NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1905, 21 November 1918, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The sea is continually becoming saltier.

Ships “wear 1 ' Hags, they do not “IIv” them.

The sea, in cold climates, diminishes the cold. Sound travels in a most irregular way through sea fog. There are two tides in a lunar day of 24 hours 40 minutes.

Unlike the land, the temperature of the sea does not fall at night. Sea water is an excellent tonic for the hair, especially after illness. Sea vapour is not salt, the latter being left behind during evaporation.

About 7.000,000 Americans arc now paid employees of the Government.

Below a depth of 200 fathoms (400 yards) there is no plant life in the sea.

A tide is a wave of the whole ocean caused by the attraction of the moon.

The parts of an average biplane total 20,000 In the ea-e of a seaplane there are 44,500. Stockings were first vnicn in the I.lth century. Before that cloth bandages were used on the feet.

A single workman in the United Stales ordnance factory has assembled 28.1 ritles in one ten-hour day. The United Stales Army bought 237,007 horses and 129,385 mules between April, 19.1.7, and -July, 1918. By reducing the size of the tram tickets the London County Council is saving .100 tons of pulp per year. An oath of allegiance is io be required of every person who in future enters the British Civil service.

Eighty proprietors of soda water fountains in Neve York were fined recently for serving drinks in dirty glasses.

A German Government Bill lias been introduced to prolong the life of the Keichstag until .January 12, 1920. Over a thousand coloured men have commissioned as captains and lieutenants in the United Slates Avniv.

The New Slate Detail Grocers’ Association recently voted in favour of (dosing places of business all day Sunda v.

•A voting woman weaving a lieutenant's uniform was arrested at New London, U.S.A., Tor imperaonaling an army officer. The United Stales is growing lumber at llm rale of about twenty billion board feet a year, and using it at iwiee that rale. An old woman in Jersey City who had been living' on a banana a day, and who starved to death, was found to bo worth £2:1,00(1.

New concrete ships are built by first making a steel framework and then encasing this in concrete applied by compressed air. At a Belfast shipyard an 8,000ton standard vessel was finished in 15 days from the launch. This heats Iho world’s record by four days.

In China's constitutional convention a vote was passed assuring full religious liberty, by giving all religions the same rights under law.

The Ancient Order of Foresters had at the end of 1917 a total membership of 1,563,0-12. Funds increased during the year by £157,101.

The latest determination of the sun’s heat shows that at the earth’s average distance it can melt in a year a layer of ice 120 feel (hick. Modern dredges are able even to dig into rock, and one of them can excavate from 7,000 to 10,000 cubic yards of rock in twenty-four hours.

luTspite of (he enormous fallingoff in immigration, the population of New York City increased last year by 200,000, which is 50,000 more than usual.

The American War Department inlands lo keep nt lon.si 1,000,000 men training in tlie Unilod .Slides a> Jong- ns Hie wiir lasts. Tlie number now is 1,500,000.

Every day since April Ist last coal .production in the United States has fallen short 200,000 to 400,000 tons, and demand is growing faster than production. Over 100,000 marching compasses are in daily use by the allied armies, each fitted with a luminous radium dial readable at any time, even on the darkest night. Valuables on shipboard may now be placed in non-sinkable safes, which are situated in a central well in the ship, and which float if the ship goes down.

Contractions of the stomach-wall cause the sensation of hunger, and these contractions may be measured. Tightening a belt actually lessens the feeling of hunger. While the cost of living in Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S.A., a noted industrial centre, has increased 01.4 per cent, since January Ist, 1915, wages have increased 81 per cent. Royal permission has been given to Mr John Frederick Foley de Rutzen to use the title of Baron de Eutzen, conferred on an ancestor by

Wladislaus IV., King' of Poland, in 1057. . Tims far Ihe United Slates has loaned to the allied Governments for war purposes £1,298,008,000. The Allies are now borrowing from the United Stales £2,000,000 a day. A Danish inventor, it is announced, has discovered a process for making newsprint paper from seaweed. The new process is said to entail half (he cost of making paper from wood pulp.