BREVITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 3120, 20 January 1908, Page 4

BREVITIES.

Banns of marriage are in force only for three months from the date of the latsst publication. A light of one candle-power is plainly visible at one mile, and a light of three candle power at two miles. At present there are 3,500,000 children enrolled as members of Hands of Hope in tin* United Kingdom. In the course of a case at the l/mdon City Summons Court a man said lie delivered 4,000 clean towel* daily at stockbrokers' offices.

To educate Ixmdon in public day schools costs £5,000 a year. Of this the nation pays £2,000,000, and Umdon the rest.

The wreck record of the Baltic sea is greater than that of any part of the world. The average is one a day throughout the year. There are in the United Kingdom 385,835 aliens who were born abroad. Thii is an increase of 124.000 in ten years, or 12,400 a year. It is officially estimated that ravages of the codlin moth in the United state* represents £2,800,000 annually. The lighthouses and lightvessels, buoys and beacons, round the Britit-U coast, cost over half it million a year to maintain. The Brussels Museum purchased lor 172 a picture attributed t» Teniers. It was ascertained recently that the picture is by Rembrandt, and is worth £2,0(10. •luvenile smoking has increased rapidlv during the last few years, and has had a bad cflfect upon the general lieallh and physique of the present generation, while it must have even a worse effect ■ upon the future generation. Journalists ought to have fairly easy times in the Polar circle, where the papers are only issued once per annum., There are three or four of these. One of them is the " Eskimo "Bulletin, edited near Cape Prince of Wales, on Miring Straits. . . The "Petit Parisien instituted a discission among its readers, asking an answer "Yes" or "No" to the tpiestion. " Are you in favour of the death penalty''' The answers received to date namlier 1.452.347, divided thus: "Yes," 1.083,(15.); "Xo," 308,002. One of the most wonderful underorotind waterways in the world, which was constructed at the latter end of the eighteenth century by the Dukes of Bridgewater, is now being used for the conveyance of waste water from tlv l Karl of Ellesmerts collieries at Walkden, near Manchester. This unique canal, which is entirely underground.

with its arms and junctions covors over forty miles. " His Majesty the King I>y no means approves of tipping," says a writer in "The World and His Wife," "and does his best to suppress the practice." A hotel has been started by Mr*.

Kmmwell Booth, of the Salvation Army, at Leeds, for working women only. The establishment is entirely staffed by women.. They have made bread from peanut meal for many years in Spain. The bread i« light anil porous, hut rather unpalatable, and it is eaten only by the lower classes. The first silk hat was worn ill the streets of London by John Hetherinton, a haberdasher, on January .">. 17!)". Tie was arrested for inciting a riot, but was dismissed with a reprimand. The popularity of the game of bowls is proved by tlie fact that there were 110,116 players on the Glasgow greens during last season. Over 24.000 games were played on the London County Council's greens )a«t year. The floor space of St. Peter's, Rome; is 227,000 square feet—the greatest cathedral in the world. The female brain commences to decline in weight after the age of thirty; the male not till ten years later. .Japanese workmen are all labelled with the character of their, trade and the name of their employer. The doll is probably the most antique of toys. It has been found inside the graves of the children of ancient Rome. Calico-printing was a new industry in .-(apan twelve yearn ago. To-day a single firm lias a factory covering nearly four acres.

Mf. liusliy, of Terriers, Buck*, lias grown a cabbage measuring l-l'/oft. round the outer leaves. There were seventeen heads on the stalk. The population of Canada, according

to the official estimates of that country, was 0,504,000 on April I—an increase of 21 per cent, in six years. The first-class battleship Superb, a vessel of the improved Dreadnought type, is 4!) oft. long, has 82ft. beam, and a displacement of 18,600 tons, against the Dreadnought's 17,000. No less than £s'/,04!i.51 I wil be spent on new railways, canals, tramways, eleetricty, gas, and waterworks, if all the Bills seeking powers wore (Missed by the House of Commons. The first submarine was built of wood and looked like a tortoise. The Chinese issued banknotes more than 2,000 years licfore Christ. During last year mushrooms to the value of £115,000 were exported from Japan, Squares, triangles, and similar implements used by draughtsmen are now made of glass. Ink for rubber stamps is made of aniline dye mixed with glycerine. The dyes can be obtained at druggists' shops.

The Royal Mint, as now constituted, may lie said to date from 1817, and the buildings from 1810. the latter having been completed in that year at the cost of over €250.000.