NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1830, 23 May 1918, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Meatless days in the United States have saved 140,000,6001 b. of beef in four months, in which time 105,000,0001 b. of beef and 40,000,0001 b. of pork have been exported to the allies.

To draw a line between the slacker and the patriot, a new organisation, known as the Honourably Rejected Volunteers’ Association of Canada, has been organised in Vancouver.

It is estimated that 5,000 Indians have enlisted in the American Army, besides subscribing more than £l,800,000 to Liberty bonds and giving liberally to the Red Cross. A cinema actor recently toured America to sell Liberty bonds. In New York he sold £IOO,OOO worth of bonds, and completed his tour in California with a sale of £250,000. Sales by co-operative societies in the United Kingdom during 1916 were valued at £197,295,322, the net profit amounting to £19,150,(121, or an increase over 1915 of £2.146,065.

It is reported in shipping journals that a new company isfbeing formed by bankers in Hamburg, with a capital of £500,000, to lend money on mortgage on steamers, etc. M. Puiseux, of the. French Academy of Science, calculates the life remaining to the sun, during which it can send out heat sufficient to make life possible on the earth, at 1,000,000 years. In. the first six and one-half months that elapsed after the United States entered the war there were but eight fatalities in connection with the whole training programme for America’s big air army. Signor Moda, the Italian Finance Minister, stales that the Government are adopting the most stringent measures to prevent, any leakage of cotton, silk, and other goods to the enemy through Switzerland.

The Saracens were Iho first to use glass for mirrors. .Formerly these had been composed of metal*; but at the time of the Crusades an improvement was effected hy tinning the hack of the glass as we now silver it.

The idea that every candidate for Parliament, municipal, and other State and public positions, should be subjected to a phrenological examination has been put. before the British Phrenological Society by Mr J. M. Severn.

One pair of tomtits in the nesting season will catch and deliver to the brood between four and five thousand insects, chiefly grubs and caterpillars, but nuts come in for a. good deal of persecution, and even bees and wasps arc accepted iu hard times.

In spite of tho declaration of the Prussian Minister of the Interior thill (he Government as a whole was opposed to the introduction of compulsory voting, (lie Franchise Committee of the Lower House of the Diet has deluded in favour of the principle. Waterloo Bridge, London, was named after the battle of Waterloo. It was opened in state on the second anniversary of Waterloo, 1817, by George IV. He was accompanied by the Duke of Wellington and a number of officers who had fought in the battle.

The 21s t> Lancers, who covered themselves with glory in Egypt, have the sobriquet of the “Dumpies.” Of the other regiments who took part in the fight, the Grenadier Guards have the sobriquet of the “ Sandbags,” “Coal-heavers,” “Old Eyes,” and “Bermuda Exiles.”

Specimens of 21 out of 30 medals issued in Germany during the war have been presented to the British Museum. They include a large cast-iron medal representing an air attack on Loudon in August, 1915, with Zeppelins, over the Tower Bridge. The American Government is erecting, “somewhere in France,” a cold storage warehouse, in which 10,000 tons of meat and produce foij her soldiers can be kept. Several large packing concerns in America have co-operated with the Government in planning the details of the plant.