NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2137, 8 June 1920, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Smoking was at one time a penal offence in Turkey. Hares are excellent swimmers, but rabbits cannot swim at all. ' There are more than 1,500 different tribes of American Indians. There are 28,827,188 miles of telephone wire working in the United Stales. The properties of cocaine as an anaesthetic were discovered in 188-1. Mushrooms, a world-wide product, are as plentiful in Siberia as in tropical climes. The greatest snuff-taking country in the world is France, though it shows a decline in the habit. There are 11,000 British troops still stationed in France as guard of “dumps” of war material. The United States has nearly five limes as many automobiles as all the other countries combined. During the war, the grand Heel consumed 1.1,000,000 tons of fuel in steaming over the North Sea. In 1914, Brazil grew no maize ill all. Now she is the second largest producer of maize in the world. No four-shilling pieces have been coined at the Mint since 1880. and no five-shilling pieces since 1902. The first woman mayor in England was Mrs Garrett Anderson, who was deeded Mayor of Alderburgh in 1908. Clocks to the number of 200,884 wore exported to England by Germany in the first two months of (his year. Thirty thousand women are employed on British railways. There were (10,000 in 1918, and .12,000 liefore the war. For every year, it is estimated, no fewer than thirty million infants are added to the population of the earth. China exports millions of hair--nets to-European countries, the Chinese being the most expert makers of these articles.

More than (10,000 people have returned to the ruins of Hheims, where they arc ihostly living in the miles of wine-cellars.

In two years 850 tons of crumbs, and 350 tons of bakery sweepings from the British Army were turned into poultry food.

A. flame which will burn without protection under water, and which cuts holes in sunken vessels, is now in use by ship-salvers. China sends to Europe ami America every year nearly (1,000,000 pounds of walnuts, nearly half of them being shelled.

Tame snakes are used in Morocco to (dear houses of rats and mice. The sight of a snake seems to terrify the rodents.

In Japan tea is practically a religion. There are special ceremonies in connection with it, and special buildings'in which it is drunk’. In Berlin there is a nugget of amber, weighing 151 b., which is valued at £1,500, while the largest piece ever secured weighed ISlh. A starfish, seized by one of its arms, surrenders this to the captor and escapes with the other four, rcgrowing the missing part at its infinite leisure.

The Chinese drank tea in the fourth century, valuing it for “relieving fatigue, delighting the sotil, strengthening the will, and repairing the eyesight.” Predatory fishes can reach the speed of: a torpedo-boat, and porpoises have been seen at' play whilst keeping pace with a steamer running at fourteen knots. The residences of foreign ambassadors in England are free from rates and taxes, and the ambassadors and their attendants arc not ruled by laws of the country.

Sound passing through air at the freezing point of water reaches 1,089.42 feet per second, and increases 2 feet per second with every rise of 1 deg. C. in temperature. There was a girl in Aberdeen who was never absent or late from school in 14 years.. Thirty-five other Aberdeen children had perfect records for over eight years, - Canada is becoming a great woolproducing country. This year the clipping of the sheep in the province of Alberta alone will yield 15,000,000 pounds of wool, more than twice as much as ten years ago. It is not long since Mr Joseph Headley made £200,000 in five minutes by the clock on the New' York Cotton Exchange; and before he sat down to his dinner he was £BOO,OOO richer than when he cracked his morning egg.

The most extraordinary tattooing ida ever carried out was that of a French coachman, who at the time of the Dreyfus trial had his body covered with no fewer than 120 illustrations of the case, including portraits'* of the leading personages. The work occupied nearly two years.

There-is at the entrance of the Church of San Salvador in the Spanish city of Oveido a remarkable tomb, erected by a prince named Silo, with a curious Latin inscription which may be read 270

ways by beginning with the capital “S” in the centre. Every day hut one in the year anybody may use the little street on (he west side of the Waldorf-Asto-ria hotel, in New York city. One day every year the street is closed because it is the property of Vincent Astor, and if it were left open for a full year it would become a public thoroughfare.