NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1929, 21 January 1919, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Mauritius sugar crop is ex- ; pec ted to exceed that of last season by nearly 100,000 tons, and the Java crop is placed at probably 1,800,000 tons. The Cuban crop seems likely to increase to the level of the previous season of roughly 3,000,000 tons. This, with a prospective large increase in the yield of the American beet crop, should provide adequate supplies this season. Italy makes excellent use of her waste paper. It is made into a cheap and portable fuel for the "soldiers. Boys and girls go about the cities collecting all the discarded newspapers they can lind. These are brought to establishments where the sheets are converted by machinery into little tight rolls about an inch in diameter and two inches long, which are packed into small, bags and dispatched to the army. This compressed paper fuel is most convenient whenever an individual soldier wishes to warm up a mugful of soup or coffee. Though flying develops special sight and hearing, it, oddly enough, does not seem to improve the sense of balance. When living in a fog or in clouds, an airman lias little idea of the angle of bis machine. One observer tried the experiment of blindfolding himself and recording his impressions to the pilot. He realised the first movements all right—a dim!) and a shipar down — but after that he was baffled. His conviction was that the machine was going up and up to unheard-of heights on a level keel, whereas it was descending with the left wingdown. Australia has embarked 321,000 soldiers —more than the whole Empire sent to the South African M ar; 70,100 have returned, and 53,138 have been discharged. A sow belonging to a farmer on Lord Lai bom's estate, near Onuskirk, Lancashire, recently gave girth to a litter of twenty-three pigs, all alive. This is believed (o be a record. John Ward, a negro, of (loldsborougb, North Carolina, has thirteen of his eighteen sons in the oth and 10th United Stales Cavalry, while his seventeen daughters are engaged on war work. The silver war badge is to he given to officers and seamen of merchant ships who through wounds or illness attributable to war service are compelled fo give up their employment in the mercantile marine. An Italian ice-cream veiuh. ?n----dered 000 farthings and 240 threepenny pieces in. payment for a line of £4 at London South-Western Police Court. When payment in this form was refused, he produced a £5 nolo. Messrs Cadbury Bros, have given £IO,OOO to the relief of war victims connected with the works, £IO,OOO towards the provision of pensions for widows and pensioners, and £.10,000 for provision of supplementary pensions. It is said that some Loudon shops spend anything-from £SOO to £I,OOO a year on the cleaning of their brass and windows. A few firms keep their own staffs for the work, but the majority have it done by contract. .Investigation of a sol of hooks in (lie library of the late Archdeacon Samuel Boddy, in Toronto, disclosed a sum of ,C42(i in uncashed cheques and hank-notes, which he had apparently used absentmindedly as bookmarks.