NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1813, 13 April 1918, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Oysters feed only at about the time of high tide, and the habit of opening periodically continues even when they are out of water. If there were but one potato in the world, a careful cultivator, it is estimated, could produce 10,000,000,000 from it in ten years. ■ No flowering plant has yet been found within the Antarctic Circle, while in the Arctic regions there are 762 different species of flowers. An apple tree one hundred years old' is a rarity, but a pear tree of three hundred, and still in full bearing, is by no means uncommon. Regularly prepared manuscript sheets were circulated as newspapers in China, Rome, and Venice long before the invention of printing. Wool of two quite distinct qualities is shorn from the same sheep. That on the neck is different in texture from, the wool on the lower part of the animal. The output of coal in Great Britain during 1913 was 287,411,869 tons, an increase of 27,013,291 tons over the output of 1912. It is the highest on record. The Prince of Wales’ Fund has now reached £6,277,227. Of this sum £3,705,822 has been allocated for distribution for relief throughout Great Britain. During the Indian Mutiny only 586 British soldiers were killed in battle or died of wounds, but many thousands of English people were massacred by natives. It was only in the reign of Henry VIII., who was a great lover of all martial exercises, that the institution of fencing schools was encouraged in England. British field guns with a calibre of 3.3 in. fire a shell of 181 b,, a 6in. gun a shell of 1001 b., and 12in. gun a shell of 8501 b., and a 13.5 in. gun a shell of either 1,2501 b. or 1,4001 b. The British Empire produces onethird of the world’s coal, one-ninth of its coppei’, one-eighth of its iron, one-fifth of its lead, one-ninth of its silver, and one-half of its gold. For use on shallow streams a new French boat that is driven by an aerial propeller can carry twentyfive persons and two tons of freight on a draught of but ten inches. A bicycle belonging to a workman who was riding into Germany was seized and taken to pieces by the Customs officials. It was found that the framework was filled with pepper.

The credit of originating adhesive stamps is generally given to James Chalmers, of Dundee. He first, advocated them in 1837, and they were issued for public use in England on May 6th, 1840. A machine has been devised for imitating the noise of an aeroplane engine, with the object of alarming hostile troops. The Servian and Montenegrin troops used a rattle during the Balkan War to imitate machine-gun fire. In Ceylon the most useful building stone is • “cabook,” a species of pumice. Scientifically it is known as laterite, and occurs in beds lying between basaltic and other lava flows, from the decomposition of which it has resulted,. At the Battle of Rdleia, on August 17th, 1808, the 29th Regiment of Foot, now the Worcestershire Regiment, fought in queus and hair powder, being the last regiment of the Peninsular Army to retain this style of dressing the hair. The Victoria Cross carries a pension in case the holder is necessitous, of £lO a year, and £4 extra for each bar. If a soldier in possession of the Cross is incapacitated, the pension is increased to £SO. And this, except in very rare circumstances, is for life.