NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1815, 18 April 1918, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Many rare birds visit England in December and January which are never seen in that country during any other season. In Italy a Government tax —a special id stamp —must be affixed to all restaurant or cafe bills amounting to more than lOd. Many of the so-called “vegetable ivory” buttons used on dresses, cloaks, etc., are made of potatoes treated with sulphuric acid. Sound travels at 12 miles a minute, and gunfire in France when heard in England takes about 15 minutes to travel here. The average number of eggs pro* dueed by a halibut is three and ahalf millions, hut a large cod will have as many as nine millions. Mr Henry Ford, the American motor car manufacturer, has agreed to become assistant, unpaid, to the general manager of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, to aid in speeding up the merchant fleet programme.* Tatooing is forbidden in Japan. A teacher of Idzumo explained the law to his pupils, and fold them how tatooing was done. Next day four of his scholars appeared literally adorned with the forbidden art. “In two years, more than £IO,OOO .

worth of goods has disappeared from St. Pancras Station, Loncion, said Sir Archibald Bodkin, at the Old Bailey recently, when seven men and two women were sentenced foxrailway thefts. More than 100,000-.'.waitresses, cooks, dish washers, and other employees where food is served in New York, are compelled to have certificates stating that they are free from typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and all other infectious diseases. The paper shoes that are being manufactured in Strassburg are highly praised by the press of that city. The newspapers urge pathetically that the new footwear is warm for the feet, and has the advantage of being decidedly artistic in appearance. The Methusaleh of Norway has recently died at the age of 121 years. The man was a hard smoker, and was a fisherman by occupation. He married for the third thud at the age of 98, his wife being 30 years his junior. She died a few months before him. The usual punishment which the Germans are said to inflict uponthose who refuse to work on the defences which are being constructed in the North of France and in Belgium is to strip the otlender half naked and put him in the water or mud. Repeated refusal is punished by blows with whips or the buttend of rifles.