All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 13, 28 March 1907, Page 38

All Sorts

v r— .-• The costliest diamond is the "Imperial, for which the Nizam of Hyderabad paid £430,000. It is a law of scienqo that sound cannot .travel through a vacuum. The sound waves require the atmospheric conditions for their vibrations. Stars seem to rise and set,, like the sun,- on account of- the earth's revolution on her axis. They seemto rise four minutes earlier every niglit; on aocount of -the earth's revolution in her orbit. , - j Thie first balloon was made by a Jesuit, about 1620. The idea was revived in. France by, M. Montgolfier in 1783 and introduced in England the following year. Bees swarm because they become too crowded in one hive. When the bees' feel that they are- crowded too much they create a new queen, and she leads a new colony off to get a start for themselves. , Each instrument excels in some particular -.passage — the piano in scale passages, the harp in arpeggio, ■ the mandolin in the rapid repetition of one note, the banjo in the rapid playing of broken chords, and so with lother instruments ; but the violin ■ can beat them, all .on their own- ground, while there is riiuoh- violin music that can be played on -no other instrument. An -English tourist was being driven, on a jaunting car through the. Donegal Highlands, and- after a time the" results of his observation came to the surface' in the following query : ' Driver, I notice that when you speak, to ycur friends whom you meet on the road you invariably do so in Irish, but when you address your ■horse you do so in English. How is this ? ' To 1 which came the retort : ' ' Musha now tlAn, isn't English good enough for him ?' 'Forty years ago there was not a single trout »in all the" length and breadth of New Zealand. To-day New Zealand trout are famous all over the world for their size and numbers, and thousands of fishermen come every year simply and solely to fish — to fish all the time and do nothing but fish. There is no doubt at all (says the ' Country Gentleman') about New Zealand being the angler's paradise. Everything possible is done to help him and encourage him and make him comfortable. Hotels in some parts exist solely for him, hotel managers are always ready to gi'ue advice, and in every town and village fishing-tackle shops abound, where polite proprietors are ready with rods, flies, baits, an.d information' of all kinds about the 'state of the rivers, the fish in them, the sort of fly to be used, and everything else the would-be fisherman may want to ' know. What a pity it is that New Zealand is so far away ! During, the recent "visit of Kllng -Edward VII. to Paris, Sir Francis Bertie, the British Ambassador, accentuated the fact that the . Embassy- is the King's residence by moving to an hotel. During a Sovereign's stay in a foreign capital the Ambassador officially ceases to exist. An Embassy in a foreign, city is, -a-, sanctuary. One continually shears, in' cases of trouble in Eastern countries, of persons taking refuge in the British Embassy, where they are safe from arrests unless the Ambassador or Minister gives .them up. An- invasion of an Embassy. by the police would be 1 as much a direct ' cause for war as the -invasion of the actual territory of the country by soldiers of the other Power. An Ambassador, not being Subject to the laws of the country to which he is accredited, can naturally not_ be sued. He is exempt from direct taxation, his let-" ters are delivered in special bags; and he is free from paying Customs duly. •'■ Here is a Frenchman's idea _jof golf :—' But ' yolir game of golf ! Oh, yes ! I know" him. You put on the , tunic red^so red as the lngleesh rosbif underneathdone. You - strap your sack -of bended-head sticks on - the back of a boy twice so small as the bag. " He scrape a moid pudding to make balance a leetle white ' ball. He make three bad tries to balance him;" then very angry you call loud, " Four." Then you what you call address the ball, and, ma foi, your address sometimes" is of language- to make afraid. You strike, and the ball find himself 'in .the 'boakaire..- You call loud for the nibelungen stick, ' and beat the dust • till your partner say; " Ho, chuckit !" You say . But, my ' friend,- I excuse myself to -repeat .what you say: v Ah ! . my friend, you are .a great nation, but 'your golf game gives me what you Ingleesh call ze hump.'