NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2329, 15 September 1921, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Egyptian Government is appointing a mixed board of agriculturists and irrigationists to inquire into all schemes for the effective agricultural developments of the country.

Mrs Mary Caleman, of Roydon, a hamlet on the borders of Essex and Herts, celebrated her 104th birthday in July. She remembers events of 00 years’ ago. An urn a foot high, containing human remains, and specimens of pottery, believed, to date back 1800 years, have been unearthed at Minster (Tlianet) Cemetery. At a time when there is an appeal for funds with which to purchase flour for shipment to the Chinese famine victims, it is rather unbelievable that in normal times China produces sufficient flour for export purposes. Yet in 1920 almost 6,000, 000 barrels of Chinese flour were shipped to Europe. New mills are contemplated in the wheat-growing sections. Canada has now attained third place amongs.t the nations of the

world as a shipbuilding country. With a coast line of such tremendous length on both Atlantic and Pacilpc, arid the most extensive fish ing grounds in th eWorld, it is but natural that shipbuilding should be an important industry to the Dominion of Canada. According to the Department of Marine and Fisheries, the gross tonnage built in 1920 was 204,035 tons, representing 351 ve.sssels of one kind and another.

. Forty-three thousand eight hundred and two persons in the United Kingdom were assessed for supertax in 1918-19. One hundred and six enjoyed incomes of more than £100,000; nineteen fewer than in the year prior, but three more than in 1917. The total number of supertax incomes had increased in the year by 9402, but this was accounted for almost entirely by the lowering of the assessable limit from £3,000 to £2,500. There were 24,713 incomes under £5,000 on which sup-er-tax was paid, as compared with 10,707 in 1918. The total wealth assessed showed continuous progress. The figures are: 1910-17, £201,939-179; 1917-18, £292,073,237; 1918-19, £33,482,427.

A recommendation that work for the unemployed could be found by laying out cricket pitches and bowling greens in public parks, has been made by the Marylebone Council to the British Office of works. The average number of men employed in Quebec’s asbestos production last year was 3,230, and the exports were 152,740 tons, most of which went to the United States, which has cut off its asbestos trade with Germany since the war. The London County Council Education Committee reported that during the two weeks ended June 10th and June 23rd no fewer than 29,790 and 29,542 necessitous children were supplied with meals, compared with 12,918 and 12,935 in the corresponding weeks last year.