NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2032, 23 September 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The London County Council made P. profit of £O,OOO last year on their workmen’s dwellings, lodging- hous-

es, etc. Roller skates were used in Prance as long ago as 1810. The first English skate had five narrow wheels in a single row. Rats breed about every seven weeks, commencing when live or six months old, the female bringing from 12 to 11- at a litter.

Microbes arc never found on gold coins, while paper money is an ideal home for them. The reason is that gold acts asm hacleriacide.

Sheffield has the largest armourmaking plants in the world, ineluding hydraulic presses of. 10,000 lons, and bending presses of 12,000 lons. The roads of the United Kingdom cost £BOO a mile to construct, and their maintenance means an expenditure of £18,000,000 yearly. Soldiers’ rations in the times oi; the -Humans wore meatless, being: One pound of barley, three ounces of oil, and one pint of thin wine each. day.

In less than ten years the worlds production of oil fuel lias increased from 40,009,000 tons to over 08,000,000, which was the total for last

Excluding kingdoms which arc in course of transformation, there are now 25 republics and 20 monarchies among the principal countries of the world.

A spider's web makes a good baromelor. When wind an<T)rain is ahead, the insect tightens up the wo)>, elongating;' the filament's only when line weather is coming:. By far the biggest artificial lake in the world is near a place called .Vianca;. in India. V\ hen full to the brim its surface area is .1.1.5,0(H) acres, or approximately 380 square miles.

A -plague of foxes recently mlesled the Toddingtun district of Bedfordshire. In a single night one farmer lost 05 head of poultry, and other farmers also suffered considerable.

it is estimated that the total length of wire in the sheathing ami core of the world's cables made since their introduction in 1857 is sufficient to, reach from the earth to the moon.

Salted sunflower seeds are a favourite eatable in Russia. They are sold at about sixpence a pound, the sunflower crop being one of; the best inlying in Russia. A good crop is worth i's an acre.

In former times London was particularly rich in curiosities in’ street nomenclature. Blow-Adder Street, Cut-Throat Lane, Dead-Man’s Place, and Dead-Donkey Lane, for example, —all of which have now been done away with. Bacteria are divided into various groups, according to their shapes. Some are minute balls, and are called cocci. It would take 25,,000 of these cocci to measure an inch, and 300,000,000,000,000 would only weigh an ounce!

Most ui' the desert replies of the Colorado are coloured like their surroundings and are difficult to detect. Others can change their colours to suit their sumnunTings, while not a few of the desert lizards are able to part with their tails A r ery readily when they are seized.