NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2397, 25 February 1922, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Prisoners in Morocco are compelled to pay the officers for their trouble in arresting and escorting them to gaol. This plan makes the police watchful and nhvay.\alert for business.

o The key-ring symbolises the old custom of handing over the keys of the house to the woman. This was more often a design used for the wedding ring, and occasionally for the betrothal.

Only one British civilian has a right to pass through- 'marching troops, namely, a Court physician on his way to a Royal residence. He can make even the Household Cavalry open their ranks lo him. Among the highest prices ever paid under the hammer for a book in England was £4,950 for the “Fust and Schoeffer Psalter,” printed on vellum, 1459. The celebrated Mazarian Bible on vellum brought £4,000. The colour of amber is of all shades, from pale straw to dqep orange. A species called the Fale?ian, from its similarity in colour to the celebrated rich golden wine of that name, was the most prized by the Romans.

The teak, which has passed into proverb as the best material for shipbuilding, is superior fo all other woods, from the fact that it contains an essential oil which prevents spikes and nails driven into it from rusting. If the paper used by the United States Government Printing Office during last year was laid fiat at a thickness of one sheet, it would cover approximately 35 square miles, and if made into octavo books, piled one on the other, they would sear 500 miles into the air.