NEWS IN BRIEF

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2447, 29 June 1922, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF

Nearly nine million pieces of baggage were handled by the Canadian Pacific Railway during 1921. Among the baggage handled were 26,782 baby carriages; 1,614,791 cans of milk; and over 10,000 dogs. A committee in the United States, the counterpart of the Geddes Committee in England, Inis made the discovery that the Navy Department owns a forest, purchased in 1798, still officially maintained for the purpose of providing wood for the building of war vessels. A shipment of 700 pounds of Douglas fir seed was recently made to Great Britain. Fifty pounds of the same seeds, and a like amount of Sitka spruce seed have been shipped to New Zealand, a similar shipment. at the same time going- forward to Australia.

A muskrat farm is to be established at Newboro, Leeds County, Canada, by Dr. G. E. Richards. He has also commenced a black fox ranch at the same place. At a meeting of the pilots at Le Bourget aerodrome it was decided that commercial flying should not be undertaken when visibility was less than five furlongs. Aged one hundred, an Austrian burglar was recently arrested in an uninhabited house, where he haci lived for a fortnight, drinking the wines in the cellar.

At a sale of pictures at Geneva a landscape by Ferdinand Hodler was sold for £I,OOO. This picture had been bought for £l2 in 1880, and resold for £760 in 1918.

Lumber exports from the province of Quebec during 1920-21 amounted to 422,260,945 ft., compared with 394,411,630 ft in 1919-20, and 324,066,754 ft in 1918-19. During the first quarter of this year Swiss customs yielded a total revenue of nearly £1,500,000, against £900,000 for the corresponding period of 1921. In addition to aeroplanes, a wireless telephone will be a novelty in the equipment carried by Ronald Amunsden on his forthcoming expedition to the North Pole. The Englisji police system is the best in the world, according to Six' Edward Troup, who has had nearly forty-two years' experience, and served under fifteen Home Secretaries.

Since the City Corporation began the systematic destruction of rats in warehouses and ships in the Port of London 21 years ago, a million and a quarter rats have been killed. The fox farming industry of Prince Edward Island produced last year a revenue of 1,240,000 dollars, or nearly as much as the island’s fish and dairy produce combined. Air- Charles Cobom, the English comedian, who is walking from London to John o’ Groats, has been forced to rest awhile at Aberdeen owing to strained tendons in both feet.

More than 51,000,000 passengers were carried on Canadian railways in 1921, and there were only four killed and 240 injured. Of a total of 125,177 employees engaged in railway work during that period 91 were killed and 1,344 were injured. At the annual session of the Grand Lodge of Good Templars at Keswick, England, it .is reported that there are 964 adult and 763 juvenile lodges, with a membership of 99,794, in England, an increase of 19,162 since Armistice. Three pennies, three halfpennies, a spoon and fork, one screw, one darning needle, one button, one pen nib and a boot tip. This list of articles 1 swallowed by a woman who was operated upon and recovered.

The Paris Prefect of Police has issued an order that in future persons carrying infants are to enjoy priority rights in entering public conveyances. They will rank immediately after the blind and the men who were wounded and disabled in the war. They are further to have, with the latter, the right to specially reserved seats. About twice a week a large envelope is found pinned to a tree trunk at Neasden, England. The outside of the envelope bears a written warning to those leading an evil life, whilst inside is a copy of one of the Gospels with a shilling. The prize usually falls on the policeman on liis early morning round. The benefactor has never been discovered.