NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2269, 28 April 1921, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The only quadruped known that cannot swim is a camel. ' France is the greatest snuff-tak-ing country in Europe. Japan has few wild animals, and no poisonous reptiles. Russians first entered Siberia in the 16th century in search of furs. The population of the United Kingdom is estimated at 45,500,000. A cinematograph apparatus is installed in some 6,000 American schools. The first giraffe to visit the shores of" England came as recently as 1835. About 40 pounds of grease can be obtained from 100 pounds of raw wool. Only 30 per cent, of London electors voted at the last municipal elections. The bee, in proportion to its size, is thirty-five times as strong as a horse. Women who play golf number more than 50,000 in England and Wales alone. Cinema films of. historic events are now being stored for the use ol: future generations. The British birth rate of 1020 was the highest on record, and the death rate the lowest. Widows under the age of 25 in Britain are estimated now l<» outnumber the total of 1013 ten times. American ships, which were formally never seen at Danzig, now carry on a great trade there. - The largest vessel launched last year was the Caraeciolo, of 31,000 tons, which was launched in Italy.

Teachers are so scarce in Ameri•a that 20,000 schools have had to re .dosed during tlie last 32 months. Rats an’d mice do annually damage in Great Britain equivalent to the whole cost of the old age pensi-

ons. Moleskins, which were worth 3d before the war, and rose last year to 3s (id each, dropped recently to Id or 3. WI each. An average of about CIO marriages a month are made on the Rhine between American soldier.- and German girls. The output of ships in 1620 was , the highest ever reached, being 142,371 tons higher than that of 3f)13, the previous record. Of the livings under the Church of England in Britain, 3,275 are under £2OO a year. 5,860 under £250. and 8.020 under £3OO. Motor ear owning per capita is 20 times as great in the l uited States as in England, and 30 times as greyl as in France. During the course ol the waV, 7.>0 English and 800 French airmen I .saved themselves from burning bal'oons by means of parachutes. Loans made by Great Britain to her' Allies and Dominions have absorbed £30,000,000 of •’the national income during the last year. In the British Museum are preserved 40 thick volumes, containing the decisions made on claims by landlords and tenants after the Great Fire of London. English words, such a- “cabbages," “horses," and “no change," are now common to the peasantry of that part of France where British troops fought. To-day there are 450,000 direct telephone lines in the British Isles 100,000 more than there were eight years ago. There are 170,000 London subscribers who make 204,000 (alls daily, as compared with 181,000 calls before the war.

Among human-beings alone are the feminine species the more brightly dressed; among all animals the female element is the more sober in appearance. Since 1910 the highest average of unemployment among British trade union members was 9.1, registered at the end of 1908, the lowest being 0.3 at the end of 1916. “Leaf-insects" are so realistic in their imitation of growing leaves (hat they have even been known to begin feeding upon one another before discovering their mistake. Census figures for 1920 announced for Hawaii show a population of 255,912, an increase of 64,003, for (lye last decade. This is a growth of 33.4 per cent, for the 10-year

period. The largest country in which a proper census is made is India, which has about one-fifth of the world’s population. Here, althoguli only one-fifth of the heads of families can read or write, a very careful count is made, more than 1,000,000 enumerators being engaged for the purpose. At least 100,000 other officials instruct the enumerators and analyse the census papers. It is a gigantic task to record 300,000,000 people’s names in a night. William Dalton, the 17-ycar-md clerk who walked out of a Chicago bank where lie was. employed with £150,000 worth of negotiable securities, was arrested at JJeywortb, a small town 30 miles from Chicago. He told the detective who captured him that he decided to rob the bank after reading how a young bank clerk, tried for lheft,*was discharged on the grounds that the bank was responsible for his crime because they paid him a wretchedly small salary, thus subjecting him to undue temptation. Dalton was recognised from a newspaper picture by a man with whom lie was playing billiards. The man opened Dalton’s satchel and bundles of bonds dropped out. “Dalton didn’t turn a hair," the man (old the police. “Tie just pul the cue back in rack and asked, “Well, what's next!"