NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1956, 25 March 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Over 2,250,(100 miles of. Jiving were made by British airships during the war. Canada's war pensions are estimated to cost 30,000,001) dollars (,C0,000,0(0)) a year. Since the war began Ramsgale lias lost practically tbe whole of its tishing fleet. In Belgium 170,000 acres of fruit orchards have been ruined by the Germans, Several Australian soldiers were sworn in recently as freemen of the Cinque Forts. One ounce of Manchester fine yarn measures nearly seven and ahalf miles in length. 5,922 earthquakes were recorded in Italy during I he years .1891,1910; an average of 290 a year. The loftiest summit of (he Andes, Aconcagua, in the Mendoza region, is 23,00011. high. The 1917 Indian tea crop exceeded that of the previous year, being 350,000,0001 h,, against 3-15.000,000 lb, Japan probably made greater advances on the manufacturing side (luring the war than any other country. The present year marks the 2001 h anniversary of the first publication of Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe.” There were employed on munitions in Great Britain during the war something like 250,000 boys under 18 years of age. Rost and telegraph offices in Al-sace-Lorraine will no longer accept German money. Only French postage stamps will be sold. Lord Rothcrmorc has offered Cambridge University 120,000 lo found a Vere Ilannsworlh Professorship of naval history. Nebraska claims (o lead all Btat-, es of the American Union in the number of automobiles owned in proportion to the population. Of 230,000 members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 105,000, or 13.9 per cent., have expressed their desire to take up .fanning.

Owing to (he industrial chaos in Russia, the United States and the Colombian Republic are the only remaining sources of the world’s platinum supply. It is possible to ascertain the age of a fish by examining its scales "’it'll the aid of a microscope. For every year if its life there are ,10 lines on each scale.

When the war started Canada had u permanent force of only 3,000 men and an active militia of 00,000, When hostilities ceased she had sent oversea 418,980 soldiers.

The fourth deposit in the world of alunit, said to be rich in potash, aluminium, sulphuric anhydride, soda and silica, has been discovered on Kynquot Bound, British Columbia.

All the* army barracks in Japan ara fitted with gymnasiums, which probably accounts in large measure for the fact that nearly all Japan-

ese soldiers are expert gymnasts, The first iron bridge of any importance to be constructed was in 177(5, a cast iron arch of only 100 feet span at Coalbrookdale, England, and it is still in existence after 142 years service.

Travel perinils lo all parts of France, as far as the frontier, are now issued to French citizens by the civilian instead of the military authorities. This applies not only to railway but to motor car travel.

Far from being a latter-day institution, the postal service in some form or other dates back lo distant past. Historians record that the Persians under Cyrus had mail service in the sixth century before Christ. The German General Staff believed that for the conquest and occupancy of Great Britain, a minimum force of 250,000 men would have to he landed, together with all the field and heavy artillery, transport and military .supplies. There are 4,500 picture houses in the United Kingdom, with an annual attendance of 1,975,000,000. The average number of visits to the motion pictures for the entire population is one every two weeks for each person.

The death has occurred at St. John’s, Newfoundland, of Captain Francis Ash, who was known to all seafaring men as the ice pilot of the U.S. Revenue cutter Bear, which went to the rescue of Lieutenant Grecly and bis parly of seven in the Arctic in 1884.

With the signing of the armistice, the presence of Spanish officers on hoard British hospital ships became unnecessary. The British Cabinet thanked King Alfonso for (he protection of British sick and wounded by the presence of his officers on hoard these hospital ships. Among the claims of the Braintree (Essex) urban district council on the military aulhorilics for a captured German big gun is one to the effect that (lie first incendiary bomb dropped in England during the war fell on Braintree. Tins was on the night of February 21s(. 1915.

Egypt is the birthplace of Ihe hall game. How is was played history does not record. Recent excavations made near Cairo have brought lo light a number of small balls, some of leather and others of wood, dating buck to at least 2,000 R.C. These are the oldest balls of this sort known.

The war began with the monoplane in greatest favour, but only a short while after it was almost totally displaced by Hie biplane of the tractor. type, which is the most widely employed at present. The Iriplane is becoming increasingly popular, ami the monoplane is again in use.

Portuguese navigators, in the year 1500, taking advantage of the north-east trade wind to get into the South Atlantic and there pick up (he strong westerly wind of (he “roaring forties" to reach the Cape of Good Hope, found Brazil.