NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1799, 9 March 1918, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A grandson of Arabi Pasha, whom revolutionary efforts against Britain brought on an Egyptian war, is lighting with (lie allied troops in Syria. He has distinguished himself by carrying a message to .£he coast when the enemy was particularly watchful. Specimens of twenty-one out of twenty-nine medals issued in Germany during the present war have been presented to.the British Museum. They include a large cast-iron medal representing an air attack on London in August, 1945, with Zeppelins over the Tower Bridge, The Vistula, the chief river of Poland, on the banks'uf which great battles are being fought, is 050 miles in length. It rises near the frontier of Galicia, and becomes navigable at Cracow for small vessels, its lower course forming the groat outlet for the commerce of the Polish provinces. The giraffe, which is a very timid animal, is approached with the greatest difficulty, on account of its eyes being so placed that it can see both ways with equal facility. This faculty enables it to direct with great precision (be rapid storms of kicks with which it defends itself.

Of the 3,115 London metropolitan police constables who have joined the navy and army since the beginning of the war, 201 have been kill ■ ed or have died of wounds, 50 have been granted commissions, 59 have been decorated for bravery in the field, and .13 have been decorated for other services. Wynthop Woods, at Peil Wyke, stretching for three miles on the western side of Bassenthwaite Lake, one of the most popular tourists’ resorts in the Lake Country, England, has been bought by the Government from Sir Henry Vane’s trustees, and is to be felled for its timber, which is largely oak. A superstitious dread is expressed among the peasants of Austria at the action of the military authorities in melting down church organ pipes for the manufacture of munitions. In one village the priest pronounced a curse upon the destructors, and he was haled before the local magistrate, and ordered to keep silence about the proceedings. King Albert of Belgium has sometimes been styled King of the Permanent Way. But he is by no means the only monarch who delights to drive an engine. King Alfonso drove one when quite a lad, and Ferdinand of Bulgaria, the safety of whose life may at any moment lie in flight, is said to,be an expert driver. The hare can see\objects behind as well as in front. Its eye's are large, prominent, and placed laterally, Its power of seeing things in the rear is very noticeable in coursing, for, though the greyhound is mute while running, the hare is able to judge to a nicety the exact moment a which it will be best to double.

Official returns show that there are in America ten people with an income of more than £1,000;000 a year, nine with incomes over £BOO,000, fourteen over £600,000, thirtyfour over £-100,000, forty-two over £300,000, ninety-seven over £200,000, and 367 of £200,000. To-day there are three times as many people in the United States drawing incomes of £200,000 a year as there were a year ago. The cost to the community of shaving was calculated not long ago by an ingenious statistician, who* estimated that there were 7,000,000 shavers in the United Kingdom, These consisted of. three classes: those who shave themselves, but still have to purchase razors, strops, etc.; those who are shaved daily by a barber; and those, like the majority of the working classes, who submit themselves to the razor only once or twice a week. Charges for shaving range from Id to 6d oi Is; and the final calculation was that the average yearly expenditure on shaving must reach £2,000,000.