NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1753, 17 November 1917, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There are seventy-two places named Newton in England. Most workers in Switzerland labour about eleven hours a day. The catgut in tennis racquets is made from the entrails of sheep. North Carolina, U.S.A., people catch 100,000 barrels of fish yearly, Many suits of armour worn in the fourteenth century weighed 1751 b. each. Ants of South America have-been-known to construct a tunnel three miles long. About four million bottles of pickles are consumed every year in the United States. In England cxosess profits tax for the quarter ended June 3rd yielded £34,867,000. In a brood of chickens hatched at Harrow is a strong, healthy chi«ken with four legs, Ely is the only cathedral in existence that has a Gothic dome. It is 170 ft, high. Willow, before the war used for cricket bats, is now used for artificial limbs for soldiers. The Scots Greys have captured more flags in warfare than any other British regiment. More than 1,000 members of the staff of the London Hospital are serving with the forces. Five hundred and twenty thousand acres of land in India arc given up to the growing of tea. A toy and doll manufacturer recently admitted he was paying £3,000 in excess profits tax. In the fourteenth century velvet and silk were the favourite coverings for books of devotion. % Italy has now 100,000 women in munition factories, against only 1,760 in August, 1914. The total income of trade unions for 1915 was over £4,800,000, being £70,000 less than in 1914. The directors of the London City and Midland Bank have voted £IOO,000 as a bonus for the staff. It is proposed to set up an official reporting’ staff for the House of Lords at a cost of £1,700 a year. Italy’s war expenditure to March 31st was £728,000,000, and the monthly outlay now averages £50,000,000. The police have-seized the printing plant of the Faetionist, a week- , ly paper published at Limerick. Skim-milk contains the most valuable parts of the milk—the protein, sugar, and mineral salts —all but the fats. Owing to the improvements in antiseptic surgery, only six out of every hundred cases of amputation end fatally. The case is reported from Pelrograd of eleven bricklayer's on a nonwar job who earned in one week over £43 each. Greeks call themselves “Autochthones” —sprung from the earth, or “earth-born” —their own tribute to their ancient origin. The issue of the first publication of “Canada in Khaki” has realised £1,936 7s 7d for the Canadian WarMemorial’s Fund. Two Westminster street-sweep-ers have been awarded the Military Medal. Both are sergeants, arid have led platoons in action. The price paid by Mr Charles M. Schwab for J. W. Turner’s famous masterpiece, “Rockets and Blue Lights,” is £50,000. In the olden days pigs were considered a great delicacy in Rome# and those for the magnates were fattened on honey, figs, and whey. The Japanese Emperor is sending a magnificent sword to France as an expression of the admiration of the Japanese nation for the valour of the French Army. The Atlantic ocean in some places is nearly 19,000 ft. deep. You might sink the highest peak of the Alps in it, and still have nearly half a mile of sea-water covering it. Tom Cannon, the famous jockey, whose death is .announced, won his first race when he was thirteen, and altogether during bis thirty years in the saddle rode 1,544 winners. A robin has built its nest and hatched four young birds in the base of the pulpit in a Sheffield Free Church. She flies in and out of the church undisturbed to gather food for her young. Of all the peoples of Europe the French have the fewest children and the Irish the most. The average French family numbers 3.3 persons and the average Irish family 5,2. In England the average is 4.8,