NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2147, 8 July 1920, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Any wind blowing at more than 76 miles an hour can be called a hurricane. A gale blows between 39 and 40 miles an hour.

Jauenese police arc all instructed in ju-jitsu, and, small men as they are, can handle any criminal, however big or powerful.

The excessive use of macassar oil as a hairdressing in the early Victorian era brought into being guards for chair-backs, etc., still known as antiniacassars.

Japan 35 years ago had 200 factories employing 15,000 people; now there arc 25,000 factories, employing 2,000,000 people, of whom 850,000 are women.

Starving cuts to the number of 30,000 are rescued annually from the streets of London, They are painlessly .destroyed, and their skins used for muffs and gloves. Typewriting machines valued at £3,478,000 were exported from the United States during 1019. England was the principal market, followed bv Franco and Canada.

Nearly all Ibe Bibles sent to Uganda are bound in tin in order to guard against the voracious African ants, which frequently completely devour the ordinary covers of books.

The luggage lost on the railways of tbe United Kingdom every year would make a mountain if piled up. On one railway £BO,OOO was claimed by passengers last year for lost luggage. Women mountain climbers in Switzerland, if I bey are American, French or English, and value their complexions, smear their faces with soot to protect them from the rays of the sun.

There are signs that whiskers arc being cultivated again-, it is a remarkable thing that, allbough both King (Jeorge and bis Tat her, King Edward, were bearded, very Jew of their subjects followed (heir lead. After twelve years decrepitude usually commences in dogs, and increases so rapidly that by the tourteenlli year they are burdens to themselves and people generally. Dogs have lived to twenty years of age, however. Damask derives its name from having been originally brought from Damascus. Silk Damask, which was for a long period used for all state dresses, was lirsl woven in England by the Flemish weavers, who sought refuge in 15G7.

The oldest love-letter proposing marriage was written on a brick, (.his was 3,500 years ago, when the band of an Egyptian princess was sought, and ibis substantial specimen is said to lie the only thing of its kind in the world.

A dog, either from old age or sulfering from an uncurable malady, will leap into (be sea. Especially is this true of collie dogs. A kind of melancholy seems to lake possession of them when their activities and usefulness are impaired.

Tbe Italian child is never permuted to rub its eyes. If it bursts into fears, it is not repressed, but permit led to have the cry out. This, it is claimed, beautifies tbe eyes and makes them clear, while nibbing the eyes'injures (hem in many ways. Velvel comes from the old English word “vellei,” and was first woven in Italy. The French quickly learned the arl from their neighbours, and same, who were expelled from their homes by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, established the art in England.

A privilege nominally attaching to Iho degree of ;i baronet, and one actually conferred in sonic of llio oldor loltin’s patent, is (hat ol Ids presenting his older sou lor knighthood on his attaining the ago of 21. This right, however, has apparently lapsed. On the last occasion (1895) of its being claimed, Lord Chancellor Herschell declared the clause in the patent, though it was of comparatively recent date, to bo invalid.

(Splitting coins found favour Simons counterfeiters at one time, especially among the Chinese. r l heir favourite and most successful deception was to split, a genuine silver or gold coin, hollow out the two halves on the inside, and join them together again over a thin sheet of copper. So cleverly was this work executed that none but the smartest of the smart Chinese hank officials could detect the fraud.

Jackson Barnett, a Bed Indian, has a fortune which accumulates at the rate of £4OO a day. Yet die cannot even sign a cheque. Some years ago the Government presented him with 160 acres of land to cultivate. He lived on this allotment until oil was discovered on it, since when his hank balance has grown rapidly. In sever, years this land has yielded 14,000,000 barrels of oil.' He is now a millionaire, but he cannot draw a cheque because he is a ward of the Government. He can express a wish to spend money in a certain way and on certain things, but he has to get ' the approval of his guardian.

Which is the healthiest place in the world? In the last colonial report from the Falkland Islands the death-rate for 1017 and 1018 was 5.31 per 1,000. During ton years the death-rate in England and Wales did not drop below 13,3, and was as high as 17.(1. Yet the climate of the Falkland Islands is vigorous, and the country is more bleak and ■barren than the Shot lauds. High winds blow almost constantly, but there is no scarcity of sunshine. To these, Nature’s two great disinfectants, is probably due the longevity of the sparse population.