NEWS IN-BRIEF

Levin Daily Chronicle, 11 October 1917, Page 1

NEWS IN-BRIEF

The belfry of Bruges, Belgium, is probably the most 'famous in the world. It was built at the end of the thirteenth century. It is 353 ft. high, and possesses a carillion of 48 bells, regarded as the finest in Europe.

During last year, grease to the value of £80,000 was sold by the sewage department of the Bradford Corporation (England), as a result of the recovery of fat from the washing and scouring of wool. Government experts have now taken up the scheme.

All copper, brass and 'bronze vessels and machinery parts in the Bavarian distilleries have been requisitioned. An appeal has been issued to the school children to collect the smallest articles made of these metals, such as soldiers' buttons, cartridge cases, and toy soldiers.

Letters are being sent to our soldiers in France at the rate of more than 200,000 a night. Generally they reach the advanced base of the army within five days. At the main base they are looked over, and letters for men whose names have appeared in the casualty lists are taken out and dealt with separately.

The Queen, when visiting the National Welfare and Economy Exhibition in the new building of the London County Council, noticed that white flour appeared in the recipe shown to her, and she smilingly remarked, "But what is the good of that? We cannot get white flour at Buckingham Palace."

The Arizona Indians have a peculiar and effective way of branding animals. The brand is made of steel, with a knife edge. It is fixed on the head of an arrow, and shot with a bow at the animal to be branded with such force that it cuts the mark in the hide. When the wound heals it leaves a scar, which looks as though burned with a branding iron.

The whole globe is like two mountains placed on the equatorial plane. The vegetation and zoology vary from the equator to the poles just as they would on mountains, and the poles or summits, like them, are involved in perpetual congelation. The regions of Etna or Teneriffe, in species almost exactly accord with latitudinal breadths, and the longitudinal accord with the soil and local circumstances. The hygrometer shows less moisture according to elevation, and in this respect the two hemispheres represent a mountain, the hygrometer exhibits the greatest moisture at the equator.

A leading Boston newspaper devotes three columns of its space to a description of New; Zealand Phormium tenax. An article'from its Melbourne correspondent discusses the past and present flax industry, and expresses the opinion that there is no reason why New Zealand hemp should not be able to compete successfully with sisal in supplying the requirements of binder twine and cordage manufactures, the Most valuable guide, according to an authority, is a test which has been obtained of the relative strength of rival fibres, Manila, Italian, New Zealand, sisal, and European. Though the test may be less valuable now owing to changes in manufacture, the thoroughness of Messrs Frost Brothers (rope manufacturers and yarn spinners, of London) may be gauged by the fact that they took fifty yards of each fibre, all spun 25 thread, and by the same machinery, and showed the average of each ten yarns. The average of the test yer yarn was as follows: — Manila, 245; Italian, 221; New Zealand, 145; sisal, 128; European, 122. There is a suggestion that the United States should import flax plants from New Zealand, and enter into the cultivation of Phormium tenax and the manufacture of hemp as a substitute for sisal in the making of binder twine.

The New York Sun quotes Chaplin as saying:—" I am ready and willing to answer my country's call to serve in any branch of military service at whatever post national authority may consider I might do most good, but I am waiting for word from the British Embassy at Washington. Meanwhile I have invested a quarter of a million dollars (£50,000) in the war activities of America and England, contributing to both loans. I registered for the draft here, and have not asked for Had I been drawn, I would have gone to the front like any other patriotic citizen."

Men who are meeting Americans at the front express surprise at the absence of what we call the Yankee twang from the speech of the soldiers. Can the difference arise from these Americans being of English and not of Irish descent? There is an extraordinary resemblance between the speech of the native of County Clare and that of the average middle-class American one meets. An Irish lady who is warworking in London is always mistaken for an American. "American English is just West of Ireland English, so I pass with honour," she boasts.