NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1793, 23 February 1918, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The men-of-war of the ancient Romans had a crew of about 225 men, of whom 174 were oarsmen working on three decks. The speed of these vessels was about six knots an hour in fair weather.

The profit from a single whale that is captured is very large. One about 50ft. long weighs 140,0001 b., and. will give 60,0001 b. of blubber (from which 48,0001 b. of oil can Bp made) and 3,0001 b. of whalebone. Vienna’s milk supply to-day is Jess than a quarter of the normal amount. Milk cards have been issued for children and sick persons, and there is no prospect of improvement, owing to the increasing scarcity of fodder. Cheshire cheese owes its excellence partly ‘to geological causes, the red stanstone and boulder clay, with its immense salt deposits, of which the country is formed, producing a herbage peculiarly suited for cheese production.

What is termed the “gun-room” of a man-of-war is a cabin where the midshipmen, naval cadets, and other junior officers pass their time when off duty. It came tobe called the gun-room from being under the care of the gunner in days gone by.

Four cities in Europe stand wholly or part on islands. Venice is the best known on account of its historic past; next comes Petrograd, the capital of Russia; and the last two are the cities of Ghent and Amsterdam, situated respectively in Belgium and Holland. The oldest building in the world that has been uninterruptedly used for church purposes is St. Martin’s Cathedral, at Canterbury (England), The building was originally ereetpd for a church, and has been regularly used as a place, for religious gatherings for more than 1,500 years.

The black silk handkerchief which bluejackets wear was first tied round the sailor’s throat in mourning for Nelson, and has never been .dropped. In the same way the white stripes round the sailor's 'jumper were put there to commemorate the victories of Trafalgar, Copenhagen, and the Nile. -

The term “Admiral” was not heard of in the British Navy before 1,300, and the first English seaman to take the title was one Gervasc Alard, who was known as “Admiral of the Fleet of the Cinqua Ports.” The term, however, had been in use in France some years before the date here mentioned.

The seven wonders of tlie world are the Egyptian Pyramids, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Walls and Hanging Gardens at Babylon, the Mausoleum erected at Hilicarnassus by Artemisia, the Colossus at Rhodes, the Statue of Zeus in the Temple at Olympia, and the Pharos at Alexandria.

Recently there appeared a pipe which carries a match safe in its stem. Working along these lines a New Yorker has secured a patent on a tobacco box which contains a match safe. The tobacco box is provided with a rectangular recess in which a layer of paper matches is placed, and a spring-operated tlap which covers the recess ordinarily.

A salt shaker with a number of pins which work in the orifices of the top in such a manner as to keep them clean at all times, has been invented. It consists of the usual salt-shaker top, to which is added a casting below, a disc movable in this casting and provided with pins which project into the orifices, and a weighted lever which operates the disc through the better’s stem member. Thus the pins move in and out of the orifices as the shaker is used, facilitating and assuring the passage of salt. Of the 12,500,000 population of Russian Poland, the scene of the great battles in the East, about 1,000,000 are Germans who have settled in the towns. The Poles are a peasant people. The rural population is about 7,000,000, the peasants owning about 50 per cent, of the land. The history of the country has been a very chequered one. It had a separate constitution from 1815-30, and a separate government from -1830-64, Ultimately Jiussia acquired the country, abolished trial by jury, and prohibited the official use of the Polish Igpguage.