NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2248, 8 March 1921, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Mexico has had 59 revolutions within a period of 61 years. Tame magpies readily learn to copy human speech. Spain devotes more than 3,500,000 acres of land to olive culture.

There are 22,000 Americans who are permanent residents of Paris. English is to he made an obligatory subject in the schools of Lithuania.

Churchwardens are responsible for the custody and care of church properl y.

An average acre of garden has been estimated to contain about 53,000 worms.

During one period of seven years over 8,000 earthquake shocks were recorded in Japan. Asbestos thread can be spun so fine that it takes about 32,000 ft. to weigh a pound. A single wolf has been known to kill in six months 150 head of cattle, valued at £I,OOO. News is distributed throughout the natives of Central Africa bymeans of drum-signals. The male of the honey-bee comes between Hie queen and the workers in size, and js .stintless. A sun-dial bearing inscriptions dating from the first or second centuries has been found in Morocco. Every working day for many months the Royal Mint has made 480,000 pennies, half-pennies, and farthings. The finest public bath in the world is at Vienna. It has a basin 578 ft. long, and accommodates 1,500 bathers. Snowflakes consist of multitudes of tiny spicules of pure ice, frozen from the watery vapour floatiug in the air. The origiual recipe for the famous perfume, eau-de-Cologne, was discovered by an Italian living in Cologne in 1709. In France a woman must wait oue year after having been divorced, or after the death of a husband, before she can re-marry,

A leading American shop has installed an X-ray outfit which permits of patrons seeing just how their feet tit any pair of boots. A letter written by Dr Johnson recently brought £7l in a London auction room. Robert Burns' writing desk realised £IOO. Restaurants, as we know them today, were at various times called eating-houses, cook-houses, cof-fee-houses, and dining-houses, The French tank is now being used for hauling enormous treetrunks which could not otherwise be moved without being cut up. Although ducks, of which there are nearly 200 species, are the most numerous in northern regions, they are found all over the world. The present Drury Lane Theatre, London, is the fourth to bear that name, the three previous structures having all been destroyed by fire. The word “please” in telegraph messages cost Canada £200,000 during 1920. On an average this word appears once in every 30 telegraphed words.

The first colours used by artists in the early history of the world were made from various coloured earths, bound together with honey or one of the gums.

A given quantity of rain contains much more water than a corresponding quantity of snow. One inch of rain is equivalent to about ten inches of snow.

Dumb-bells were first used, it is said, in the time of Queen Elizabelh, the earlier forms being sticks loaded with lead at the ends, these being bell-like in shape.

The American census last year showed that in the last ten years something like one-third of the farm population of the United -States has drifted to the towns.

There are now 2,800 miles of regular flying routes in France. In 1919 the airmen covered nearly 219,000 miles; last year they covered over 1,000,000 miles. . Artificial light in a house makes night like day to a canary. Like human beings, day-flying birds rerequire dakness for sleep, and the cover over the cage serves the purpose. The fungi which grow on trees are parasites, as mistletoe is. Piny spores from a fungus arc carried to a crack or opening in the bark, and there each may become a new lungus. The official signature of the Archbishop of York is his Christian name and “Ebor," i.e., “Cosmo Ebor”; the latter is an abbreviation of Eboracnin, the Latin name for York.

It is interesting to note that two of the new States, Poland and Czecho-Slovakia. have entered into an agreement for exchanging 7,000 lons of naptha for 50,000 tons of coal and coke. In ten months of hi -1 year 18,1)0(1 British motor cycles were-exported, valued at £1,400,000. The exports of the motor industry as a whole have increased from £2,200,000 in 1913 to £6,000,000 in 1920. The web of the spider is too line L>v making silk, and the cocoon possesses only one-fifth the strength of the silkworm silk. Still, articles have been made from the silk of a spider's cocoon, lint only a> a freakish luxury.

Up to the end of September, 1920, Germany had delivered 06,433 milch cows, 30,500 horses, 101,000 slice]), and 9225 goats to France. To Belgium, the Germans have delivered 5,366 horses, 67,000 cal tie, 35,000 fowls, and 8,297 goats.

Indians who have accounts in the banks of the Uinta basin district of Utah sign their cheques with fingerprints. Few of the red men can read or write, while many have names so long that there is not enough room for them at the hoi tom of the cheques. Probably all the higher animals dream. Like ourselves, they possess an unconscious, as well as a conscious, mind, and the unconscious mind must be that in which Instinct resides. From that mind, active when the conscious mind is sleeping, dreams must arise. Osier-gathering and basket-mak-ing are now in full swing in many parts of England. This is one of Ihe few rural industries that are in regular receipt of a grant from (lie Development Commissioners, the reason being that the War Office requires baskets for a variety of purposes.

Beethoven, the great German composer, became deaf before lie was 30. He continued to compose, however, and his music was a feat of pure imagination, just like an intellectual rapture, for the grandest and loudest movements of the orchestra were inaudible to him.