NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2116, 17 April 1920, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The highest spot inhabited by human beings is the Buddhist cloister of Hanle, in Tibet, where a score of monks live at an altitude of nearly 16,000 feel. The peculiar cork stoppers used for champagne bottles were invented by a Benedictine monk named Parignoa, at the abbey of Bantvilliers, about the year 1670.

Their useful days being over, two British .battleships, the .Swiftsure and Agamemnon, are to be used as targets and sunk at sea, during forthcoming naval manoeuvres. The ink plant of New Granada is a curiosity. The juice of it can be used as ink 'without any preparation. At first the writing,is red, but after a few hours it turns a deep black.

A Parisian woman.built up an excellent business as a dogs' dressmaker. She provided the pampered pets of the fashionable world with coats, collars, baskets, waterproofs, and even boots. Women are not allowed in mosques in Moslem countries, but permission was recently given for an American lady to give a political address in the famous Azhar Mosque at Cairo. The Japanese are far ahead of all other nations in the art of making artificial Hewers. They copy with marvellous fidelity not only the blossoms, but whole branches, and even plants in bloom. La st year 090 persons were honoured by the Royal Humane Society for bravery in saving, or attempting to save, life on the Rhine, in the White Sea, in Mesopotamia, and in the United Kingdom. That the age of the bride can no longer be inscribed on the marriage certificate is a new rule in regard to French marriages. It is sullicient if she is declared ..of age, a statement of specific age being unneces-