NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1992, 19 June 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Macaroni originated from a Greek phrase meaning “the blessed dead,” in allusion to the ancient custom of eating it at feasts for departed souls. In Maryland, U.S.A., a Bill was once introduced making it a misdemeanour for a woman to appear in a public place wearing a hat exceeding lOin, in diameter. At Liege a building standing in 12 ■acres of parkland has been handed over by the Belgian Government to the Y.M.C.A. for the use of Allied soldiers.

At one period no mail reached the inhabitants of Spitzbergen for eight months, but they are now able to get the world’s news twice a day by wireless telegraph. If the Chancellor of the Exchequer had to count his colossal Budget in one pound Treasury notes, it would take him 200 years, working eight hours a day, five days a week. All of the early travellers and explorers regarded Lower California is an island, and it was not until 1842 that its connection with the State of California was discovered.

The South African diamond output in 1917 was valued at £7,730,371, compared with £5,728,391 in 1910, £399,810 in 1915, and £ll,389,807 in 1913, which was a record output. It has recently been discovered that the eggs of dog-fish are as good for eating as hen’s eggs.

In south-western France there arc deposits of iron ore that were exploited as far back as the time of the Roman occupation, and which still yield some of the purest minerals found in Europe, No fewer than 30,000 men and 0,000 horses wmre engaged upon the construction of the Palace of Versailles, which is capable of accommodating over 10,000 persons, and cost over £20,000,000. With the advent of the Egyptian Pharaohs much thought and care was given to the perfecting and development of the chariot, and for more than 2,000 years it was the leading vehicle of the world.

The term John Bull is believed to have been first applied as a nickname for the English people by Dr. Arbuthuot in “The History of John Bull, a satire on the Duke of Marlborough, published in 1712. The Japanese employ 600,000 people in the seaweed industries, using the weed in the manufacture of such diverse objects as policemen’s bools, picture frames, marbled floors, and electric switchboards.

Eight oC the Btrasburg forts have been re-chrislened Foch, Joffre, Beta in, Kleber, Lefcbvre, Desaix, Ney, Rupp, Hoche, Ducrot, and Übricli, the names being inscribed in gilt letters over the entrance to each fort.

The actual stock of gold at the Bank of England is only about £Bl,500.000. France has £137,959,000 worth of gold locked up in her national bank; Germany has over £113,130.000, and America has about £415,787,000.

Roughly speaking, the prime cost

of the raihvays of the United Kingdom was £50,000 a mile, a sum Avhich is nearly double the cost of construction in any other country in Ihe world. The French raihvays, for instance, have cost only £28,000 per mile; (he Russian, £18,000; Avhilc the Swedish linos Avore built for a price not exceeding £7,000 a mile, or just one-cigblh of Avhat Great Britain paid. Naturalists for a Jong time were at a loss to understand how it Avas that insects Avere enabled to quickly recognise an intruder among their family or settlement. It bus been determined that in most eases they recognise each other by smell. Among the bees each distinctive class of Avorkers —the guard, the fanner, the pollen carrier, the Avax-maker, the architect, etc. —has its oavh distinctiA’c odour. And besides this, each bee has its oavu separate hive odour, Avhich is its passport into its OAvn particular home. The “tailor bird” of India is an excellent seamstress. When this bird decides to build a nest it chooses a leaf that suits its purpose, and perforates (lie edges Avitb its beak. Then it takes a long piece of grass fibre and sews the edges together, making a pocket. If the leaf is not large enough, it is pieced Avith another leaf. At the end of the seam the bird makes a knot in the thread to prevent unravelling. This pocket is not the bird’s home, however, hut only the beginning of it. The nest is made within the pocket. The end of a slender branch is always selected; and as the leaf retains its natural colour the home of the bird is concealed very effectively from animals and other enemies of the birds. “A man Avho refuses to pay a doctor’s bill is dead to all sense of shame,” said Magistrate S. L. Free, in the Carterton Magistrate’s Court last week. “It is quite different from a storekeeper’s standpoint. He could say he would only sell his goods for cash, but if a doctor refused to attend a sick person unless he AA'as paid cash in advance, he Avould be described as an inhuman monster. Therefore a man is morally bound to pay a doctor’s account, and it is a disgrace to anyone not so doing.”