NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1758, 11 September 1917, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

loavo, U.S.A., is planning for a State medical library. The effect of waves can bo felt to a depth of about 3,500 feet, , Steam from volcanoes in Italy is now used to operate power plants.

A Red Cross “drive” in Noav York resulted in a collection in one day of £0,000,000.

In the United States the SparroAV has six broods a year, in England seldom more than three.

The Lion BreAvery of nine buildings at Bischofsheim (in Bavaria) has been completely destroyed by lire.

The Pennsylvania Railroad has carried about 000,000,000 passengers during the last four years Avithout a fatality,

In aid of the American Red Cross the American theatrical profession are to give the gross receipts for one day.

CroAvn Prince Carol of Roumania has received the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour from the French Government.

The old Greek language, Avhich has become corrupted, has during the last century been restored towards its old purity. The president of Peru announces that measures Avill be introduced into congress calling for regulation of the liquor traffic. After seventy-five years of life the average man has eaten 110 tons of food, some fifteen hundred times his OAA’n Aveight. The hire of transports chartered to convey Indian troops, and then lent to the Australian Government, cost £850,000 in 1915-10.

The licet of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution uoav consists of 203 lifeboats. Since the Avar began they haA T e rescued 3,300 lives. Great Britain, Prance, and Russia, avlio Averc the protectors of Greece, chose Otho, son of the King of Bavaria, to be King in 1832, Recent experiments on sugar beets in i’oavs running east and Avest found a yield seven per cent greater than in rows north and south. In olden times saints’ days Avere regarded as lucky days, and Avere marked on the calender Avith red ink. From this sprang the term “red letter day.” The robbery of graves is the only crime under Chinese luav for Avhich the thief may be justly killed on the spot by anyone finding him out. About 1,500 cubic feet of air a minute are required to prevent danger of poisoning from carbonmonoxide thrown oft by a gasolineengine running.

A flag-pole has been connected wit h an electric bloAver, Avhich sends a current of air through holes at the top, thus causing the flag to Avavc Avhen no breeze is bloAving. Canada’s coal production of the Dominion in 1910 amounted to 14,483,385 tons. The consumption, hoAvevcr, Avas 29,805,850 tons, of Avhich the railways took over 25 per cent.

Owing to the scarcity of paper in Italy, a decree is to be issued prohibiting the publication of uoav newspapers and reviews during the Aval', and for six months aftenvards. It has proved feasible and effective to equip Avith skis the front Avhcels of automobiles for travel through deep suoa\ t , using the chainarmoured back Avheels for propulsion, Tavglvo years ago the United States led in the Manchurian market as a supplier of piece goods, but today the Japanese haA r e largely ousted the foreigner from that field. Just as the chin gives qualities to the face, so the thumb marks the personality of the hand, and is an unerring index of a man’s natural strength or weakness of character. Fountain pens arc tested by an instrument called a micrometer. If one piece of the mechanism is out even a six-hundredth part of an inch, the micrometer rejects it as faulty.

The legend of the spots on the John Dory fish is as follows: —The John Dory, it is said, is the only fish Christ ever touched. It has kept the marks of the Saviour’s fingers about it ever since. The Russian Ministry of Education has been informed that during excavations in Eupatoria, near the sea, an old town has been discovered, some walls and towers of which are quite distinguishable.

Plans for an aerial fighting unit, believed.to be the first of its kind in the world, are announced from San Diego, California. Two 100-horse-power “flying-boats” are to be used in combating “water-front” fires,