GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2038, 7 October 1919, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

At 7 a.m. on the seventh day of the seventh month, Mrs Basil Clarke, of Dulwich Village, the seventh child of the late George Camber, of Halo, Cheshire, gave birth to her seventh child.

Crocodiles lire sold in the butchers’ shop's in Sensor in French West Africa, just as the butchers here sell beef and mutton; and in the towns and villages of Siam you may see the carcases hanging up for sale like (hose of sheep and other animals in our meat markets.

The first prince of lire Royal Family to be attached to a Government Department: for service is Prince Albert, who commenced duties at the Hotel Cecil early in March. He is engaged on special work in connection with the Air Ministry, in which he had his own attendants, Turd occupies a separate office. The “OrlolT,” a magnificent stone of 193 carats, and (lie chief adornment of the sceptre of Russia, was for centuries ope of the eyes of an idol in a temple in Mysore, until a .French soldier stole il. After 1 many vicissitudes arid changes of’ hand*, it was purchased at Amsterdam by I Prince Orloff for his splendid mistress, Catherine The Great of Rus-

The chameleon is a perfectly harmless little creature. it lias, however, one hereditary enemy in (lie crow. If they should happen to meet, a hallle-royal rages. But eautions Mr (’row is aware of his rival’s poisonous qualities, and before waging war eats a leaf or two of laurel as a preventive against poisoning.

in the heat of summer a bridge is appreciably longer than it is in winter, and at various times ol the year it may be longer on one side than on the other, as when a hot sun plays on one Hank and a cold wind impinges on the other. The “breathing apparatus" of a bridge consist of rollers under the feel at one end, so that the end can move to and fro freely, according to the expansion and contraction of the huge girders. Provision is made in tiie ease of the forth Briilge for as much as 2ft. of “breathing" of the iimncnse eantilevers.

London will have her first skyscraper when a famous enporium in Oxford Street is crowned by the projected clock tower 450 it. above the pavement. “The Fat Man’s Club’’ existed in Paris in 1897. Its heaviest member turned the scale at 24 stone, and the chief qualification for membership of this club was to weigh 15st. 101 b. The sea is infinitely more productive than the that an acre of good fishing will yield more food in a week than an acre of the besfTand will yield in a year. The first concrete ship made her maiden voyage in February. Despite heavy weather, the Armistice behaved satisfactory, steering remarkably well, and showed entire absence of vibration. Kidlinglon, hear Bicester, has probably the oldest chorister in England in William Scott, who joined the parish choir when he was ten years of age, and is still singing at 88 years of age. The natives of the Lake Chad region, when compelled to camp near the ijmuetise swamp, bury themselves to the neck in soft mud, in order to escape the indiction of many mosquito bites during sleep. The oldest crown in the world is the iron diadem of. Lombary, which is sacredjy guarded in Ihe Quiriiuil Palace, Home. Tradition basil that the iron circlet is composed of the very nails used in the Crucifixion. Europe's first Chinese newspaper recently commenced publication in Paris, under the editorship of Mr Y. C. Yen. .Its price is only One penny, and it was issued for the benefit of (he Chinese Labour Corps. The use of steam whalers has produced an enormous increase, for whereas in 190(i only 183 whales were caught in the Antarctic islands, last -year 7,516 were caught, the total value of the products being’ £1,512,000, Authorities estimate that a single oyster spawns from 10,000,000 00,000,000 eggs in a year, hut, notwithstanding this enormous fecundity of the individual oyster, the productive power of the beds is not so vast as might be supposed. For a short' distance 1 ' a lion or a tiger cun outrun a man, and cun equal the speed of a fast horse, but they lost their wind at the end of half a mile at most. They have little endurance, and are remarkably weak in lung-power. If a septuagenarian has been a smoker, even of moderate indulgence, for, say, fifty has converted into smoke the equivalent of 250,000 cigarettes, at a cost which could scarcely be less than ■£4oo} or 000 boxes of cigars; or 0 ewt. of pipe tobacco.

Now- the war is over-one or two queer occupations that have cropped up will die natural deaths. The shortage and high price of alarm clocks resulted in a great increase in “knoekers-up” in munition - centres. Another occupation which "brought a regular income to small hoys at ports of embarkation was posting last messages for soldiers just before they sailed for France.

Science has shown by a longseries'of careful experiments that the “whiskers” really help a cat to fix its eyes upon an object on which it has to concentrate its attention for a long time, such as a mouse’s nose. Without these appendages the object won Id disappear occasionally through fatigue of the eyes, arid the cat would lose its prey. Man’s eyelashes serve the same purpose to some extent, in past ages, when ho had to catch’ his food through quick' sight, he was more liberally supplied with such aids, including long, shaggy eyebrows.

For Children’s Hacking Cough, Woods Great Peppermint Cure.