NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1984, 31 May 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

One of the most wonderful plants •is “The Leaf of Life,” found in Japan. You simply cannot kill this plant. If a leaf is cut in half, it will still thrive without light or moisture. Pressed between a book, it has been known to throw out new roots and leaves through the cover. Tracing the ‘climatic records of South Africa, the conclusion is that the rainfall has not only diminished in the last century, but has changed in character from soft, soaking rains to torrential thunderstorms. Human influences —the destruction of forests and the ruining of the grass veldt by burning—are believed to have been chiefly responsible for the changes.

In the Eastern Transvaal is a sheet of water known as Lake Chrissie. From the earliest days of Dutch settlement there was a prophecy that if this lake ever ran dry the Boers would lose their independence. Towards the end of the South African war, Lake Chrissie, for the first time on record, became completely dry, but soon after the declaration of peace resumed its normal appearance.

There is a new exhibit recently installed at the American Museum of Natural History—that of the

white rhinoceros, with his proper setting, all the details of which have been collecting for several years. Once the white rhinoceros was common enough in South and Central Africa, but now the animal is practically extinct. The white, or squ-are-lipped rhinoceros, is the largest of the five known species.

Guzman Blanco, one-time President of Venezuela, is entitled to a place in the‘front rank of conceited celebrities. He not only had his portrait painted about 200 times, but erected about a dozen statues to himself, equestrian and otherwise, during his lifetime, writing with his own hand their fulsome inscriptions, and invariably calling himself “The Illustrious American, Pacificator and Regenerator of the United States of Venezuela."

Eighty-five thousand captured German helmets, forwarded to the United States by General Pershing, were sold recently by the War Department for one dollar. The purchaser was the publicity director of the Liberty Loan, who will use them as prizes for Victory Liberty Loan workers in the forthcoming-cam-paign. The purchase was agreed upon after War Department lawyers had declared it was illegal for (he Government to give away any materials.