NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1747, 14 August 1917, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

From January to August a fleet of lishing vessels is engaged in catching sharks off Iceland. A shark’s liver yields as much as live gallons of oil. The deepest Atlantic sounding yet discovered is 27,800 ft, It was taken 1(10 miles north of Porto Rico. The Pacific has a spot near Guam 4,800 ft. deeper. On an average every halfpenny in circulation changes hands eleven times a week, every penny eightlimes, every sixpence five times, and every shilling three times. Swimming on the hack in sea water, says a doctor, is the most beneficial form of bathing. Swimming on the side is at time injurious to the musfles of the abdomen. The great-grand-aunt of General Nivel le was Mrs Eliza belli Carter, whose translation of Epictetus is famous all over the world, and is still a classic in the British Empire. Pearl divers remain under water from fifty to eighty seconds on an average, but cases have been reported of their remaining as long as six minutes beneath the surface. A mo'dern rifle bullet will pierce the carcases of three horses in succession at 550 yards, or four at half the distance, or kill a man after passing through the trunk of a thick tree. In the Christ’s Hospital building at Horsham (England), there are forty miles of hot-water pipes, ninety-eight miles of electric wire, twenty millions of bricks, and five acres of wood flooring. Women of South Africa have recently forwarded to Lady Jellicoe several thousand pounds to be distributed among those who were rendered widows and fatherless through the Jutland battle. The Highland Light Infantry, the only unkilted Scottish regiment in the British Army, were specially granted the privilege of wearing trews as a reward for their great valour during the Peninsular War. The most curious vegetable in the world is the truffle, since it has neither roots, stem, (lowers, leaves, nor seeds. In some parts, dogs and pigs are (rained to dig for it, the animals being guided by their sense of smell. A painter who appeared before the South Shields tribunal told the members that if he were not killing Germans he was killing germs in various public places, such as schools. He was granted a month’s exemption. By a simple rule, the length of the day and night, any time of the year, may he ascertained by doubling the lime of the sun’s rising, which will give the length of the night; and double the time of setting will give the length of the day. Roughly, at the present time Great Britain’s excess of imports over exports is balanced by advances to her allies, so that she is keeping even, or perhaps a little better. This is the extraordinary proof of her capacity for business. The total number of commissions in the army and the navy granted to cadets and ex-cadets of London University O.T.C. up to tin; end of 1910 was 8,010, of whom 282 have fallen, and the honours include: Y.C., 2; D. 5.0., 3; Military Cross, 131; mentioned in despatches, 151. Apropos of the experiments being made to discover the uniform least visible in warfare, it is interesting to note that Lord Howe’s Light Infantry, raised in America during the year 1750, were dressed in nutbrown tunics, and were in every respect a model for forest-fighting troops. An analysis of drapers’ profits shows that, notwithstanding the war and the call for economy, out of 21 leading establishments in London, all but two made larger profits last year than in 1915, all did better than in 1914, and net earning increased by a fraction under £500,000,