NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1697, 12 April 1917, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Twenty thousand tons of potatoes are needed by the army every month.

The finest white flour contains only about 50 per cent, of the entire wheat.

The Hungarian Food Controller has fixed the price of butter in Hungary at 8s !)d per pound. The “Assize of Bread” for regulating the sale was instituted in the reign of King John. Owing to the demand for “comforts” for the troops, the cake trade has doubled since the war began.

A bottle of ale brewed by King Edward in 1902 was sold at Swansea for £ls 2s Cd for a war char-

At Le Touquet, on June 20th, 1913, a bowman sent an arrow 495 yards 8 inches —just over a quarter of a mile.

The result of the railway restrictions in England is that, roughly, 20 per cent, fewer people are now (ravelling.

A “request” to a theatre manager from the Lord Chamberlain’s department is equivalent to a censor’s command.

The late Sir Charles Cayzer, Bart., bequeathed £IO,OOO each to his sons-in-law, Admirals Jellicoe and Madden.

There are 2,398 newspapers in Great Britain. England claims 1807 j Wales, 120; Scotland, 254; Ireland, 195; and the isles, 10. Close upon 120 sons of peers have so far fallen in the campaign, and of this number no fewer than 02 were heirs to titles.

While handling a parcel at Blyth station, a porter, Thomas Gibb, was shot through the arm by a revolve]’ inside the parcel. The carefully-selected Aims shown at Sing Sing Prison, New York, are said to have an excellent effect on the morals of the convicts.

The Berlin equivalent of Downing Street is called the Wilbelmstrasse; in Vienna, the Ballplatz; and in Pelrograd, Singers Bridge.

A maid servant at Guildford has been awarded £ll 19s from Howe’s Charity by the throw of a dice, according to a will made in 107-1. So large a quantity of safetygloves for munition workers is required that it is believed the Government intend to slop the manufacture of gloves for civilians.

Statistics show that; at the close of 1914 £15,-150,800 had been invested in the cinema, business; while in 1915 and 1910 a fiu’ther £1,985,395 had been registered.

Beside the military and naval censors at the Press Bureau, there is a Cable Censors’ Committee for dealing with telegraphic messages, both civil and militarv.

Many Italian women are offering to place their jewellery and family treasures at the disposal of the Government for conversion into funds for the Italian war loan.

Instead of building a new clubhouse, the Rocky Mountain Club of New York have decided to hand over £200,000, the estimated cost, to the Belgian Relief Fund.

The authorities of a London Bank have told their girl clerks that V-shaped blouses and short skirts must be covered by overalls reaching to within two inches of the ground. The amount received by the Exchequer in payment of excess profits duty up to January 27th was £103,303,000. The estimated total

for the year ending March 31st, was £8(^000,000. The belligerents will have spent on the Avar the sum of £18,000,000,000 sterling betAveen them if hostilities continue until the beginning of the autumn at the present rate of expenditure.

Miss fhven, the world’s champion typist, has broken her previous record, Avhich Avas the typing of 8,379 Avords in an hour. She has lately typed 8,549 Avords in the same time, making only 02 errors.

Last year the number of visitors to Kew Gardens Avas 713,922, and the total receipts from admission fees during the period from January 17th to December 31s t amounted to £3,792 18s 6d.

In order that there shall be no more fear of overpaying panel doctors, the London Insurance Committee proposes that only 5d per insured person be paid for the quarter, instead of Bd.

The Rhodesia Resources Committee urges the Imperial Government to alloAV a Rhodesian representative to attend the prospective conference on the resources and post-war trade of the Empire.