MINCEMEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 5, 30 January 1909, Page 3

MINCEMEAT.

' Swallows can lly 128 miles mi hour. White is the Siamese! nioiiriujg color. One-tenth 0 f tlie world is slili miex plorcd. 1 The bou-coustriclor has 320 pairs of A diver's suit is weighted with 1001b ul' lea J.

Use tobacco as yuu do jour food—in moderation. ' -Last year the world's production of gold \va, £85,000,000. Heal uy cows yield, ou an average, •JijJ yalious of milk yearly. ■ Bank-nous worth iiljout a farthing each are circulated in I'aruguay. Tlie famous Maelstrom whirlpool is tour geographical miles in diameter. The Jirst submarine boat was tested iu I'lymouth harbor, England, in 1774. 11 takes about ten weeks to build a railway-engine. A bottle ol champagne contains three hounds of grapes. Tun world's annual eotton erop is many 2 1 /, million tons. Since 1838 the population of the Germa.i Empire has doubled. -Notwithstanding its thickness, the elephant's skin is very sensitive. rile annual consumption of sii"ar for jam-making j s 50,000 tons. * Under normal conditions, tea inches of snow yield one inch of water. liussia has the highest death-rate in Europe. It is 41 per 1000 a year. The nearest approach of the planet Mars to the earth is 30,000,000 miles. Eighty per cent, ol Ireland's emigrants go to America. Crabs measuring .\,\\a feet in length have been found iu India.

Sixty languages are iu everyday use in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The world's sheep-shearing record is 2304 animals in nine hours. Scientists assert that a lly can make o'OO strokes a second with its wings. ' Uver 800 people were employed on the Drury Lane stage for "Dick Whittiu"ton." The capacity of the Atlantic cables is 300,000,000 words annually. Only- 25,000,000 are sent. The ostrich lives about thirty years, and iu captivity yields, on an average, 41b of feathers annually. It is calculated that one fly will lay about a thousand eggs and leave 25,000,000 descendants in a season. The foggiest year in Loudon was 1873, with 74 fogs, and the foggiest month, December, 1879, with. 17 foggy days. As a protection against heat, tins Berlin lireniau wears a jacket iilled with water.

Jewish players have retained the chess championship for the last forty-two years. The' annual expenditure on the roads of .the United Kingdom is about £lB,000,000. Absence from church was a punishable offence in England in the seventeenth century. Living j s i London is 40 per cent, cheaper than in any of the large cities ol' the United States. The wear and tear on the world's currency is estimated at two tous ol gold and 100 tous of silver annually. In London there are 330 places of public cateilaiunient, with a combined seating capacity for 400,000 people. Incomes of as much as £BOO to £IOOO a year have been made merely by painting and designing Christmas-cards. "Waits" were formerly an established institution, wearing "Waits' badges," embroidered with the town arms. "■loan Sanderson" was ira old dance, in which each lady kissed all the gentlemen twice, and each gentleman returned the compliment. The Jlont Cenis tunnel, which lies between liardoanecbe and Jlotlaui, and 'eight miles long, was completed on "Christmas Day, ISJO. ' More Jires occur in l/uidon on Saturdays tlian on any <il j-r ,11 v in the week, •and more in Augu-'. an! :)■., ember tluu in aay oilier mouth , Last year 330,01)0 person, were ta.vd in England on incomes between £IOO -and £4»0; 00,000 between £4OO and ' £.)00; -28,000 between £sl) and £U00; ..tind 14.000 U'tween £OOO and £7OO. * Hop substitutes used hi brewing are: "Liipiurice, rice, maize, oats, torrelicd "barley, yeast foods, "liurLonisers," deii"tiin. catechu, tanuiu, optanin, quassia, 'lceland ami Irish moss, linseed. Lake Union contains over 110011 islands —that is, more than any other lake in the world.

In electric working of railways there is a loss of (in)ereimJ^^^^M^j^i^| The total value of eggs imported into England last vcar from Russia. Dellmark, and (lermany was .C8 ) <H)l).u'0().

