BREVITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 23, 20 February 1909, Page 3

BREVITIES.

In Tliiliet a week contains five days. Umbrellas were first used in China and Japan.

A innn breathes about twenty limes a minute.

L'iitil 17.">7, the legal year in England began oil 2oth .March. 'White eggs are laid mostly by birds that build nests in dark holes.

Toads become torpid in winter, and take no food for live or six months. Brazil nuts grow in such profusion that thousands of lolls are wasted cverv year.

Seventy-live per cent, of the meat consumed in England comes from foreign countries. Eight travels at the! rate of 280,400 miles a second; electricity at the rate of 280,500 miles.

In the early years of every kind of machine there is a great lack of beauty, as in motor-cars.

The population of the United States, at the present rate of increase, will he 100,000,000 iu 11)10.

Birmingham has the largest pin factory in the world, manufacturing an average of 37,000,000 a day. The largest bronze statue in existence is that of l'cter the Ureal in St. Votersburg. It weighs 1000 tons. Electric locomotives can pull heavier trains at a faster speed than steam locomotives of eipial power. The output of coal in Japaa in eleven years has increased from 201J.000 tons to 11,500,000 tons annually. There are forty-eight kinds of houseflies,

Applause is forbidden in Kussian theatres. Sealing-wax does not contain a single particle of wax. Soup made of fried wasp is uateii by tiie Chinese,

TV world's whent crop is 3,423,134,000 bushels annually. Some oi the mountains of the moon measure 30,000 ft in height. Over 80,000,0001b of tea arc consumed in the United {states annually. The world's estimated steam-power in use to-day is 120,000,000 li.p.

Tho Hague has a company llial insures speculators against loss in lot ttrios.

In swu years unl.v one passenger has been killed on tile Xew South Wales railroads.

Potatoes, after being steeped in sulphuric acid and pi'esssd hard, make excellent billiard hulls.

England sends 0,000,0001b of condensed milk and 5,000,0001b of biscuits to China every year. England has ''.'10(1.000 acres of woodland. There are forty-o,lie possible heirs to the Dutch throne, ' 111 Ireland the linen industry employs 70,000 people. The first newspaper was published in Ku;:i'lid in 1588. The actual cost of the Suez Canal was £24,150,000.

The ocean has more salt in tropical than m temperate zones. It takes three seconds for a table message to cross the Atlantic, A caterpillar e.iyts (1000 times Its own weight in food each month. lit japan, a man. can hire a horse, keep two servants, and live in excellent style [for a little over £4 a month.

A certain lawyer received an important appointment, and a newspaper, in announcing the fact, rei'erred to him as "a thriving young lawyer." The compositor, ill way® on the looVout for evil, set it up, "a thieving young lawyer." Tlifl damages' were heavy. An old woman went into n greengrocer's awl ordered a pennyworth of carrots. After being served she <en-, quired, "D'ye not throw something in \vi' them!" "Oh, yes," replied the greengrocer, "If ye wait a minute A'll throw in a seek o' tatties, an a barrel o' apples, an' a hundredweight o' turnips. an' a box o' oranges. An','' lie Rty>>'ted, as the old woman flounced out of shop, "when. A'm busy A'll throw