NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2017, 19 August 1919, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A ton of fish provides 3,000 fish dinners.

Alexandria was, for 1,000 years, the capital of Egypt. 1229 British prisoners in German hands are still unaccounted for. The mention of rabbits was .formerly regarded as unlucky by fishermen.

In olden days people used to boil snails in barley water as a cure for a cough. Not counting lanes and carttracks, there are about 150,000 roads in Great Britain. In the Fourteenth Century before Christ a canal was cut across the Isthmus of Suez.

During the war Japan’s exports of cotton cloth have been multiplied fivefold in value.

The christening of a ship with a bottle of champagne is a survival of the old blood sacrifice. Cinema audiences in China do not pay for admission till they have seen the start of the film. It is estimated that the world’s railways represent one-seventh of the world’s entire wealth. London has 15ft. of debris between her existing surface and the city which the Romans know.

Horseshoes were formerly regarded as luck-bringers for ships. Nelson had one on board (he Victorv.

On water alone a horse can live 25 days, but he will only last five days eating solid food without drinking. * King George’s Indian subjects number some 315,000,000, or nearly a fifth of the entire world’s population.

During a recent twelve months, over 39,000,000 lbs. of tobacco were issued free of duty for army and navy use.

Grenl Britain will have to pay 1 lie •United Slates over £7,000,000 in final adjustment of military operations.

The statue of King Charles 1., in Whitehall, London, is universally praised as perfect —the only one so regarded in the metropolis. The saxophone, we arc told, is the only distinctly different kind of musical instrument that has been made during the past 300 years. Britain owes America £852,000,000,and America owes Britain £42,OOQ,OGO, the balance in fa'vur of America thus being £810,000,000. Fifty-one per cent, of the two million American soldiers sent to France Avere conveyed on British ships, their passage costing £14,000,000. Nearly double the value of silver coins—over £31,000,000 worth 1 — Avere minted betAveen 1915 and May, 1919, compared Avith the period 1909 to 1914.

The total extent of ploughed land (including fruit-growing land) in Ireland, exceeds 3,240,000 acres — an increase of 202,841 acres within twelve months. One thousand and ten officers of and above the rank of brigadiergeneral were on the active list and serving on full pay in the British Army on November 11th last. The total daily ration strength of the British armies in France during the war was 2,700,000. An addition of one ounce to each man’s rations represented an extra 75 tons. The deepest known lake is Lake Baikal, Siberia. Its depth reaches about 4,500 ft., and as the surface of the water is 1,350 ft. above sea level, its bottom is some 3,000 ft. below it.

In Sydney 'the,, purchasing' poAver of the soA’cfeign has decreased 8s Id, Gs 9d in Melbourne, 5s Id in Brisbane, Gs 8d in Adelaide, 4s 7d in Perth, and 5s 9d in Hobart since 1911.

London is to have its OAvn Flying Club, Avhieh will be established at Hendon. Members Avill be able to hire aerploanes at special fees, and skilled pilots Avill "always be available.

Beer tank lorries are bteiug used in London to deliver their contents to public houses. Instead of the barrels being laboriously lowered into the cellar, the beer is conveyed by a hose.

The tallest flagstaff in the world stands in San Francisco. It stands 222 ft. above the ground. At the summit is the biggest flag ever flown —a Stars and Stripes 1,058 square feet in area.

Thieves having bored a hole in the wall of the Anitchkoff Palace, Petrograd, the former residence of Alexander 111., entered and stole articles valued at 10,000,000 roubles (nominally £1,000,000). The total eclipse of the sun, recently visible in South America, the Atlantic, and Africa, was noteworthy because for the first time aeroplanes were used for astronomical research for a Brazilian expedition. Glasgow once experienced a strike of grave-diggers. Their demands were an increase of three shillings a week', shorter hours, and six day’s holiday in the year. They picketed the cemeteries and stopped the funerals.

It is about 5,000 years since silk was first used, after being discovered and made in China. During many centuries the Chinese guarded the secret; then Japan found it out, and so it sperad slowly over Asia and then Europe. With the exception of one or two of the Balkan Slates, 'Russia is the most illiterate country in Europe, despite the fact that several of its universities are among the largest in (he world. Over sixty per cent, of the entire population of Russia is unable to read or write.

Some of the freak stamps produced during the war are a series of Polish stamps, which will have great historical value. Produced at a lime when paper was precious, the stamp is printed on the back of German war map*, and, from a philatelic point of view is a great curiosity.