NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2263, 14 April 1921, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Japan’* largest lake is 36 miles lw'B'v The largest island in the world is Greenland, 827,300 square miles in area. 7 Britain spent £181,169,000 on tobacco in 1919. A total of 10,000 Jews entered Palestine during 1920. The French population during the war decreased by 4,000,000. Bust in Canadian wheat causes a loss of about £30,000,000 a year. Women jurors registered in Middlesex number 8,098, against 50,077 men. From 75 to "200 square yards of cloth are necessary to cover a set of aeroplane wings. The New London Directory contains 17-1 columns of Smiths engaged in business in London. False teeth to the nurilber of 1,000 were recently stolen by burglars in a London suburb.'

Income tax in England is now in the £. Before the war it was,ls 2d, and in 1871 it was 2d. The eggs of a sea-fowl are almost cortical in form, so that they u ill only roll in a circle.

Many ladies who have received the Order of the British Empire dislike being called “Dame.” The highest salary paid at the British War Office is £5,000 a year, the lowest £52 10s a year. Two years after war 45,000 seriously wounded German soldiers are reported still in hospitals. The Manitoba Government telephone system shows a deficit of ilium t £97,500 for the year 1920. The Great War caused 70,000,000 men to be mobilised ;*of these, 30,000,000 were wounded, and 9,000,000 killed.

The betting machines at the horse races at Berlin look in nearly 450,000,000 marks in the 113 days of racing hmt year. A total of 70,000 tons of corks arc needed for I lie bottled beer and aerated waters consumed annually in Britain. Glasgow contains 1.3,000 houses, tenanted by 47,000 people, which have been condemned as unfit for human habitation. London has one pedigree searcher. one macaroni manufacturer, two baby pacifier makers, and two coat-of-anns carvers. .800 l heels originated in Persia, where they were attached to sandals to keep the weaver’s feet above the burning sand. Nora, claimed to be the world’s only performing hippopotamus, who is at the Crystal Palace circus, cats a ton of carrots a day. There pvere only 18 charges of drunkenness —nine men and nine women —at Ramsgate last year, the lowest total ever recorded. Beer is expected to become cheaper in France, where the general decrease in the price of raw materials has spread to hops and malt. Kwans unitor certain notes, bul they have no song. The belief that they sing when about to die is a pretty bit of poetic imagination. Dojis measuring 21.f1. in height, and wearing the latest; fashions, are now being imported from France, to soil at. 35. guineas each. Etiquette demands that when introducing persons of' opposite sexes the gentleman is always presented -to the lady, and never vice versa. A bicycle which receives motive power by the movement of the rider in the saddle and the unevenness ol' the road'lias been invented. Germany has voted 400,001),000 marks (£3,800,000 approximately) to meet* the increased cost of the mercantile marine shipping pro-

Some of the lines! lace in the world is made by the women of the Philippine Islands from a strong, silky fibre "obtained from pineapple leaves,

The oar-fish, dully 20ft. long, lives in the open sea. When angry, if raises its narrow body opt of the water to the height of several feel. A valuable spaniel, whose eyes had been weakened by motoring, lias been titled with spectacles, which arc Listened to a bone frame attached to a collar.

The eyes of lho common starfish arc placed at the lips of the legs, or ray.-. They can be shut and opened at will. In fact, they are superior to the ’ lidless eyes of fishes.«

The horn- or'tentacles of -nail-, which protrude and collapse like lole-cope-, arc very important organs. I’lm eyes are in the horns, in some eases at the tips, in others at the base, while the senses of smell and touch are in them also. The burial tax levied by tire City' of Paris ha- been increased by .100 per cent. First-class funerals will be taxed at lOftf. (about 30s). whilst the ninth class, or pauper, funerals will remain at the present scale of (if. (2s). 1) bile members of the former Royal Court of Bavaria were attending a carnival ball in Munich in defiance of the order prohibiting carnival celebrations, the police appeared, and the entire company, which included several princes and, princesses, were taken on foot to the police" station.

Trade throughout Europe is being made difficult by differences in the value of the mpney in each country. An illustration is seen in the difference between British and Polish money. The Brfish Minister in Warsaw, the Polish capital, receiver a salary of £4,500 a year. This changed into Polish money is worth 14,000,000 marks, or, £700,000 of our money.