GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2039, 9 October 1919, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

British gas companies during the war were producing 11,000,000 gallons of benzol annually for motors, before the war have been replanted. Bonny Bigg, a Scottish town of 3,000 population, has received 22 decorations and other military honours'. ■ At the present time Sweden is supplying the world's -markets by exporting over 50,000,000,000 matches a year. In 1910 the total production of gold in the world amounted to 22,107,709 fine ounces, of the value of £91,401,000.

A penny of Cirencester which was found at IValsop, near Salisbury, weighing 15 grains, was recently sold in London for £l7O. Millinery comes from the word “Milan,” which city at one time gave the fashion to Europe in all matters of taste in woman’s dress. An onyx staircase in the mansion of a New York millionaire cost over £60,000, and is said to be the finest thing of its kind in the world. Pji per money was lirst used by the Chinese 2697 B.C. These banknotes were ealled “copvenient money," and forgeries were known in those days.

Bananas an? said lo ho the" most prolific of all fond products, Indus 44 times more productive than potatoes, and 131 times snore productive than wheat. Mr Hoover recently told the Supreme Council in Baris that the production of coal in limrope lias decreased* 35 per cent, of production in normal times. A sample lot of leather made from the skins of fish such as ray, shark, sturgeon, paddle-lish, and porpoise, has been received by Ihe L'.S. Bureau of Fisheries. Householders generally are said to be very careless. Jn London some time back the police found in one year that over 2(5,000 doors and windows were left open nightly. The warships to-day cannot hope to attain the ripe old age of their predecessors. Nelson's Victory was'' over forty years old when she took part in the battle of Trafalgar. The crown of Iloumania was manufactured out of a section of one of the guns captured from the Turks at Plevna. It is perhaps the most interesting and romantic of all crowns. Seventeen ounces of food daily are said to be sufficient for a man of sedentary occupation, 30oz. for a man doing hard work, and 450 z. for one who works very hard physically. . Air, despite artists, has no colour; pure waler*is pale blue in colour. And the blueness of the summer sk\ —although there is no sky, literally speaking —is due solely to the particles of dust in the air. The American Y.AV.C.A. s branch in Europe announces it. ;s busy leaching foreign brides of “Sammies, of whom there are 10,000. • in special U.S. Government homes at Brest anti Bordeaux the brides are taught English, American customs, and home science. A 28-year-old war horse, San Toy, that went through the, whole of the South African war mud the groat European war, Ims been received at the Home of Lest lor Horses, at Cricklewood, England. San Toy is a chestnut gelding, and wears the Mens, South African, and. general service ribbons. Silk stockings were first worn by the French King in 15(51. The sloe! frame for weaving them was invented by the Hev. Mr Lee, of Cambridge, in 1581), and Queen Elizabeth was the first person to wear silk ami open-work stockings in England.

At one lime I lie selling of 300 bricks was considered a day’s work for a bricklayer. But at piecework, and using' a special soft mortar, a man has been known to lay 1,-100 bricks during- an eight hours' day, and to continue this average for days on end. Silk dres,secure said to act as good as any barometer for weather forecasting. They rustle much more loudly in dry weather because they are almost devoid of moisture, and the friction between thei/lolds is considerable. In damp weather the silk is said to absorb a portion of the moisture and become more silent. ' The payment 6f M’s.P, has always been rather a vexed question, and there is an agitation going on in England. It is no new thing to pay members for their services. In olden times, however, they, were paid by their local organisations, not out of public funds. A knight of the shire got 4s a day in Henry VIII. s reign, and a citizen or burgher got 2s, '

It has been estimated that at least 400,000,000 tons of salt .urs stored in the Great Salt Lake of Utah, while at present hardly more than 50,000 tons are being taken from it each year for domestic and commercial uses.

“Mereutio,” in the Auckland Herald, says: “Many comparisons are made between house .values at the present time and those ruling tive, ten, and twenty years ago; but few illustrations are more convincing than one contained in the New Zealand Year Book for 1908. It is. there stated that under the improved farm settlement regulation the Government would advance £lO to a single man and £3O to a married.man to help to build a house. Imagine offering anyone £lO nowadays to help to build a house. The recipient would be inclined to ask if he was expected to build a rabbit house.”