NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1738, 9 October 1917, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Chicago was formerly a swamp. One-seventh of the total area in Ireland is bog-land. The word “and” occurs 40,277 times in the Bible. Tailless cats, with purple eyes, are common in Siam. Lightning travels nearly a million times faster than thunder. Sunlight will penetrate very clear wiuer to a. depth of 1,500 ft. A Greenland whale is equal in -tveig'iil-Ui 88.olejdiants, or 440 bears. One mile of: slee! riril 430 tons of metal and 145 tons of iron. From 1790 to 1860 the world’s wars cost £3,047,000,000 and 4,470.000 lives. . A railway engine may roughly be said to be erpial in strength to 900 horses. In 1230 (he Danube River was frozen to the bottom, and remained so for a long time. More than 1,000 members of the stall' of the London Hospital are serving with the forces. The cause of death by lightning is the destruction of the nerves by the electric current. Scotland Yard has returned to the owners in one year lost property to the value of £31,500. In the days of Columbus only seven metals were known to exist. Now there arc 51 in use. Fully one-third of the land in Great Britain is owned by members of the House of Lords, In proportion to its weight, the wing of a bird is twenty times stronger than the arm of a man. The first proclaimed city in Australia Avas Adelaide, and it Avas incorporated on August 19tli, 1840. The premium paid to Lloyd’s in 1913 amounted to £12,000,000, while last year they Averc £35,000,000. The most expensive chair in existence is the properly of the Pope. It: is made entirely oj; solid silver. A Ewell (England) farmer, hoav 81 years of ago, has lived in the same house since he Avas six months old. A person is actually killed by lightning only when the current passes through his body on its way to the earth. The Richmond and Clarence Rivers, in Ncav South Wales, Averc discovered by Captain Rous in August, 1828. ' ‘ When lightning fuses metal it is because the latter is too small to give a proper path for the electric current. German statistics slioav that the number of criminals under {lie age of 18 Avas four times greater in 1910 than in 1914, Grey horses arc the longestlived. Creams arc usually delicate, and are seriously affected by very Avarm Aveather. Bournemouth (England) lends the corporation rat-catcher to any unfortunate residents who have need of his services. The activities of the Y.M.C.A. are to be extended to the sea, and every American Avarship is to carry a Y.M.C.A. unit. An iron bedstead is not dangerous in a thunderstorm. The electric current Avould choose it in preference to the human body. A silver coin is usually in currency for 27 years. No four-shilling-pieces have been coined since 1891, and are hoav very scarce. Mr William Randall, avlio for 44 years had acted as clerk in the London Coroners’ Court, took the depositions in over 30,000 incpiests. A Frenchman, aged 81, named Montsarrat, avlio was liberated by the Germans from Lille, lias enlisted in the French Army. A Scotland Yard detective recently stated that the police had made 113.000 identifications by fingerprints Avithout a single mistake. ■Windsor boy scouts, by collecting 3,597 jars and bottles and one and a-half tons of waste paper, have raised £2O 11s 2d for Avar charities. On August 28th, 1835, J. P, Fawkned’s party arrived on the site of what is to-day the thriving city of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria. Eight thousand eight hundred and five artificial limbs have been made by private firms in England for soldiers at a cost of £127,293,. and 7.000 men are still to be supplied. Shoddy is a kind of soft woollen goods manufactured from old avoolleu rags or refuse to Avhich newv avool is added. It avus first manufactured about 1813, at Batiey, Yorks.