NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2141, 17 June 1920, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The number 13, although considered far from being- unlucky in these days, is missing from the sequence in nineteen well-known streets in London. Every good Sikh prefers to die upon the bare ground. Regardless of rank or age, no rug must intervene between him and' the earth when he breathes his last. If there were but one potato in the world, a careful cultivator might produce 10,000,000,000 from it in ten years, and thus supply the world with seed again. According to travellers who have lived among them, some of the most beautiful -women in the world are to be found among the natives of the Cannibal Islands, South Pacific, There is, in Japan, a wax-tree, the fruit of whieh is mostly pure wax. This is used for making wax candles. The “wax-fruit/' whieh this remarkable tree bears, grows in bunches just like grapes. The total production of radium in

the United States up to the close of 1918 is estimated as approximately 55 grams, which is understood to be more than half of all the radium the world has produced. There were 51,326 street accidents known to the police caused by vehicles in the United Kingdom in 1919, compared with 37,925 in 1918; and the number of persons killed wms 2,628, against 2,193 in 1918. A compilation of the physical measurements of the men in the United States service during the war .shows there was an average gain of 3.35 pounds in weight and .23 inches in height during the period of service.

Due to the present depreciation of their currency, the ' people of Germany, Austria and Russia have been driven back to the primitive system of barter and exchange'of goods in place of purchase by the use of money.

In solid food .alone a man of 70 has disposed of much more than 50 tons in his life —an allowance, let us say, of ten times his present weight for every year of his life. And the liquids he has swallowed are little less portentous in their volume.

The pension system spreads apace awing to the war. Altogether, in the British Isles, the number of pensioners —men, women and children — is 2,858,500. This totals up to one out of every 16 in the country, or one person in every third family. Kangaroo farming is an important industry in Australia. The hide’s are valuable, and the tendons extremely fine —indeed, they are the best material known to surgeons for sewing up wounds, and especially for holding broken hones together. Canada is the greatest fruit garden of the British Empire. Last year nearly 2,000,000 barrels of apples were sent out from A ova Scotia alone, and apricots, plums, pears, cherries, and oilier fruits are also grown in groat abundance. Even tea nourishes in Vancouver.

Mr Joseph Leiter, in one unhappy hour lost £320,000 through a 20 cents fall in the price of wheat; Mr Jacob As tor and two of his friends lost £600,000 between breakfast and luncheon; and a slump in Union Bacilics cost a few millionaires, including Air J. J. Astor and Mr Goelet, the appalling sum of £1,800,000. A man weighing 150 pounds contains approximately 3,500 cubic feet of gases—oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen —in his constitution, which at 3s 4d per thousand cubic feet, would be worth 11s Bd, for illuminating purposes. He also contains all the necessary fats to make a lifteen-pound candle, and thus, together with his 3,500 cubic feet of gases, he possesses considerable illuminating possibilities.

What is said to be the Hrsl automobile in the world was discovered near Le Mans, France, in the magnificent stables of the estate of the Marquis do Bros. The authentic, record of this self-propelled road car is that it was built (at enormous expense) in 1878. It was used for long road trips, jpid had a speed of about 28 miies/an hour, but the Marquis stopped using it.

The ostrich has long been accusal of burying its head in the sand lo escape its enemies, thinking to render itself invisible by so doing. As a mailer of fad, what it really does is this: It lowers its head aiong the ground, and sitting upon the ■mml, with its long neck invisible, it looks like the surroundings, and is not easily discernible. This is merely an attempt at camonllagc!

January’ always begins on the same day of (he week as October, and the same is true of April and July, September and December. Again, February, 'March, and November also begin on the same day of the week. This, however, is only true in normal/.years of 365 days. A century can never begin on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday. Furthermore, the ordinary year ends on the same day of the week as that on which it begins. There is a small rock island oil (he coast of Alaska, where a fog bell at the light station warns sailors not to come too near the coast. A man and it dog keep that lighthouse. The keeper lives all alone, but he has a large shepherd dog for an assistant that is trained to toll the bell whenever the fog begins. As soon as the fog comes in, Carlos, the big dog, rushes to the bell rope and tugs away without waiting for orders. Many a time he does it at night while his master is busy about his lamp.