NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2226, 13 January 1921, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

America produced the first woman journalist.

A ton of diamonds is worth eight million pounds. • The first newspaper was published in England in 1588. Stammering is practically unknown among uncivilised people. Some of the mountains of the moon measure 30,000 ft. in height. Florida is the great orange-grow-ing State in the American Union. A locomotive consumes, every mile it travels, about 45 gallons of water. Brazil nuts grow in such profusion that thousands of tons are wasted every year. More than one baby out of every four born in France dies before the age of one year. A whale is able (ofcemain under water for an hour and a-half without coining up for air. Fruit wrapped in brown paper will stand 15 degrees more of cold than if not thus protected. Cinderella’s slipper was of fur, not glass, according to a recent investigation of the legend’s origin. It is stated that this year’s Kent hop cvopAhe picking of which has just finished, is the heaviest per acre known for 30 years. A number of gardens have yielded as much us 30 cwt. an acre.

, A mosque is being built by the Mohammedans in Paris, and a high school is being established. If will soon lie possible to hear the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer from I he minaret of a mosque in the capital of France.

The corner of the earth where tire cacao tree originally grew, and still grows wild to-day, is Mexico. British possessions produce nearly one'half of the world’s supply. In 1918 lids amounted to ‘275,000 tons, of which people in Great Britain consumed nearly 50,1)00 tons.

The most famous of lost treasures is that supposed still to exist among the Cocos Islands, which lie some 500 miles west of Panama. No less than £12,000,000 is the value spoken of. and within lire past 25 years half-a-dozen costly expeditions have vainly sought lor this enormous fortune.

When telegraph wires were first erected thousands of ‘birds were

“telegraphed"—that is, killed by Hying in the wires. There was. such a slaughter of grouse in the Highlands llial owners of moors wore almost in despair. A\ itliin a tew years, however, the birds learned sense. To-day it is rare to find a bird telegraphed.

Potatoes dial are unfit for food because diseased or touched by blight can he utilised in the manufacture of industrial alcohol. A ton of the tubers, if they contain 10 per cent; of starch, will yield 25 gallons of alcohol. .'Many millions of tons of potatoes are sacrificed yearly which could lints he profitable consumed in the distillation of motive spirits.

Westminster Abbey lias been pul lo many strange uses during, the thousand years or so of its existence. In Cromwell’s lime il was turnediinto a barracks. In pre-Kc-formation days it was utilised as a Parliament house, and a brewery and a bakery were established by the monks for their convenience within the sacred precincts.

The X-ray is used nowadays in addition to medical purposes to explore the interior of:' a casting or a piece of timber for* defects, 'flic steel manufacturer radiographs his castings and forgings in order to localise the blowholes and other concealed imperfections. The aeroplane inspector, with the aid of the ray, searches for hidden faults in workmanship that outwardly satis-