NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2296, 30 June 1921, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

The coral roads of Bermuda arc among the finest in the world. They are as smooth as a dance floor, and are never dirty. Tho cinchona "forests in Java cover 25,000 acres. The larger part of the world’s supply of quinine comes from that country. Sea-water contains certain ingredients, such as compound of iodine, which .make it useful as an internal medicine in certain illnesses. A woman, 71 years of age, summoned'to attend as a juror at Bloomsbury County Court, was excused as she was “ in a very nervous state.”

A bonus paid to drivers for avoiding accidents Cost the London General Omnibus Company £24,000, lost year in addition to wages. Renewed efforts to enact a law permitting the use of motor cars in Bermuda have been made by members of the Bermuda Assembly.

The comparative strengths of officers and men of the navies of Great Britain, the United States, and Japan are 123,700, 150,800 and 76,000.

Perhaps the most quickly written hymn was “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” which was eompased by Bishop Heber in a little over 15 minutes.

A cup has been- offered by the Municipality of Paris for the winner of the Inter-Allied Grand Prix for tanks, which Avill be contested on July sth.

An average spruce tree when converted into paper yields about 500 pounds of that product. If a novel runs to 300,000 copies the destruction of trees would be GOO. The greater part of black liquorice is derived from Spain, where it is made from the juice of the plant, and mixed with starch to prevent it from melting in hot weather. The railway dining-car in which the Armistice was signed on November 11th, 1018, has arrived in Paris, and is now being installed on its permanent site at the Invalides. Wales Island, on the Pacific coast herrings in Klawack Bay, Prince of Wales Island, on the Pacific, cotsi of North America, a visiting steamer having to churn its way through masses of dead fish.

Canadian Hour mills for the first six months of the current year cleared for export a total of 3,558,818 barrels. Of this amount, Great Britain took 1,415,892 barrels, valued at £3,000,000. Berlin has seen a record marriage year. Not even during the war were there as many marriages as last year. During the year the Berlin registers showed 37,708 marriages, while 53,091, took place in 1920.

Ilerr Erbert, the German President. has add re->ed a letter to Mr Hoover, i .-nveyiiig Germany’s ;hanks fir the charitable work performed in that country by the American Relief Administration.

The aggregate net tonnage of commercial ships using the Panama Canal in March, 1921, was 1,112,818 |ons, as compared with 1,094,323 in January, 1921, which was the record previous to March.

British Columbia has now 5,000 goats within her boundaries, with an e-t mated value of £IO.OOO. The production of milk for 1920 was csL.’iiialcd at 75,000 gallons, valued at £9,000. Three years ago the estimated number of goals in the province was 1,000. It N estimated that Germany has i }-.<!;i;i i:;j a lof about 665,000 tons oi .snipping consisting of 5,000,000 tons left to her after the Peace Treaty, and about 165,000 tons which she has built since the Armistice. Before the war, the tonnage of German shipping was 5,2.40,000 tons, *

The largest electric sign in the world is to be seen at the great air stati'-n at Croydon. It is in the form of a "gigantic s!ar, measuring nearly a quarter of a mile from ])oint to point. The electric lights forming the sign are sunk in the ground and covered with thick glass, so that aeroplanes can land on them without damage.

Reports of the movement of Swiss glaciers show that 59 per cent, had been advancing in 1920, as against 09. per e'ent. ill .1919. The Biferton glaciers have moved 315 ft., and the Loetsehberg 246 ft. Tn August .the Allalin and (frindelwald glaciers moved 6in. daily, and the latter has now begun a new advance of Sin. in a dav.

it. is claimed lhai Liverpool owns one-third of the total shipping of -Ihe United Kingdom, and oueoeveuih of the total registered shipping of the world; that she conducts one-third of British export trade, ami one-fourth of the import trade. Docks stretch for nine miles along the river, and cover 570 acres, her quays having a frontage of thirtyfive miles. The estuary into which the Amazon widens at iis mouth is from 160 to 180 miles in breadth. The entire length o'f this noble stream, measured from its source, far away in the Peruvian Andes, probably exceeds 3,600 miles. The tide ascends the river to Obidos, a distance c>£ 400 miles; while for neftrly 2,000 miles- there is depth of water for vessels of almost any burden.

Mr 8. P. MeCallum, Rhodes Scholar, who was born and educated at Ashburton, was on Thursday tie recipient of a wallet containing £l5O towards his expenses at Oxford. Mayor Galbraith, at a public ceremony, expressed Ashburton’s pride hi its worthy son, and its determination towards annually donating towards Mr MeCallum’s expenses. The latter leaves for Oxford shortly.