GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8060, 9 March 1906, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Bieh Knng King is the first Chincsa woman who ever made a public speech in tin Flowery Kingdom. She (lit) this nb Shanghai, addressing an audieuec of over live hundred people on political matters, and is said to have made a most astonishing impression. She has now gone to America to become a student of the University of California. She is not only elcv«i and original, but remarkably good-looking. Bone-black and ivory-black at* produced from ivory chips; gamboge is derived from the yellow sap of a Siamese tree ; and crimson, carmine, aud scarlet are all formed from the cochineal insect. Sepia is the inky Hind ejected by the cuttlefish when attacked, to render its presence invisible in the water. Maw umber and raw siemia aro natural earths, found near Unibria and Sienna respectively ; while tho camel is the producer of Indian yehow. * * « Matrimonial Insurance Companies muster strong in the Southern States of America, where Tennessee and Mississippi alone can count 168 of these associations. They mostly rejoice in attractive titles, u The Southern Confederacy of Benedicts and Brides," " The Golden - Egg Day Marriage Association," "The Heart-and-Hand Marriage Club," "The Daily Marriage-Bell Association," " The Star of the. South Day Marriage Association," The Safety Anniversary," " The Superior Daily Nuptial Guild," and so on. » • • There has just been discovered iA the ! primeval forests of India a tree with most curious and inexplicable characteristics. The leaves of this tree are so highly electrical that whoever touches one of them receives a severe electric shock. Tlic electrical strength of the tree varies according to the time of the day. It is strongest at noon, but disappears almost entirely at midnight. Its electricity also disappears in wet weather. Birds never rest or perch upon its branches, nor have insects ever been seen to alight upon it.

The other day n young woman of about nineteen was treated at the General Hospital in Birmingham for a peculiar thickening of the gums, which caused considerable protrusion of the upper Up, a great laeial deformity. The young woman, who was otherwise quite well, was asked by the doctor in charge of her case if she could in any way account for tie: unusual growth, and the only reason she could suggest was that she had kissed and fondled a little dog, which had recently died. On careful examination the physician decided that the trouble was caused by a parasite contracted from the dog. Tho case was at the time considered to bo unique, but a similar oue has since been reported from India.

In the year 737 .\.n., the Emperor Shomu caused numerous monasteries to be erected throughout Japan, the Kotokuin, at Kamakura, being one of these. In this , ancient monastery the enormous bronze image, said to be the biggest idol in the world, Is standing. This idol, which was built by Ono Goroyemon, a famous bronze-caster, in the year 1*250, is the image of Budda, a chief deity in Buddhism, and, though injured much by huge waved in 1405, is now still in an excellent state of preservation. It is about fifty feet in height, ninety-eight feet in waist circumference; the length of the fjico is eight and a half feet, the eye is four feet, the car is six feet six and a half inches, and the nose three feet eight and a half indies; the breadth of the mouth is three feet two and a half inches; and the circumference of the thumb is over three feet.

Eugene H. Lehman, the young student who was the first to be awarded the Ivhodes' scholarship at Oxford, is a self-made student and of American origin. His credential:! were indisputable, for they showed a percentage higher than those submitted by a score of other students. Naturally he had to submit to crowds of interviewers of all descriptions, so that his career might be handed down to posterity us a model for other struggling youths. "How did you manage to work your way through college so successfully? " asked an important representative of a very unimportant journal. "By keeping my shoulder to the wheel," replied Lehman tartly. The answer will be appreciated when it is understood that young Lehman worked his way through his American college with money earned by pushing an invalid in Iter chair for a few pence an hour.

Nowhere are children more considered than in Japan. Their parents are devoted to tlietn, and are constantly with theui, carrying them about, watching and joining in their games, and apparently never so happy as when with them. Other people's children also come in for a large share of attention, and fathers' seem to have as much pride in their offspring as mothers, ft is amusing on a tine moruing, about six o'clock, to sec half-a-dozen men sitting on a low wall, each with one or two litllc children whom he plays with and pets. The little folks are led to show off their cleverness, and, judging from appearances, they form the main interest of their fond elders. One would imagiue that with so much petting children must be spoilt and disagreeable. The contrary in the case, the children of Japan being the most well-behaved and charming little people in the world. To Ihe wisdom of Queen Bess, aided by the prudence of Burleigh, we owe the first printed British newspaper. " The English Mercurie," as it was called, was "imprinted at London, by Her Highness' printer, 15^8," and the earliest number, dated July 2)ird of that year, is still preserved in the library of the British Museum. This ancient news paper appears not to have been published at stated intervals, but only when important events required to be chronicled. Sometimes more than a month elapsed between ono number and the next. The first article, dated July 23rd. 1588, contains advices from Sir Frances Walsingham that the Spanish Armada had been seen in the Channel on the 20th with a favorable gale. It de scribes the joy of the British fleet at .the sight of the enemy, and describes the attack on it by die British on the 21st, after which it tied. The early numbers of " The English Mercurie " contained advertisements of books, very much like the advertisements of the same kind at the present day. Soma think that "Red Tape" was introduced from ITollaad. On the wrapper of an old packet bought more than a hundred years ago appears the word "Haarlem," as if it had been made there, surmounted by a British crown between the rose aud thistle, and inscribed "Warranted 0 yards." It was found to be durable, handy, and not easily lost. The first oilieril notice of its use. is in the "London Public Journal" of December 6th. 1058, wher*> a reward is offered for the return of "a'ittlc bundle of papers tied with a red tape, lost on Friday last between Worcester House and Lincoln's Inn." Its modern significance is associated with the "form filling, memorandum making, signing, countersigning, backwards and forwards, and zig-zag business " done at the "Circumlocution Office." as set forth with inch grim humour by Dickens in his "Little Dorritt." 1 An ingenious gentleman. lie tells us, connected with the Department, calculated "that enough red tape was used to Btretch in graceful festoons from Hyde I'avl: Corner to the General l'ost Oiliec." At a Court of Inquiry, after the Crime,m W;o\ the phrase was crystallised to furwul delay and mismanagement.