NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1736, 2 October 1917, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A strange method of cooking an egg is sometimes employed by shepherds in the East. The egg is placed in a sling, and whirled round and round until the heat generated by the motion has cooked it. The belfry of Bruges, Belgium, is probably the most famous in I lie world. It was built at the end of the thirteenth century. It is 353 ft. high, and possesses a carillion of 48 bells, regarded as the finest in Europe. During last year, grease to the value of £BO,OOO was sold by the sewage department of (he Bradford (,‘oi’poration (England), as a result of the recovery of fat from the washing and scouring of wool, Goveminent experts have now taken up the scheme. All copper, brass and bronze vessels and machinery parts in the Bavarian distilleries have been requisitioned. An appeal has been issued to the school children fo collect the smallest articles made -of these metals, such as'soldier.-* buttons, cartridge eases, and toy soldiers. A “lifer” who has returned to prison as an official is the position of a certain doctor. He was serving a life sentence in the Michigan State prison, and was given a full pardon by the State Governor. Decently the prison board of control appointed him as prison physician. Letters are being sent to our soldiers in Branco at the rale of move than 200,000 a night. Generally they reach (ho advanced base of the army within live days. At the main base they arc looked over, and letters for men whose names have appeared in the casualty lists are taken out and dealt with separately. The Queen, when visiting the National Welfare and Economy Exhibition in the new building of Ike London County Council, noticed that white Hour appeared in the recipe shown to her, and she smiling! remarked, “But what is the good of that ? We cannot get white Hour at Buckingham Palace.” The Arizona Indians have a peculiar and effective way of branding animals. The brand is made of steel, with a knife edge. It is fixed on the head of an arrow, and shot with a bow at the animal to he branded with such force that it cuts the mark in the hide. When the wound heals it leaves a scar, which looks as though burned with a branding iron. The whole globe is like two mountains placed on the equatorial plane. The vegetation and zoology vary front the equator to the poles just as they would on mountains, and the poles or summits, like them, are involved in perpetual congelation. The regions of Etna or TeuorHfe, in species almost exactly accord with latitudinal breadths, and the longitudinal accord with the soil and local circumstances. The hygrometer shows less moisture according to elevation, and in this respect the two hemispheres represent a mountain, the hygrometer exhibits the greatest moisture at (ho equator. A leading Boston newspaper devotes three columns of its space to a description of New Zealand I’hormium tenax. An article from its Melbourne correspondent discusses the past and present ihix industry, and expresses the opinion that there is no reason why New Zealand hemp should not be able to compete successfully with, sisal in supplying the requirements of binder twine and cordage manufactures, the Most valuable guide, according to an authority, is a lest which has been obtained of the relative strength of rival fibres, Manila, Italian, New Zealand, sisal, and European. Though (he test may be less valuable now owing to changes in manu - facture, the thoroughness of Messrs Frost Brothers (rope manufacturers and yarn spinners, of London) may he gauged by the fact that they took fifty yards of each fibre, all spun 25 thread, and by the same machinery, and showed the average of each ten yarns. The average of the test yer yarn was as follows: — Manila, 245; Italian, 221; New Zealand, 145; sisal,l2B: European, 122. There is a suggestion that the United States should import Has plants from New Zealand, and enter into the cultivation of Phomiura tenax and the manufacture of hemp as a substitute for sisal in the making of hinder twine.