GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2096, 28 February 1920, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The registrar at Stralford-ou-Avon, during a few days registered 12 deaths, the ages being 85, 72, 78, 79, 70. 93, 77, 79, 79, 78, 89, and 81. Xo otlier deaths look place. The united ages total 9(i(i years, or an average of:'SOI years each. Statistics show that Soulii Africa has a larger criminal population than any country in the world. There wore 87,228 convictions in 1917. of whom 3,778 were Europeans, 13,119 under 21 years of age, of whom 271 were Europeans. Thieving eras the principal offence. His Majesty the King did exceptionally well at Sniithtiekl Club Cattle Show at the Royal Agricultural Hall, with his nineteen exhibits, and obtained four first prizes, five seconds, and three thirds in the cattle section; a first and a third in the sheep section; and a first in the section set apart for pigs. Twelve of .the leading medical men of Woking, England, have written to the urban district council calling attention to the overgrowth of forest trees in the district. “As is well known/’ the letter proceeds, “trees absorb oxygen and emit carbon dioxide- during the night hours, and hence it is' detrimental to the health to have, an excess of trees close to dwelling-houses.'” This story was told to the London Daily Chronicle by a man who vouched for its'truth, having seen the happy conclusion of the matter: — A fine specimen of a hear was sent clown from a lull station to the Calcutta Z oo, but did not thrive. At last, in despair, the sender was asked 'whether he could advise anything as to its treatment. He replied asking whether the bear had been deprived of his evening smoke, and it turned out that lie was accustomed every evening to the charms of a hookah. Accordingly one was provided for him, and it was a great sight to sec him looking out for tho keeper with the hookah and settling himself blissfully to his evening treat. The colour khaki originates from matter supplied by the cuttlefish. One-sixth of the world's supply of quinine is consumed in India. Suicidal tendency is three times as pronounced in men as in women. A snail, crawling without a pause,

wonlrl occupy 14 days 5 hours to_ travel a mile. . The Victoria‘Cross was designed by Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort. .After being' flooded for 12 years, a colliery in South Wales has been re-opened. Shepherd girls in some districts of Switzerland adopt men’s clothing for their work. There are 782 varieties of Arctic flowers which have but two colours, white and yellow. Japan has a ship-building yard still in operation which was established over 1900 years ago. In Serbia, the husband is responsible not only for his wife, but for his unmarried sisters. Champagne was invented in 1008 by a Benedictine monk by lung experiment in combining wines. Only seven, metals were known in the days of Columbus. There are now more than 50 hi use. The (loor of St. Peter’s, in Hume, is 227,009 square feet, being the greatest of any church in the world. A indy in Ma.-.sachnssets, who rejoiced in the cognomen of Bullock, had the Christian name “Preserved.” A distinguished scientist estimates the mean annual rainfall for the entire surface of the earth at about 3(> inches. • A woman who has just died near Bognor, England, had the rooms of her house papered with, old postage stamps. Scarcely more than thirty-five years' ago Japanese soldiers wore huge grotesque iron-mask helmets in order to frighten the enemy. After studying thousands of cases, a South Dakota scientist decided that lour per cent, of human beings are hern left handed. A number of army pay records -.torod at Woking have been oaten by rats, whose love of history is unfortunate, as there are no duplicates. Light travels at the rate of nearly 200,01)0 miles a second, and makes its journey to ns from the sun in eight minutes eight seconds. It is an interesting fact that sugar exists not only in the cane, beetroot and maple, but also in the sap of about 1900 oilier plants and trees. {shantung silk is produced by a species of worm which lives on the .willow trees of that Chinese province, and differs from the mulberry tree silkworm. Fra,nee has suffered severely through America “going dry.” ft means that the wine export trade to America—averaging .(.'30,009,000 a year —is lost. Jai underground pipe, more than 100 miles long, is to be laid from Havre to Paris to pump mar.ont oil fuel direct from the ships to the locomotives. There is in Delhi a wrought-iron column which was placed there nearly 1,300 years ago, and at the pro-amt lime shows practically no signs of deterioration. A curious means of communication is the “drum” language of a tribe in I lie Congo. These pimple can by (his means converse with each other at considerable distances. Shaving off whiskers is a sign of mourning among the Hindoos. Some wear moustaches and boards, hut all wear whiskers, which are shaved oif when an adult relative dies. Tilt* staple crop of China is said to be sweet potatoes. There is no section which does not raise them, and they are a substantial part of the diet of a greater part of the Chinese people. A patent has been taken out in America for the manufacture of “pearls” from the crystalline lenses of the eyes of fishes and sea animals, which are said to he almost indistinguishable from gonunic pearls. Hefei'ring to the plight of \ ieuna, Sir William Goode, British Director of Belief, speaking at the American Luncheon Club, recently, said ho had stayed at the best hotel, but had seen no milk and no eggs. In the hitter cold hall of the hotel, once the gayest rendezvous in Europe, the visitors were huddled together m the gloom of one light where thhre used to he forty. They were more like shadows of the Embankment than representatives of the rich. Vienna’s famous opera house was packed every afternoon. Why? Because women and men went there to keep themselves warm. Well-to-do people were burning their furniture to light their stoves. It was not unusual to sec the traffic in.one of the main streets which led to the cemetery, held -up by hearses. Ninetenths carried the bodies of children.