NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2056, 18 November 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The present dwellersjn Greater Now York couldmore than nmunuuidalo (lio whole population of, Switzerland.

Experiments arc being tried in India of cooling building* by iorcing air through hollow walls with electric fans. , There were in the U.S. service during the war 53,090 Johnsons, 51.000 Smiths, 18,500 Walkers, and 47.000 Williams. y Russia- possesses the longest canal in the world. It starts at Petrograd, and goes to the frontier of China —4,500 miles.

King; Motor Emmanuel, of Italy, possesses a collection of over 20,000 coins, which is' said to be the finest in the world.

England has the greatest quantity, of radium ever collected. Its weight is about three grams, and its value is £IOO,OOO. Many thousands' of girls between the ages of 12 and 15 years are employed in factories in Japan, the most of them in the textile industry. It Jms been discovered that from Swedish seaweed can be produced illuminating gas. acetic acid, potassium chloride, iodine and methylated spirit. London's water consumption per day is not less than 200,000,000 gallons, and an expert estimates (hat at least 4,000,000 gallons a day are absolutelv wasted.

■ The Copenhagen police convey any person found intoxicated in the street to his home in a cal), the fare being charged to ihe establishment | where the liquor was served, j By the middle of 1018 quite 85 per cent, of the food supply of Great Britain was bought..and sold by tho Government, and prices had been fixed fur 0-1- per cord, of foodstuffs.'

t Every Persian who can-read and write calls hiim-elf Khan, who has been to Mecca calls himself Hazzi, and who claims docent from the prophet, Saved, Said or Syed. The cities of Douai and Cambrai, famous battlegrounds in Ihe world Avar, wove decorated with Ihe Legion of Honour, 'fids is a rare occurrence, as this honour goes in most instances to famous persons. Electric apparatus has been invented by a Swiss thai employs magnetism.to pack nails in boxes in regular layers,_ and thus have about half the space required when they are placed loosely in kegs. More great battles have been fought in August than in any other month. The list includes Blenheim', Plevna, Gravelottej Charleroi, Mows, Anzac Cove, Heligoland Bight, Chevy Chase, Taka and Kandahar. Intense heat and lack of rain has seriously affected the production of wine in France, for acres of vinos are so badly scorched as to be useless for years. Official temperatures of 13(5 deg. are reported in some sections. Locusts have been eaten since the very earliest times, and still are eaten. In Persia, Arabia, Syria, Egypt,- North Africa, Palestine,. Abyssinia., ami throughout the .southern regions of Africa, they are much used as food. In the markets of Arabia and Mesopotamia salted locusts ami dishfuls of fried ones are sliil offered for sale, just as i,n t he days of "The Arabian Nights” Entertainment. In Persia and Morocco (be common folk gather them up, dry and salt them for use, and look upon them much as we du wheat and barley and oats.

Although many times reported sunk, the German cruiser Goeben is still afloat, and seems to be the Avorld’s unshakable ship. Early in the Avar this cruiser, together with the Breslau, made a dramatic escape from the British and French Avarships into the Dardanelles. During her war career she lias run on mines half-a-dozen times in the Black Sea, been battered and disabled by Russian guns, and attacked by British submarines. None of llie.se agencies, however, has managed to send her to the bottom. Last year she led a flotilla in an attack on the Allies at the month of the Dardanelles, where she ran on three mines and was beached. Then British airmen proceeded to drop bombs on her. A Aveekiater, however, she showed up at Constantinople under her own steam. The last attempt (o sink her was on August 10, when the Turks tried, but were frustrated by British officers. Hence ihe old Goeben still remains ailoat.