READERS’ QUERIES

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21215, 11 September 1940, Page 9

READERS’ QUERIES

“Curious.” —Between ISIS ancl 1935, the nuinlber of deaths directly or indirectly due. to earthquakes in New Zealand wa.3 '2'B'4. Of these io'o were due to thf uiawke’s Bay disaster or February. 193 1 “Soldier.” —Napoleon Bonaparte was first called “The Little Corporal” after the battle or Lodi In 1790, because of his youthful age and low stature. “Co-incidence?” —Vos, the Duke of Marl■bo rough's family name was Churchill. “Financier.” —The “South Sea” scheme of France was known as the Mississippi Bubble, projected by John Law, a Scotchman. The projector was t<> have tiie exclusive trade of Louisiana, on the hanks of the Mississippi, on condition or liis taking on himself the National Debt, which was 208 millions sterling. Law issued ten times the amount m paper money to open “The Hoya.l Bank* of France” in 1717, ami so long as a 30-franc note was worth 2o francs the scheme was a prodigious success, but immediately the paper money was at a discount, a run on the hank sot in, ancl the scheme hurst.