NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1745, 7 August 1917, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Rice is 20s per lb., ami sugar 10s per lb. in Servia. Condemned army boots sold by auction have realised £24,000. Germany is to replace silver and nickel money with zinc coins. Telegraph posts along a railway are arranged thirty to the mile. Lions and tigers are too weak in lung power to run more than half a mile, A copy of the first edition of “Pickwick” has been sold in New York for £OOO. “Kitchener’s Own” is the name of a new oversea battalion being raised in Canada. The Scots Greys have captured more Hags in warfare than any other British regiment. Analysts say that butter is the most nutritious article of diet, and tha,t bacon comes next. Italy has now 100,000 women in munition factories, against only 1,700 in August, 1014. ! A scheme of holidays in relays has been organised in the armament works in Sheffield, England. The number of Americans engaged in making munitions for the Allies is estimated at 5,000,000. The blue coat worn by butchers originated from its being the colour of the uniform of a guild. Eighty-two thousand nine hundred working days were lost through 29 trade disputes during April in England. Italy’s war expenditure to March 31st was £728,000,000, and the monthly outlay now averages £50,000,000. In Glasgow schoolchildren bring waste paper every day from their homes to the schools for subsequent collection. An elephant's sense of smell is so delicate that the animal can scent a human being at a distance of 1,000 yards. .4 The income of Air Henry Eord, the American motor car manufacturer, amounts to over £7,000,000 a year. President Wilson is Commanderin Chief of (he national forces in U.S.A., and he commissions all officers therein. A German,,, police-lieutenant in Berlin says he lias discovered how do make bone produce 25 per cent, of fat for human consumption. (Sergeant-Major Keys, one of the orderly-room clerks at Worthing recruiting office, is a Mutiny Veteran, and is 82 years of age. Two thousand letters, each describing a solution of the submarine menace, were received by the United States Navy Board in a week. About 10,500,000 of the American people are engaged in agriculture, and over 7,000,000 in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, “The Allies used to attack us like a peal of bells; now you come like a chord,” said a German officer captured in the recent advance. Brazil was formerly an Empire, but at the revolution of 1880 the Empire became a Republic, and Dom Pedro 11., the then Emperor, was exiled. The U.S.A. furnishes about twothirds of the annual world crop of cotton; the value of raw cotton exported to Great Britain in 1015 was £45,580,121. In the British jewellery trade the early promulgation is anticipated of an order prohibiting the manufacture of any ornaments or trinkets containing gold. The Royal Patriotic Fund has distributed £3,300 at Portsmouth to 470 widows, .080 orphans, and 100 mothers distressed by the Jutland battle bereavements. General Kuropalkin is reported to have accepted a bribe of £2,000,000 from Germany for the surrender of Riga. He sent the £2,000,000.t0 the Duma and held on to Riga. It has just been .discovered that the dust from the cement'mills of the United States can be made to contribute at least one-quarter of the potash supply required by that country. Two Italian inventors have developed a system of floating safes' for installation in ocean liners for registered mails and valuables, in view of the submarine and other contingencies. A German lieutenant who surrendered with half a company to General Brussiloff’s army explained his action by the spiritless condition of the troops, caused principally by hunger.