GENERAL INFORMATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 46, 13 February 1908, Page 4

GENERAL INFORMATION.

At thy Baldwin Locomotive Wort, I'hiladelphia, tlw clerks arc so expert in handing out wages on pay-day thai IS.'KKI iiHMi receive their pay in less than twenty minutes. The' highest leaves in the world are thi.se of'tholuaj palm, which grows on the hanks of the Amazon. They reach a length of :«lft. to SOft.. and are iron) Inn. i„ in breadth. The rat is such a nutaance in England that, it is estimated he causes damage to the extent of U0.000.000 every year. Jf all tju> young rate lived, a single" pair would "in three vears multiplv to li-lli.Otili rats. A biologi-t says that the two sides of a face are novel*alike. In two cases out of live the eyes are out of line: one eye is stronger than the other in seven cases out of ten; and the right ear is generally higher than the left. As .showing the enormous intere.-t taken in Limerick competitions, the British I'ostniaster-Coneral states that during August. September." and Oetolier of liioii the total number of sixpenny postal orders was .')l 1,00(1. In the corresponding three months of 1!107 the number was 0,772.000, or eighteen times as many. This means an immense profit to the Post Oflice. It is stated that on the three tube railways, comprising 41.08 miles of singie line, controlled by the Underground IClcelric Railways Company of London, the number of automatic signals average-. 1.1.8.1 per mile, and that these signal- drop and rise 1 ..1:18,282 times a week. The weeklv cost of maintenance is said lo be CI :i- (i.liSd per track niil», ."is :!.22d per signal, and 0.437 d per train

A native of llar!-t„n. Norfolk, claim? the razor record.- lie has had the .-nine razor in constant use without 'professional assistance for over sixty year.-. He used ii before h- was -21. and still uses it now that he is SO. He keeps ii in 1 rim himself wiih hone and strop. The. razor cost a shilling originally. Mine. Tetrazzini recently signed a contract to appear in America forty tini's. at a fee of 14011 per performance. Negotiations arc proceeding with a view to prohibiting the smoking of opium in th- foreign settlements of Sliang-

The mnnlier of children in reform■■lories per 100.000 inhabitants is 1.", in England. 22 in Scotland, and 12 in lr-'-land.

The Wood (Iwen (London) District Council have decided to set apart onroom in their new central library for conversations on books, etc.

.loseph Phillips, aged eightv-three. r - cenfly died al Farnliam. Krfsex. in lh" room in which he was born. He lived in the same house all his life.