GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8046, 10 February 1906, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

The game ol chess is included in the OlHrriculutn ol Russian tihools.

• | About one million telegrams are sent over the world's wires daily. I • * * ! In the little village of Nelson, Lancashire, I there is what may be safely termed the small- j est colliery in the world. It ftflords employ-1 ment for only two men—father and son. ! The minobelongs to them, and the entire \ output is consumed iu the neighbourhood, j Somebody has suggested " mobus" for the j motor bus, so why nof'mocab" for the j motor-cab. Ugly, but handy. Anyway the | motor-cab is coming. Two companies have j been formed for putting it on the London streets; a few cabs have already made experimental appearances. They are to have taxameter fares. A document is kept in a church in Haarlem, Holland, which tells that in the year 1625 a certain Hans Zink was engaged, for a sum equalling a little over a shilling a week to wale up all those in the congregation who went to sleep during the sermon on Sunday. Zink was a human alarum for twenty years, but at the end of that time was dismissed because he had been caught napping himself while preaching was going on. About a million messages are sent over the world's telegraph lines every twenty-four hours. According to some returns recently issued, the number of telegrams despatched in all countries in one year reached the enormous total of 364,848,474. Great Britain heads the list with 92,471,000 despatches, the United States is second with 91,301,000, and Prance comes third with 48,114,151. Germany, Russia, Austria, Belgium, and Italy follow in the order named. The inner bark of many trees, such as the vine and horse-chestnut, is continuous and uninterrupted ; in others, suih as the ash and the oak, the fibres are separated during growth, forming a kind of network, in the interstices of which the medullary rays are seen. Of this sort is the famous lace-work tree of Jamaica, whose consecutive layers of fibres are interlaced so delicately as to present a close resemblance to real lace, both in colour and appearance. A former governor of Jam aica is said to have presented Charles 11. with a cravat, a frill, and ruffles of this vegetable lace ; Whilst bonnets, collars, and collarettes, made of it can be seen in the Museum of Kew.

The custom of having a special cake at waddings was introduced into England by the llomani. This cake, or rather biscuit, signified fruitfulness, hospitality, and prosperity. The rice that was showered upon the bride had a similar meaning For many centuries after the Romans left, the custom was to break the biscuit over the bride's head

and tben the fragments were picked up, and piled before her for distribution to her friends. At the Restoration Charles 11. returned with a small army of French cooks, who speedily converted the ancient biscuit, into a delicious piece cf confectionery, iced it with sugar, and gradually adorned it with emblematical devices, till it towered into the amazing structure which the luxury of later times has developed. It is said that tea is mentioned in Chinese chronicles as far back as 2,50013. G.,and that its cultivation was as much a matter of expert care then as now. Tradition tells us that its virtues were discovered by accident. Forty centuries ago there flourished the great King Shen Kung She, called "The Divine Husbandman," who was, on one memorable occasion at least, not above boiling some water for himself. Just as the water boiled some tea-leaves from an overhanging bough fell into the steaming liquid. The King drank some of the decoction while if was hot, and "felt himself renewed-in limb and sight for seven days thereafter." At the end of that period he consecrated tea ; as the sacred beverage of the " Flowery Land." France owns a million more square miles of Africa than we do, for while 2,714,000 square miles are British property, our neighbours possess 3,fJ0.»,000. It is true that this figure includes 228,000 square miles in Madagascar, whilst, almost two million square miles of French territory consist of the deserts of the Sahara; but measured by mere area, France dominates close upon one-third of the whole continent, whilst our share is hardly a fourth. If, however, Egypt and the Soudan are included in the reckoning, then the British and French shares are about equal, Germany comes next with !W:>,000 square miles, then the I'orltigucse with 7'.)0,000. After these come the Turks, with their ' somewhat shaky claims upon Tripoli and its neighbourhood. The Spanish have tiill.OOO square miles, and the Italians about the same. The remainder-about a million and a hall square miles—consists of Morocco, the Congo state, Abyssinia, and little Liberia. At the present juncture, views on Russia make interesting reading. About fifty-six years ftgo Richard Cobden travelled a great deal in Russia, and penned the following interesting letter in LS4'.): It is not possible in a note to do more than indicate the grounds of my opinion upon the subject to which your letter refers—the power of Russia. I wish the alarmists about ihe vast resources of the Czar, could all take a trip as I have done, into the interior of that country. Russia is a succession of villages, composed of log-huts widely scattered over an interminable pine forest, in a country where coal does not exist, and where the winter lasts half the year. People confound in their minds the defensive force and the aggressive power of Russia. She is invulnerable against foreign attack by land because no large army can be concentrated within her borders (unless it be in Moscow or St. Petersburgh), for want of accumulated stoves of food, &c. . . . Sho has, it is true, a large force of ships of war, but they are manned by serfs taken from the villages of the interior, who arc undeserving the name of sailors, and it is pretty certain they would never venture into an engagement with an English or American licet, and if they did it is quite •ertain they would be taken w destroyed.'

jVlcii who shave themselves Uc infor me<l of Hi excellemv nn«! smuolli-rui-tin<j ijnalitiw of the "Kiwi" iiuors, Man* jm even t<*ii>i»ei% extraordinary keenness of tlo ii<>t vibrate when cuHin;.: inln an extraordinary lu-avv Waul. ami give von a elean, luxurious shaw.. evt.ii if yon have the touchiest .--kin. Make nic i>t'>ve the>e htateineuts. I will change yum* ra/.or as often as yon like until yon are satisfied. KIWI is the name. Gel it at J. Avery s, the place for men's sundry heeds, Doom fttuel Ami