NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1854, 18 July 1918, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

An ordinary horse’s strength, roughly speaking, is equal to that of about live men. Sugar exists nof only in I lie beetroot and maple, but in (he sap of 187 other plants. The Russian Empire contains a greater number of distinet races than any other country. A hundredweight of permanganate of potash is now worth something like £75, instead of 40s. Germany claims to possess more than twenty-one million head of cattle, and seventeen million pigs. “Dry” States in America are those which have,' by local option, excluded the sale of alcoholic drink. A series of remarkable photographs of the crater of Kilauea, Hawaii, has been obtained by means of kites. Including nurses, 20,000 teachers are with the forces, and 208 have been honoured for gallant services. A strange cargo was recently taken into Boston by a steamship. It consisted of rum and tombstones. The robin is the last bird to retire to its nest in the evening. It has large eyes, and can see well by a dim light. America is still paying some 34 million pounds annually as pensions to old soldiers of the Civil War and to war widows. George Washington died the last hour of the last day of the last week of the last month of the last year of the century. The legal weight of a penny is one-third, of the halfpenny onefifth, and of the farthing one-tenth, of an ounce avoirdupois. Clover is found not only fourleaved, but with all numbers up to nine. The Queen possesses speck mens of all these multiple leaves.

Writing from the Old Land, under date May 19th, a Wanganui soldier in camp in Staffordshire says: The country is looking really beautiful, and the lanes aiid roads are a fine sight for us New Zealanders. We are wonderfully wed fed; the best food and arrangements we have ever had since joining up. I thought Trenfham and Eeatherston were good, but for “kai” this place is right out on its own. There seems to be plenty of everything for us. Certainly we have the war bread, as everybody else in the United Kingdom, and on the Continent, does, but if is quite wholesome, and personally it is as good as the white lo me. The butter also is as good and as plentiful as ever I’ve seen it, ami meat and potatoes, peas, sausages, parsnips, etc., etc., we get in abundance; but I will say there’s no waste here, and neither should there be anywhere. The waste in New Zealand camps is, or was, something simply appalling I think the food shortage here is not nearly as acute as it has been, from what 1 hear, and I don't go about with my eyes and ears shut altogether. The weather here is very warm and beautiful — fine and sunny—but, by Jove, the nights are cold for summer. I’m quite “shook-” on Avhat I’ve seen of the Grand Old Country, with her lovely lanes, and country roads, fine neat brick houses, and stone fences for miles.