NEWS m BRIEF

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2238, 12 February 1921, Page 4

NEWS m BRIEF

Of the school children of Vienna. 150,000 arc suffering from umlerfeecljng, only 20.000, or 10 per cent., of the total number examined being found to be well-nourished.

Since 19.14 the number of Y.M.C.A, centres in England and Males has grown from 509 to 819. Jn tlu' same period the number of theatres in Ireland has grown from 38 to 9.0.

Ten thousand bodies of American soldiers killed in the war have been taken back from France to the l niteil Stales, and the rate of return is now being increased to 5,000 a monl h.

A geological survey has estimated the United Slates ha- more than 11,000 square miles of swamp- containing peal, from which more than 12,000,000,000 ions of fuel could bn derived.

It is estimated 100,000,00011). of scrap brass have been bought, in the. United States and abroad by American brass mills in 1920. This scrap has been melted down for its copper content. It is announced from Ynmalo, Japan, that the police have forbidden open-air meetings of the Salvation Army, and are investigating Salvationist preachings with a view to finding traces of political agitation.

Of the population of 1,500,000,000 in the world, one-lmlf were still only partly clothed, and 250,000,000 wore no clothes at all, said Mr A. 11. Ashholt, Agent-General for Tasmania, at the Royal Society of Arts.

A new law in Fern requires all males from 33 to (.30 to work on the highways three days a year, or pay for labour hire for the three days. From this law, it is estimated, some £500,000 will be raised annually, and good roads will result. Trench-digging machines, originally sent to France for the American Army, are to be used in tlie construction of the 126-mile Havre pipeline, which is to bring petroleum direct from Havre to Baris. The work will probably take a year lo complete. Since the Chinese Republic abolished the compulsory pigtail there has been a large demand for pigtails, pressed into cloth, for filtration, straining soups, and similar

purposes, in place of goat or camel hair. An American firm is now disposing of 800,0001 b. of Chinese hair; representing 2,400,000 pigtails.

A German firm which owns several zoological gardens in Germany has made an offer to the municipal “zoo’’- of Buck Pest for the purchase of two young hippopotamai and offered to pay (3,000,000 marks (£24,000) for the animals, At the present rate of exchange (3,000,000 marks are equal to 42,000,000 Hungarian crowns. This sum would be sufficient to pay off all the debts of the municipality of Buda Pest.