NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1792, 21 February 1918, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The largest known moth measures nine inches across. . Khaki was first worn Ijy while troops in India in December, 1849. Englishwomen are said to average 2in. more in height than Americans, As many as 4,061 muscles have been counted in the body of a moth. The pearl oyster begins to produce pearls when it is six or seven years old. Two pounds of potatoes are equal as 1 food to fourteen pounds of turnips. Toads, bats, and snakes can live longer without food than any other creatures, Fashion plates came into use during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Prisoners of war working in agriculture now number 5,063, and 1,400 more are to be employed. Women tramway car conductors in Newcastle are being supplied with uniforms with trousers. Penalties imposed at the Thames Police Court one day recently amounted to considerably over £9OO. Warsaw, the capital of Russian Poland, is one of the most important and prosperous cities of Eastern Europe. What are known as ‘‘tidal waves” have nothing to do with the tides, but are supposed to be caused by earthquakes. Dining-cars were first used upon an English railway in 1862. They were attached to trains between Doncasterj ,*»d Harwich. The soul /, o/ a bell can be recognised undef #s yater at nearly one hun dred times the distance which it can be heard through air. Attached to the Cathedral of Posen is the famous “Holden Chapel,” which is adorned with valuable treasures and works of art. A mole’s home in the earth has always four or five outlets. By means of one or. the other the inmate is always able to elude any danger. The ordinary folding-fan was invented in the seventh century by a Japanese artist, who derived the idea from watching the bat closing its wings. The cost of civil government in Ireland is £2 11s Od per head per annum, comparing with £1 0s 2d in England, and £1 13s 4d in Scotland. The dandelion produces 12,000 seeds per plant, shepherd’s' purse 37,000, thistle 65,000, camomile 16,000, burdock 43,000, and the common plaiutain 44,000. \ In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the carver or gilder who supplied the frame of a picture inscribed his name by the side of that of the painter. On the 1912 figures, Ireland had the- lowest birth-rate, the highest death-rate, and the lowest marri-age-rate, compared with England and Wales and Scotland. The smallest bird of America is the humming bird, and of Europe the golden-crested wren. The smallest quadruped.in the world is the pigmy-mouse of Siberia. Part of Poland, notably the province of Posen, belongs to Prussia. The chief town of this province, Posen, is one of the most ancient cities in Poland, and is now strongly fortified.