All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 1, 3 January 1907, Page 38

All Sorts

In Italy only incomes of £18 a year or less are exempt from taxation. In Prussia the limit ( is £45.

An experiment has shown that 1000 tons of soot set tie" yearly on, the 10 square miles of London's area. Over sixty miles of tunnel have been cut out of"the rock of Gibraltar. - - ' land animal is known .to. have naturally poisonous flesh. There are, however, several fish whose flesh „is deadly. ' . -'. s ... • ,_ Gibraltar- is the smallest British possession. It measures less than two square miles. Canada is the biggest, witn 3,7,46,000 square miles. " Never in -, the history of the , English Parliament have the full number of -members been present at one sitting

Spain is - ranked" second in supplying the world with j honey. • Her bee-hive^ number over a million and a half. - '

In Russia an expensive domestic industry consists of the manufacture^ of wooden spoons, -of* which as many as 30,000,000 are .-made annually. They are nearly -all" of birch"_wood. - ' ' ' ;_; _ '__ ls T o other nation in the world owns so much absolutely useless terriloiy as the BiAtish. .. Banks Land, Prince- Albert -Land, "Victoria and. Baffin, Land, with hundreds of other Arctic islands and lands, are at present quite useless. The world's - supply of wood is decreasing rapidly. Coal, as a substitute, has not lessened the demand, and the., many industries which use wood in great v quantities, run the numbers of tons consumed annual- ' ly into the millions. . He was a noble lord, and -he was in an awful rage wil'h- one of his' footmen. 'It is intolerable !'' he exclaimed.- ' Are you a fo^ol or am I? ' / Oh, my lord,' replied James, - with- humility, ' 1 am s^ure you would not keep a servant who was a fool.' - ' Yes,' said the" emphatic lady ; ' I tell you that women ■ ought to enjoy the same rights- as men-.' 'The same rights, Maliida,' returned her husband. 'Do you mean that they should, be tram conductors and policemen ? ' ' Certainly.' ' And „ soldiers ? ' 'By all means.' 'Then I am in -favor-- of it. Don't you think you would like^to enlist, Matilda ? ' , An elephant had a raging toothache, the agony of which caused her to nearly destroy her caravan. She was thrown on her side and roped to stakes. Two men held a ' pair of ice tongs fast round the aching" tooth, and a couple •of dray noises' attached -to the tongs by "a rope did the rest. The tooth was sixteen inches long by three inches, across. The. Japanese House l of Representatives consists of, 300 members, elected .by ballot, each member receiving "a salary. Its House of Peers consists of mmember s-ost s 1 the royal family, pi-inces and "marquises, .counts, /viscounts, and -barons elected as representatives or the several" orders, and persons elected for seven years by "and from the highest taxpayers in each city and pre-. lecture. 1

How- an American^ machinery agent' secured' an order in Japan is related as follows.: It was a question of some- Jathes for a large factory which was being started. They were required of a certain size, The agent for a British fum said : ' That is three, inches longer than they are made, and we can make ' no alteration.' 'The American said: ' I will .make them to any size you like.' The American' secured the order. I found a week or two ago (says, a Biblo agent of Yung Ping , Fu, Chihli Province, China), . that our copies of the ' Scriptures were- being -surreptitiously t bought from colporteurs on 'the .streets and then employed' in wrapping up "copper coins, much in the same way that dollars are wrapped up by foreign banks. The # 'reason for this is that' Scriptures are sold much - too cheaply ; cheaper, indeea, than the commonest paper that can be purchased in- China, .and \t seems >hat the Bible societies should :'agree together to raise the price somewhat. Better, smaller sales than . such wan•ton destruction.' of the Sacred Book. A large firm that had 'so used our books, sent v a written apology; undertook not, to' repeat ' the 'offence, and contributed _..the sum of twenty dollars in gold .to the GbvlrWent boys' school -in Tientsin..' In the , settlement of this case, it is a pleasure to add" that weare indebted in great measure to the Roman Catholic Bishop, 'to whom the offending business house appealed.