NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1769, 27 December 1917, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

An inch of rain is equal to 100 tons of water to an acre. British Red Cross work is now costing more than £5 a minute. Hampton Court Maze has been visited by 68,200 people this season; ;■ ■ ' i'■ . Naturalists say that a single swallow will devour 6,000 flies in a f day. Carlsbad doctors allow the first to be almost the heartiest meal of the day. Out of 111 different kinds of snakes in the United States, only 17 are poisonous. Exhibited, sold, and resold, a coekrel has realised for war charities a total of £5,080. The cost of maintaining children in some, work-houses has increased from 6s to 9s weekly. Granite is the only common rock which shows no traces of either animal or vegetable life. The Russian Jew must serve in the Russian army, but he can never become-more than a private. Ireland, since the Act of Union, has contributed over three hundred millions to Imperial expenditure. • The production, of good aluminium alloys has contributed to the use of that light metal in airships. The sale *of tobacco in any form to persons under 18 years of age is .now illegal in New York. liio' fishermen of Deal recently took from the sea three barrels of wine, each containing sixty gallons, A shell has been invented which shoots out revolving knivts for cutting away barbed-wire entanglements. The membership of the Young Women’s Christian Association now numbers 780,000, with branches in 930 countries. Careful measurements show that the North Star is as bright as a standard candle at the distance of one mile. Four women have been admitted to the bar at Moscow, Russia, the first women ever accorded this privilege there. Grey horses are the longest lived. Creams are usually delicate, and are seriously affected by very warm weather. %