NEWS IN BRIEF

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 304, 19 December 1908, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF

Twenty-five women have seats in the Finnish Parliament. There are 50 miles of hair on an average woman's head. The United Kingdom consumes 1,200,.000,0001b. of flour annually. Horsehair from the tail is the strongest animal thread known. According to records recently completed Europe is growing steadily colder. For despatch-carrying, the Russian Army has trained falcons, which have; a far greater speed than carrier pigeons. In the South of France women are employed on the railways at level crossings, and at wayside stations, as signallers.

A leafless tree grows on an island ia the Pacific, it reaches a height of 30ft. and has branches spreading like an umbrella. In some parts of Holland a silk pincushion on the door-knob proclaims a birth. If the pin-cushion is red, the baby is a boy; if white, a girl. A swan has been known to live 300 years. There are at least 235,000 dogs in Constantinople. Windmills were invented and used by the Saracens. At least a million telegrams are seut over the world's wires daily. The 'highest clouds reach 10 miles above our heads and the ■ lowest a'/i miles.

From 21b. to 41b. of plumes is the average yield of an ostrich reared in captivity. In some, parts of Japan during a wedding ceremony the toys of the bride are burnt. The trees in Berlin streets give employment to a thousand gardeners and assistants, who take care of them. The yellowest gold comes from Alaska; the reddest from the Ural district. Australian gold is reddish, and Californian yellowish. The Suez Canal cost nearly £25,000,UUO to construct. Australia sent Great Britain 23,000 tons of rabbits last year. A kangaroo can jump liOft. to 70ft. in length and Hit. in height. About 4,500,000,000 passengers are carried on the world's railways annually.

In a lifetime of 70 years a man grows finger-nails which, if left uncut, would be 7ft. Ufa. long. In Vienna, it is necessary for a man to obtain bis wife's consent before he may ascend in a balloon. In Brazil, every man from twenty-one to forty-four years is subject to military service. Those who object on religious grounds are absolved, but lose nil political privileges. In most German restaurants, cafes, etc., a, locked box is placed for the reception of cigar and cigarette ends and •tobacco-plugs. The contents are periodically collected and sole! by a charitsociety. Last years the proceeds realised enough to provide suits of clothes for 1,72G poor children. Both married men and women, on an average, live longer than bachelors and spinsters respectively. The same force wiiich moves a ton over a good road will move eight tons on a railway, or .thirty-two tons on a canal.

Ferdinand I. of Bulgaria is a distinguished student of botany, a great ornithologist, an omnivorous reader, and a connoisseur in all matters of art. Post-oflices were first established ill 141)4. : s^ Brazil produced over u0,000,0001b. of cocoa last year. A cable message crosses the Atlantic in three seconds. ' The world experiences 30,000 earthquakes every year. Ninety per cent, of Japan's population can read and write. California's annual yield of ostrich feathers is valued at £20,000. ' Orange-blossom was adopted for bridal wreaths because the orange branch bears fruit and flower at the same time, and is considered a sign of plenty. The .sun daily raises 104 cubic miles of water from the world's oceans. Sixty thousand new mail-hags are required by the 'Post Office of England annually. The ilapsburg dynasty of Austria is j the oldest in Europe. It began in A.D. 1870.

There are eighty miles of tunnels in Great Britain, the total cost exceeding ' £(1,500,000. Not more than sixty-four persons can be. registered as owners of any one British ship. People who live in the iS'cilly Isles are forty-two miles from the nearest railway station. Fish live in the ocean ait a depth of three thousand fathoms, or eighteen thousand feet. It is calculated that the average temperature, of the North Pole is lOdeg. Fabr.. that is 'iideg. of frost. 11l London there are 70,000 ■municipal emplovees; in England, generally, there are close upon 2,000,000. The value of all the standing timber in Fnglund is estimated to be just under thirty-live millions sterling. lu'lS-11 there were no more than 8000 Jews in all Palestine; to-day there are -10.000 in Jerusalem alone. The length of the sole of the foot should be equal to one-sixth of the height of a perfectly-formed man. The tobacco monopoly has yielded the Austrian Government the enormous net profit of £0,000,000 for a single year. English people eat on an average 1311). of butter a head yearly. That is more than is eaten per head in any other nation. iSpaiu proposes to Imikl eight fine battleships, each of 14,000 tons, and five armoured cruisers. These will cost about sixteen million pounds. The area of India is a million and a half square miles, that of the United States three, and a half millions, and of liusisa eight millions of square miles. A Parisian newspaper has a director as well as an. editor. The director lays down the political line which the organ is to follow.

Wheat first went to England from America in 1770, but .the modern wheat trade with the Western world really begun in the famine year, 1817. The British railway companies are 1 ; able up to USO per head in the case of horses carried on their lines, £ls Deihead for cattle, and £2 each for sheep A wet blanket tang loosely is almost as good a bullet stopper as a thin steel plate. The Vuqui Indian- once beat the - advancing behind'a shield of wet blankets. No satisfactory -eicnlilie explanalion has ever been given of the method in which glow-worms and lire-llies produce this peculiar light, a. light which is entirely unaccompanied by heat. No alien can own a British ship, or any share or interest in one: but a limited liability company composed entirely of foreigners can do so. provided the vesscd is registered in England. There are some curious fads about our calendar. No century can begin 071 Wednesday. Friday, or Sunday. The same calendars can lie used every twenty

years. October always begins on the same day of the week as January, April as July. September as December. February, March, and November also begin on the same days. May. June, and August always begin on different days from each other and from every month of the year are always the same. These rules do not apply to leap-year, when comparison is made between days bcfoie and after February 29.