NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1921, 31 December 1918, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Our Secret Service costs £350,000 a year, . Iceland holds the record for centenarians. There are 270 active volcanoes in the world. The skeleton of an average whale weighs about 25 tons. The life of a North Atlantic iceberg is often 100 years. The rapid growth of the nail is an indication of health. The appetising Prussian pretzel is vanishing from American bars. It cost Great Britain £480,015 to keep up her lighthouses last year. In Mexico City Hour is fifty dollars (£10) per barrel in American gold. One hundred acres under potatoes will feed over 400 people for a year. Nearly (1,000 persons are employed by tlie Pensions Ministry in London. In Amsterdam there is one factory which .cuts 400,000 diamonds every year. The Germans are selling artificial meat, camoullaged witii pepper, sail and onions. In the year 1,800 there, were only lifty-one hospitals in Great Britain and Ireland. A national exhibition was recently held in Berlin to popularise the use of paper clothing. In an effort to secure additional gold in Germany, engagement rings have been suppressed. The Canadian Government has passed a law to line or imprison persons who refuse to work. The “Black Death,” which ravaged China in 1540, is said (o be breaking out again in Asia. It costs (he country £9OO lo (horoiighly (re.in a perfect 'aviator. An average Hying machine costs £4,000. The House of Lords has 085 members. More than 4,000 .Jews are enrolled in the I nked Slates Navy, Not less than one-fourth of Ihe army and navy of (he United Slates is composed of men of German descent.

Uevent y-live per cent. of lh wealth of America is iu the hand: of I'amilies receivin';: incomes o £1,900 or less.

Japan, with an area hardy larger than that ol Montana, lias a population hail' as large as that ol the United States.

Over 100,000 women are employed on I’russian-Hessian railways in Germany, as against only 10,000 before the war. The (Jennans are exercising great pressure on the Geneva Ked (‘mss lo pul out a protest against the use of poison gas. A Jaw has been passed in Xew V>rk giving any citizen the legal right to arrest persons making disloyal statements. Motor cars to the value of £(>,- ■J0:),000 wen 1 bought by the United Kingdom, France, and Kimsia .from America last vear.