In Persia the dough for milking bread is rolled out as thin as u pancake and as long as mi ordinary towel. : Silk as line as any from n cocoon is spun by the prima nobilis, a shellfish found iii the .Mediterranean Sea. Norwegian lir makes the best nvists. Next comes, ill order, the spruce fir, American white pine, and Scottish pine. \liout .100,000.0(10 of the world's population live in houses. 700.000,000 in huts and caves, while '250,000,000 have no regular shelter. During the past fifty years there were 113!) earthquake shocks in the I'nileil Kingdom. 10,:!0(i in Crewe, 27,.'>2(j in Japan, and -27.072 in Italy. Of three wires of the same thickness, one made of gold will sustain 1.'.01 hj; one of copper. 3021b; and one of iron, 5101b.

■ There is a lighthouse lo every H miles of coast in England, to every 34 miles iii Ireland, ami to every 3!) miles in Scotland. There are three varieties of dogs that ui'ver bark—the Australian, the Egyptian shepherd dog, and the "lion-headed" ling of Tibet. 11l Sweden, the woman's snlTrnge movement is making, such progress that the association there has now 1'27 brunches, with over 10,000 members. The word "carol" originally denoted a certain dunce, in which the dancers, forming a ring, circled round with a. peculiar rhythmic movement. ■ The hardest carbon steel can lie cul with a soft steel circular saw without teeth revolving at great speed. The saw actually melts the steel. A love-letter cngKivcd on a brick lies in the British Museum. It is a proposal [or the hand of mi Egyptian princess, i and is about 3500 vein's nld. [ 'the world's sleepcst railway has a 1 "liide of 70 per cent, a I its upper cud, land an average grade of (iii per cent. This is the Virglbnlim cable op the side 1 „f a mountain in Southern Tyrol, Austria. The length of the line is Ol.ifl. "All in a Harden Oreeu/' "Catherhg of Peascods," "Lumps of Pudding,'' •-''Under anil Over," "The Bath," "The Slaughter House," and "Have at Thy Coat,' Old Woman," arc the names of old Christmas dances now out of fashion.

A Cir.eciioi.ik man who stole a pair of boots three years ago has just been .sent to prison for forty days. "t would raylher 'ave a Hick o' bacn n hung up i' Hi' house ncr a pictur" is a saving attributed to Yorkshiremen. '"Long prayers must be killed; they are uuscriptural, nnrt there is no prayer in. the Bible of a quarter of an hour or twenty minulos' duration," saiil I)r. Tnwnsend, president of the National Free Church: Council, speaking at Newcastle.

At a speeial meeting of Waiheino County Council Wednesday was iixcd fur Hie statutory half-holiday. Sir 11. Toner, AgcnHicueral for Queensland, despatched 2{i;it assisted and free emigrants to Queensland last yu#T. ,£n - IV)i- tlio. ilrst time for nearly seven hundred year- Here was no mayoral procession to -h 1 i-L November at King's Lvnu |KBgl.:.iil|. The present flavor (Mr. It (ireenj, who is a worker, holds very pronounced opinions on religious matters. , A peasant, followed liy a goat, walked into the local bank at Aurillac the 'other day to pity in some money. As he was going out the clerk noticed that the goat liad a piece of paper hi his 'mouth. The clerk vaulted over the. '('counter and caught the animal, just in .time to prevent it swallowing a liond ;\vorth £3OOO, which it had nibbled oil' : tho counter. Overwhelmed by the abundance of wine pressed last' autumn, an agriculturist of Emilia (Italy) sealed up 0;io of the rooms of his house, and used It as a receptacle, in default of an adequate supply of butts. Locusts in Algeria have found a dangerous enemy in Jl Ay which follows them and lays its eggs where they lay theirs. A larva issues from the egg of the fly and devours the locust eggs. The larva' changes into chrysalis, a'nd then into a perfect, insect, which follows the flight of the locusts, repeating the same performance. The liermondsey liitardiaus, hy dismissing women cooks in the workhouse and appointing a man in their places, have saved £242 on the dietary hill for the past twelve months. This is without detriment to the quantity of the ir itns' supply of food, the economy having K(U effected through the ab6<tnco of waste,