BREVETIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 31 July 1907, Page 4

BREVETIES.

Be just hut not just just. Liverpool has an official rat-catcher. 'l'h.' torpedo was first made in 1777. Nearly i-vcry man is someone's well-to-do relation. Every reformer is. to begin with, a crank. Norway's seaweed, used as fuel,.yields a greater revenue than its fisheries. Vegetarians have clearer complexions than people who eat animal food. The first guineas bore the impression of an elephant. A ton of gold fillings is yearly buried with America's dead. Heavenly mindedness is not exactly l)!';i'ln?3%. There are 3,000,000 acres of bog in Ireland. Many men are thoughtful but theirs are very small thoughts. A drowning man will clutch at a shark or a money lender. Boys learn Latin and the art of lying at school; but most, when they become men, forget the Latin. Peat artificially dried is being made into wood under heavy hydraulic pressure.

The average amount of sickness in human life is nine days out of the year. A woman who takes an interest in her books and her dressing is rarely dull. The suffragists at Home are asking for £20,000 for campaign funds. A man doesn't notice the expense so much at the time if he pays with a cheque. February, 1806, had no full moon. This phenomenon will not occur again for 2,500,000 years. Shoe-strings are made largely from the skins of the beluga, or white whale, which Is known as porpoise leather. The number of people throughout the world who speak English is said to be 116,000.000. The world's greatest pianists are Paderewski, Busoni, d'Albert, Carreno, Sauer, Rosenthal, Hamlourg, and Lament.

The first horse railroad was built in 1828. Cedar trees numbering 2GOO are out ii]> annually and used in the manufacture of pencils in the United States. During last year the Church Army sent 300(1 poor and unemployed persons to Canada, at a cost of £20.000. The black jaguar, which is found in Central America will attack any man by night or diy whom it finds lying down. The phonograph was invented in 1877. Iron tobacco pipes are popular in Central Asia. A third "of the telegrams despatched in England daily are sent from London offices. The average walking pace of a healthy man or woman is said to be about sev-enty-five steps per minute. Two hundred and thirty thousand people have licenses to sell or deal in beer in Great Britain.

Over eighf hundred British criminals* were executed in England during the I reign of Queen Victoria.

The largest hammer is in the Krupp gun works, Essen Germany. It was made in ISB6. and weighs 150 tons. Sixty years ago only 150,000 native children iu India were licing educated. To-day four millions attend school [dailv.

Observations in the Mediterranean proTe that the deepest spot in that body of water is 2406 fathoms, or nearly three miles.

Japanese pickpockets are so expert that fifty or sixty watches will often be stolen from a single theatrical performance. Many men write books who could expose thir own ignorance in a pamphlet. Eve had the best husband in the world —at that time. A modem incandescent lighthouse lantern, with a 3'/,ra mantle, gives 2100 candle-power, and uses no more oil than 1 the old six-wick burner, which gave only 700 candle-power. An average of three British seamen lose their lives every day by drowning, and 300 British steamers and sailing vessels are lost every year at sea. In the Crimean War it took 710 shots to kill a man. ■ In the Franco-German only 400 shots were necessary for a similar purpose. The coral of loads of Bermuda are the finest in the world for cycling. They are as smooth as a dancing floor and are never dirt v.

Lions and tigers arc powerfully affected ed by the smell of lavender water. Under its influence they sometimes become as docile as lambs.

Japan has the cheapest postal service in the world. For two sen (about sev-en-tenths of a penny; letters are conveyed all over the Empire. Granite is twenty times as valuable for building purposes as is brick. After granite come, in the following order, limestone, slate and sandstone.

The longest underground thoroughfare in Great Britain is in Central Derbysliire, where one can walk seven miles without coming to the earth's surface.

An evil reputation has long been borne by the upas tree. It is still a common belief that it is fatal for animals or men to rest beneath its poisonous shade.

Plants grown in violet colored glass, jhouse* are said to progress the slowest, J while those protected by red glass nourish the quickest, and are, moreover, the hardiest.

Five hundred and eighty-seven' different languages are spoken in Europe, but philologists look upon these as merely variations of only about fifty distinct languages.

It is generally supposed that the grey parrot is the best speaker, next to man. This is not the case. The "mesiah," an Indian bird, excels all others in its imitative powers.

In China all the laud belongs to the State. The average rent is half-a-crown an acre. The suj| 0 f t) le Yangtse Valley h so rich that a square mile is cupable of supporting 3SW persons.

More than (iCHXI women are employed in the liussian Secret Service. Some draw two thousand a year, or even more. On the great Orsk goldfield, in Siberia, all may dig free of charge, but they must sell their gold at a iixed rate to the proprietors.