NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2044, 21 October 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The human body has 2-10 hones, Middle names were onee illegal in England. A hand, in horse measurement, is I'our indies. Cabbages and carrots were unknown before 1517. The first lilm play ever shown was only about 10ft. in length. ■’ Beer, ales, etc., were firs! ex'eised by Parliament in 1()13. ‘ The Persians have a differentname fyr every day in the month. As a rule, the nails on the right hand grow faster than (host? on (he left. Pigeons have been known to fly (100 miles in continuous flight in 10 hours. The height of St. Paul’s Cathedral is as many feet as there are days in the year. Only 300 Japanese soldiers were killed during the war, although 800,000 men were mobilised. Japan has a shipbuilding yard still in operation whieh was established over 1,900 years ago. In a certain section of Persia there is a race of pigmy camels sft, in height and snow-white in colour. Russian law forbids people io marry more than live times, or to contract a marriage after the age of 80 years. A new /‘baby” aeroplane, of Swedish make, weighs only 700 pounds, and has a speed of 80 miles an hour. Tin* average number of persons per acre living in Kensington is 75, in Hammersmith 53, and in Westminster 01. Bankruptcies are almost unknown in China, probably owing to the fact that they entail immediate execution. In Sweden the. public-houses, are dosed on , Saturday pay-day — while the savings banks are kept open until midnight. In a parcel of old books whieh an Ealing woman sold to a local sec-ond-hand bookseller as “rubbish,” and which he bought without examining them IVA 3s,'.were three first editions of works by Shelley, whidi were resold for £47 10s.