NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1740, 26 July 1917, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

No sound could possibly be beard ou the moon. Brass is the best reflector of beat of any metal. Early •wheat harvests are always the most productive. Sittingbournc, England, is to have a municipal piggery, Indians use the dried body of the candle-fish as an illmninant. In Venice 0,000 people are cm--ployed in the making of glass beads. Tbfc daily ration of bread in the British Navy is now 10 oz. per man. London has the lowest deathrate among the great cities of the world. The number of dogs licensed in the United Kingdom is approximately 2,500,000. Seventy thousand motor-trucks have been called for by the U.S.A. War Department. Since the outbreak of war, South African mines have yielded £IOO,000,000 worth of gold. Devon farm labourers are making ' 10s a week by catching moles and selling their skins at 7d each. Last year the consumption of beer through army canteens in England Was 1J million barrels, A substantial meal of soup and currant pudding at an Edinburgh kitchen for the poor costs a penny. Mullet arc perhaps' the only fish that throAV out regular sentries in front of and above their shoals. The carved screen in King’s College Chapel at Cambridge is the finest work of its kind in the world. The issue of socks to prisoners of war in Germany is about to be increased to three pairs every six months. Few newspapers in Great Britain are now obtaining their paper for loss than four limes the pre-war figure. The number of men killed at Trafalgar was 499 only. The area of the Waterloo fight was but three miles by two. The first book ever printed with numbered leaves is supposed to be Caxton’s “Aesop’s Fables,” published about 1475. The prize-winner in a ’potatogrowing contest for boys in Ontario realised the remarkable yield of 420 bushels per aero. In the west cloister of Westminster Abbey is a gravestone to John Broughton, once champion prizefighter of England. Fourteen boys from the training ship Exmouth have saved £BSB, most of which has been invested in War Savings Certificates. German women arc claiming, not without patriotic pride, to have welcomed 3(10,000 illegitimate babies into the world in 191(1. A French doctor has suggested that turf be used instead of coal in the manufacture of explosives, as turf yields more and costs less, Mr J., Picrpont Morgan has applied for £500,000 life insurance. This is said to be the largest policy ever written under one name. Meat dealt with at Smithliold, London, during the first three months of the year totalled 81,227 tons, 11,(100 tons yess than last year. It was stated at Old Street Police Court recently that a jug placed upside down on the counter is considered in the East End a challenge to fight. A German Empress has sent a considerable portion of her private jewellery abroad for sale. It comprises many jewels of great value. Three thousand and fifty-six ships, totalling 12,881,507 tons, have passed through the Panama Canal since the opening in August, 1914. The new Austrian Emperor has abolished the Easter ceremony at which the Emperor and Empress washed the feet of 12 old men of Vienna. Supplies of Irish coal from an extensive mine recently ’ discovered near Giant’s Causeway, are being regularly sent to films in Derby and Bristol. The earliest known life assurance company was established in 1699, in London. It was known as the “Society of Assurance for Widows and Orphans.” Cats and several other animals have a false eyelid, which can be drawn over the eyeball, either to cleanse it or to protect it from too strong a light.