NEWS IN BRIEF

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2210, 2 December 1920, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF

The ancient Irish laws used lu bo written in -poetry. Twenty-three different languages are spoken in Jerusalem. Two-thirds of the doctors'in the United States own motor ears. The elephant, turtle, parrot and carp live an average of 100 years. The iirst salt sellers were the Indians, who made salt from brine in 1070. People of the United Slates spend about £50,000,000 .for ice cream annually. The horn of a motor ear was offered as the iirst free accessory 35 years ago. Prance levies a duly of 45 percent. oil automobiles imported from America. More than one-fifth of the population of the United States lives in 33 cities. Ninety-live per cent, of the world’s total known vanadium is in a mine in Peru. In some of the South Sea Islands huge crabs climb to cocoanut trees for the fruit. One gallon of petrol contains enough power to move 15 tons of freight one mile. A thread of spider's silk is 50 percent. stronger than a steel thread of the same thickness.’ The colour of precious gems can be changed by exposing them to the action of radium. A total length of 5,000,000 miles of copper wire is used in the telephone system of New York City, The Japanese dye industry is practically out of existence, due to Jack of raw materials and chemists. The world's greatest circular saws for use in cutting trees are each oft. in diameter, and weigh 7051 b. The term “dark horse." as applied to unknown Presidential candidates, originated in Kentucky in 1820. The swift, with its light, ideallyshaped body and immense stretch of wings, is the fastest liver among Pnglish birds. Diamonds to the extent of 873,90.1 carats, valued at £2,008,854, were produced in the Transvaal last, year. The prickly-pear, which already infests 22,000,000 acres in Australia, spreads at the rate of 3,000,000 acres yearly. In Russian Poland there is one bed of rock salt that is said to be 500 miles long, 20 miles wide, and 1,200 ft. deep. Handkerchiefs were of all sizes and shapes until 3785, when King Louis XVI. of France ordered all to be made scpiare. Diamond cutters are subject to “wrist-drop,” a disease coming from the use of solder —containing lead—in the cutting process. With a population of 20,000,000 inhabitants, the province of Hunan, China, has not an automobile nor a road on which to use one.