NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1968, 24 April 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A well-known American orebavdist recently bought 50,000 pear striplings for 500 awes ot hind, which he will plant this year. lie owns the largest pear orchard in the world.

The Berlin Lokalaii/.icgev recently published an advertisement from an artist at Freidnau, ottering to re-paint portraits of (lie Kaiser cheaply by covering them over with plcasa.i • landscapes. II has been estimated that the economic loss from rats in (he I lilted States is £-10,000,000 a year. In other estimates before the war, the animal damage in (he United Kingdom was £14,000,000, Primitive races believed Hint men could be changed into animals by means of charms and magic, such as wearing the skins of beasts, drinking water onl of Hie footprints of an animal, and so on. Private William Lonsdale, the exLeeds tram conductor, who was twice sentenced to death in Germany for striking his prison guard, is back at his home in Lec«K after four and a-half years’ imprisonment in Germane.

These arc said to have been Hie prices of food in Berlin just before Hie armistice was declared: —Codec or tea, 30s to 50s per Ih.; butter, 25s per lb.; a small chicken, 255; goose, £5; ham, £25; eggs, Is 3d each.

The historic Nottingham Goose Bair, which has not been bold during Hie Avar, is to be revived. The fair, which formerly lasted three weeks, but now lasts only three days, is said to lie the oldest in the country. Its suspension has involved a loss of £7,000 to the borough rate. . The most elaborate typewriter ever built avus one made for the late Tsarina of Russia by an American company. All parts of the machine ordinarily enamelled black Avcrc of a brilliant blue, inlaid Avilh mother-of-pearl, The keys Avcrc of precious African ivory, and the smaller metal parts Avcrc of solid gold. The baked potato man, extinguished two years ago by the war potato shortage, is beginning to set up bis stands again on London street corners. Londoners years ago found (hat, a baked potato in each overcoat pocket is unusually serviceable as a finger warmer on chilly nights, besides furnishing u tasty luncheon on arrival at home.