NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1686, 15 March 1917, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The second richest' man in Germany, Count Henekel von Donnersmark, died recently at the age of Bti. He was the intimate friend of the Kaiser, and lent Buda Pesth 30,000,000 marks. America possesses a few exceptional stretches of direct railway, and the claim is made that New Zealand provides the longest section of railway without a curve—a distance of 130 miles.

The Russian authorities are soiling by auction estates which belonged to Germans in the province of Bessarabia. To date 11 such estates have been sold for an aggregate sum of about £420,000.

No fewer than TOO London journalists are on active service, and the official organ of the institute publishes the names of over 3,300 British journalists who are serving or have served with the forces.

The band of the 3rd Battalion King’s African Rifles possesses a trumpeter who is barely ten years old and can play every call on either trumpet or bugle. He is now with the forces in East Africa. It is claimed for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers that it is the wealthiest and most powerful trade union in the world. It has a membership of 230,000, and accumulated funds of £1,750,000.

In Cleveland there is a clock (hat holds the world’s record for accurate timekeeping. Over a period of several months it showed a variation which, in a year’s time, would be toss than three seconds.

The Italian Minister for Agriculture has appointed a committee to collaborate with the English mission in Italy to consider what fruits and agricultural products can most conveniently ho exported to England.

It has been discovered after numerous experiments that dark hair is much stronger than fair. One dark hair can carry a weight of 113 grammes; while a light-colom - ed hair will break if a Aveighi of 75 grammes is hung from it.

The most valuable wedding present on record was probably the cheque for £BOO,OOO given a short time ago by Mr C. M. Schwab, the American “Steel King,’’ to his sister on her wedding morning, it represents 100 times the bride’s weight in gold!

You can get some idea of (he terrific force developed by modern naval guns when you are told that the eight 12in. guns on a ship like the battle-cruiser Indomitable, if tired together, develop an energy sufficient to lift the ship —of 17,250 tons —no less than 20fl. up in the

If expenditure of money is any test, America can certainly claim the credit of being a musical country. According to an estimate compiled some time ago by an expert, tlie United .States spends no less (ban £120,000,000 on music every year. Tins is three times as much as (he same country spends on its army and navy: while “musical Germany,’’ it is pointed out, spends ten times as much on its armv and navy as on its music.

Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Hedworth Meux, M.P., has been informed by the Board of Trade that proposals for the building of cargocarrying steamers, specially const raided to resist torpedo attack were submitted by the Admiralty some time ago, and fully considered by their expert advisers. They were not adopted because the experts considered they would involve so great a reduction of cargo-carrying capacity as to be commercially impracticable.

Wild boars, of which two tine young specimens from a French forest near the fighting line have recently reached the Zoological Gardens, once abounded among the primeval forests of these islands, and furnished a favourite sport in the days before fox and pheasant reigned supreme. In the time of the Plantagenets they were plentiful in the woodlands around London. James 1. hunted them in 1017 near Windsor, and down to 1083 wild swine still had their haunts in the more secluded parts of England. Two Frenchmen, MM. Lenta itre and Tcuillieres, have evolved an entirely new method of replacing a lost eye. They solved the difficulty of consistence by making the front of the new eye of hard caoutchouc, vulcanised and enamelled to represent the natural appearance, and the back of the eye of soft caoutchouc, hollowed out in the form of

:> hall and filled with ah’. These hollow eyes have been found to answer the purpose very well. They are soft and elastie; they respond in a remarkable manner to the ocular movements; they do not irritate the socket: and they have the great additional advantage of being unbreakable.