News in Brief.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 20 November 1917, Page 1

News in Brief.

There arc seventy-two places named Newton in England. Most workers in Switzerland labour about eleven hours a day. The catgut in tennis rackets is made from the entrails of sheep. North Carolina, U.S.A., people catch 100,000 "barrels of fish yearly. Many suits of armour worn in the fourteenth century weighed 3751b each. Ants of South America have been known to construct a tunnel three miles long. About four million bottles of pickles are consumed every year in the United States. In England excess profits tax for the quarter ended June 3 yielded £34,8G7,000. A cablegram from Paris announces the death of Augustc Rodin, the famous sculptor. In a brood of cliickcns hatched at Harrow is a strong, healthy chicken with four legs. Ely is the only cathedral in existence that has a Gothic dome. It is ,170 ft high. Willow, before the war used for cricket bats, is now used for artificial limbs for soldiers. The Scots Greys have captured more flags in warfare than any other British regiment. More than 1000 members of the staff of the London Hospital are serving with the forces. Five hundred and twenty thousand acres of land in India arc given up to the growing of tea. A toy and doll manufacturer recently admitted he was paying £3000 in excess profits tax. In the fourteenth century velvet and silk were the favourite coverings for books of devotion. Italy has now 100,000 women in munition factories, against only 17G0 in August, 1914. The directors of the London City and Midland Bank have voted £100,000 as a bonus for the staff. It is proposed to set up an official reporting staff for the House of Lords at a cost of £1700 a year. Italy's war expenditure to March 31 was £725,000,000, and the monthly outlay now averages £50,000,000. The police have seized the printing plant of the Factionist ,a weekly paper published at Limcrick. Skim-milk contains the most valuable parts of the milk—the protein, sugar, and mineral salts —all but the fats. Owing to the improvements in antiseptic surgery, only six out of every hundred cases of amputation end fatally.

The case is reported from Petrograd of eleven bricklayers on a non-war job who earned in one week over £43 each. Greeks call themselves "Autochthones"—sprung from the earth, or earth born" —their own tribute to tlroir ancient origin. The issue of the first, publication of "Canada in Khaki" has realised £1 !>.">(> 7s 7d for the Canadian War Memorial's Fund. Two West Minster street-sweepers have been awarded the Military Medal. Both are sergeants, and have led platoons in action. The price paid by Mr Charles M. Schwab for J. W. Turner's famous masterpiece, "Sockets and Blue Lights," is £50,000. In the olden days pigs were considered a great delicacy in Rome, and those for the magnates wore fattened on honey, tigs, and whey.

The Japanese Emperor is sending a magnificent sword to France as an expression of the admiration of the Japanese nation for the valour of the French

Army. Tho Atlantic ocean in some places is nearly 19,000 ft deep. You might sink the highest peak of the Alps in it, and still have nearly half a mile of seawater covering it.

Tom Cannon, the famous jockey, whose death is announced, won his first race when he was thirteen, and altogether during his thirty years in the saddle rode 1544 winners.

A robin has built its nest and hatched four young birds in the base of the pulpit in a Sheffield Free Church. She flies in and out of the church undisturbed to gather food for lier young. Of all the people of Europo the French have the fewest children and the Irish the most. Tho average French family numbers 3.3 persons and the average Irish family 5.2 In England the average is 4.8. An engine is in harness for about 15 years, during which time it will run 240,000 miles, carry 600,000 tons or 1,000,000 passengers, and earn £60.000; its ordinary power is 300-horse, and its first cost is £2000. Extravagance is one very noticeable characteristic in Roumania. Driving a pair of horses is looked upon as almost an essential part of existence by all but the very poor. Even the artisan classes have their carriages and pairs in Bucharest. An emergency order has been placed by the United States Government for 6000 Lewis machine-guns for use by the army, navy and Marine Corps in the war with Germany. Three thousand of these guns will be used by the army. The other 2000 will be for tho navy and the Marine Corps. The first ironclad was H.M.S. Warrior, launched in December, 1860. Her ends were unprotected, but tho middle of the ship was "armoured" with 4% inch of iron, backed by ISin of teak, for this was found to resist any shot from the GB-pounder gun, then the most powerful gun in use by the navy. Twopence-halfpenny cabbages are said to have been used as a lure by an East New York vendor. The cabbages were displayed for sale, and while customers fought to secure the bargain, their pockets were cleverly picked. The police have arrested the owner of the store, claiming he was in the plot. Thirty-five hundred women doing work previously done by men in Canadian banks, three thousand in munition factories, five thousand nursing the wounded at the front, and in the base hospitals —these figures give a hint of the spirit in which the women of the Dominion are meeting the demands of the war.

Walnuts contain 40 to 70, liazcl nuts 60 per ccnt of oil. Walnuts originally eame from Persia; cucumbers from the East Indies; garden cress, peas, and onions from Egypt; radishes from China and Japan; spinach from Arabia; parsley from Sardinia; celery from the north and horse-radish from the south of Europe.