NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1783, 31 January 1918, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Air Board occupies 595 rooms at the Hotel Cecil.

According to official returns, the Russian harvest is generally below the average.

A Presidential decree prohibits the exportation of refined sugar from Cuba to neutrals.

We give Him prisoners 30oz, of meat a week; the Germans never give ours more than 12-J ozs. The Bishop of Liverpool has four sous in the army, and three of themr have won the Military Cross. During the war the trade of Canada has increased from £172,800,000 in 1915 to £400,000,000 last year.

Mr Daniels, United States . Navy Secretary, has received so far 40,000 suggestions for eliminating submarines. Having a span of 328 ft., the new bridge across the Tiber at Rome is the largest reinforced concrete arch in the world.

Begun ten years ago, a lawsuit in which the Glasgow and South-West-ern Railway is interested is still before the Law Lords,

An apple weighing 11b 1420z5. and measuring 17§in. in circumference, was grown in the Stoke Poges (England) Club gardens. Mr Harry Lauder has joined the Y.M.C.A. in America as a lecturer, and will speak in the cities and the soldiers’ camps.

Ireland paid her way and left a balance for Imperial expenditure without a break from 1839 until 1909, when deficits commenced, M.\ Savinkoff, who was until recently Russian Minister of War, has asked to be enrolled as a private soldier in a “shock” battalion. The founder of the Home Rule movement was Isaac Butt, Q.C., a Conservative and a Protestant. Parnell was also a Protestant.

The largest book in the world is in the British Museum. It is an atlas, measuring sft. lOin. by 3ft, 2in., and weighing close upon 2cwt. The only difference between black and white pepper is that the former has not been stripped of the outer skin of the berry before grinding. Two doctors were commended at Edmonton (England) inquest fur performing a trepanning operation on a boy of sis during an air raid.

Men of the London Scottish to the number of 1,650 have to date been granted commissions from the ranks ■.< the regular army and territorial force.

Anciently the wedding ring was first placed on the thumb, then on the first finger, then on the second, and lastly on the third, where it remained.

In the first year of the war we lost 80 guns and took 25; last year we took 169 and the Germans none; this year we have taken 380 and lost none.

Red Cross parcels, each containing a plum-budding, a Christinas card, and other seasonal things, have been sent to 12,000 British prisoners of war.

The officials in Ireland assessed to income tax number over 4,500, and cost £1,412,000 yearly. In Scotland the assessable officials number 963 and cost £311,000.

Eaton Square is the largest square in London; then comes Cadogan Square, and third, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The fourth and fifth are Belgrave and Grosvenor Squar-

Walter Richards, the old Warwickshire cricketer and test match umpire, "who has died at the age of 52, was from 1883 to 1896 one of the most reliable batsmen in England.

The number and cost of old-age pensions in Ireland is extraordinarily high, due to the emigration of the younger generation, thus leaving a disproportionate number of old people. Cambridge University’s war list contains 14,600 names, while the number killed exceeds 2,000, and the distinctions won include 8 V.C.’s, 214 D.S.O.’s, 803 M.C.’s, and IS D.S.C.’s.

Wales is the richest part of the kingdom in mineral wealth. England produces annually about £2 to each acre; Scotland a little less; but l lie product of Wales is over £4 per a cro.

A Hull skipper is known to have earned over £25,00(1 since the war broke out, and another has made £15,000 in two years. Skippers receive about 10 per cent, of the value of their catches.

The world’s greatest wireless station has been built in Italy, powerful enough to communicate with North and South Amei’icu when imilar stations are erected on this side of the Atlantic.

On an estate at Uffculme (Devon) Robert James, aged 97, has recently assisted in falling aspen trees which he helped to plant 80 years ago. They are to be used in aero- (•!;.< ne construction.

M. Poincaire, President of the French Republic, will continue as Lord Rector of Glasgow’ University —his term of office expired on October 26th —for another year, by sanction of the Secretary for Scot,aud.

A naval lieutenant of under eight years’ seniority ranks with a captain in (he British Army; of more than eight, with a major; an admiral ranks with a general, and an admiral of the fleet with a fieldiuarshal.

The man-faced crabs, which .swarm in the inland seas of Japan, are queer creatures. The body is only about an inch in length, but it is crowned with a head which has a face closely resembling that of a Chinese coolie.

The eggs of the white booby are most highly treasured by collectors. This bird was originally found in Funk Island, off Newfoundland, which was also the home of the great auk, like the latter bird, it has long become extinct.

It was revealed in a question in Parliament recently that the War Office has only now accepted a proposal to save over £1,000,000 a year by no longer packing machinegun ammunition in the infantry clips, which are not used in mach-ine-guns.