania is made of bronze, the metal having once «c n seivi e in war when in the shape of canuon. The crown is composed of pieces of 02 different cannon, each of which was captured from some enemy.