NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 246, 1 June 1922, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Skeleton remains of a lizzard about eight feet long-, which lived in England millions of years ago, have been found in Sussex. A plate from which a dog has eaten will never be used again in the preparation of food among the true gipsies. The Granges, India’s most important. river, is 1,557 miles long and is navigable for a distance of 850 miles from the sea. The chief difference between the human hand and that of the higher apes lies in the thumb, which is always shorter in the ape. The gold-fish were originally brown in colour, and is a native of Japan and China; its golden colour is due to selective breeding. Steel railway carriages, as used on some American railways, are said to lessen the danger of telescoping in event of a collision. Roses -were formerly the symbol of silence, hence the Latin phrase

“Slibrosa,” meaning “under the rose” and so in confidence. “Fur” in kettles and boilers is due to the action of the boiling water making certain carbonates in the water adhere to the vessel used. A new oil field has been discovered in Tekueza, Galaeian Poland, and Polish geologists are of the opinion that its productiveness will be very high. Through the Union of German Warriors, the German Government could issue direct orders to more than 2,000,000 soldiers in fortyeight hours.

Enumeration of live-stock in Latavia in the summer of 1921, gave the following results: —Horses 252, 500; cattle, 779,500; sheep, 1,332, 000; hogs, 482,000. A wire, mask-like guard, to be worn by those whose eyesight requires glasses, is the latest idea for preventing accidents during ball games of any kind. Every form of lamp used in the mines is based on the design of Sir Humphrey Davy, whose principle was that flames will not pass through wire gauze.

“Active, energetic races have, in the main, small and simpler feet,” says a. scientist; “indolent ones have clumsy, fiat or otherwise ill-shapon ones.”

A fire-engine built in 179(5, and drawn to the scenes of its labours by a pair of donkeys, is a picturesque feature of village life in Bottishain. near Cambridge. Hammocks are supposed to have received their name from the fact that the natives of Brazil used the bark of the hammack-tree for the nets in which to sleep. Irish emigrants to the number of 4,338,199 left their native shores for other lands between May, 1851, and December 31st 1920. Nature intended women to be more lovely than men and a nation whose men excel its women in beauty is faced with disaster according lo one expert in physical culture. Chewing-gum is said to be used in England principally by coal-min-ors, cotton operatives, factory worker's, and other industrial employees who cannot smoke while at their work.

Scavengers were originally officials who collected Seavage, a tax imposed in many English towns on all goods exposed for sale within their boundaries; this tax was prohibited by Henry VII. The railway which crosses the St. Gothard, one of the most famous Alpine passes, travels over 324 bridges of more than 32ft. span, and tlirough 80 tunnels, the main one of which, is 91 miles long:.

St. James’ Palace in London, stands on the site of, and derives its name from, a twelfth century leper hospital, which Henry YIII, transformed into a manorlumse; between 1698 and 1837 it: was a Royal residence.

At present from 250,000 to 300, 000 tons of coal arc annually imported into Greece. In 1920 about 212,000 tons was imported of which 50 per cent, came from the United States, 45 per cent, from England, and 5 per cent, from other countries. The 1921-22 coffee crop of Costa Rica is estimated at from 38,000, 0001 b. to 41,000,00011). as against an average of. a little over 32,959, 0001 b. Before the war 85 per cent. - of the crop went to England and other European countries, but 60 per cent, now goes to U.S.A. Genoa is in direct telephone communication with 10, Downing St., during the present conference. A long-distance line connected the Prime Minister, through the French exchanges to be in daily commnniciation with the conference.

Prebendary Carlisle was recently interviewing a number of homeless men from the streets at the Church Army Home, Westminister, when a dustman friend, who accompanied him, insisted on giving £SO in Treasury notes for the Church Army Home work. This sum represented the savings of many years.

Fleetwood Distinct Council has approved of the letting of four council houses on the usual conditions, but also subject to the f'urllim- condition that the new-lodgers, on reasonable terms, shall lake in certain named persons. Lodgers in each case are married couples in one case childless, in two others with one child, and the other with two children.

While a motor car was speeding through the noted (lien Af'rie doer forest, Inverness-shire, a stag, apparently blinded and siupified by I lie bright headlights, collided with tin' car and lay helpless across the engine. The windscreen was -ma-li-ed and the driver, who sutiered from shock, was cut with glass splinters. Then suddenly the stag bounded off the engine and made for the wood.