NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2459, 27 July 1922, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A tusk of good African ivory will fetch as much as £7O. There are 136 miles of towpaths besides the River Thames. The octopus is the greatest enemy on the crabs and lobsters. Kingfishers are frequent visitors to Kensington Gardens, London. Cambridge gaol is used as a library for the Public Records Office. It is stated that in Ukraine 10,000 i>eople are dying every day from starvation. In an English Police Court a boy was fined for removing a mother robin from her nest. Hythe (Kent) Council offers a penny for every queen wasp brought dead to the surveyor’s department. Octopuses numbering more than 5,000 were landed during a recent week by the fishermen of Northern France. Fox cubs are sold by auction at Ashford (Kent) market. Some are bought as pets for ladies. A man in California claims that the fibre of the redwood tree can be shredded and dyed to resemble human hair. Apart from the stoppages due to labour disputes, about 130,000 shipyard workers were unemployed in England during April. Twelve years old “Tosh” a toy terrier, weighs only 1£ lbs., and can be accommodated in an ordinary quart tankard. Music in restaurants is stated to lead to better work and more cheerful countenances on the part of the waiters and waitresses. Many British prisons no longer required for their proper use, are being closed down and placed in charge of caretakers. To become it member of certain very exclusive London clubs may mean waiting on the waiting list for as long as ten years. Umbrellas with detachable covers, which can be changed to match any individual gown, are the invention of an American woman. “Summer schools” arranged by (lie League of Nations’ Union, will bo held this year in many towns in England and the Continent. “Face make up,” including lipsticks and rouge, is now forbidden to the “flappers” employed by the State of New Jersey, America. It has been found from figures recently published that the average Englishman eats about seven times as much mutton as the average American. By a curious “freak” of Nature, insects which are the most beautiful when fully developed, are often the most repulsive in the grub stage. Mrs Anna Davies, of Royal Holoway College, lias won the £2OO prize rewarded to the Association to aid Scientific research, open to all the world. By a farm wages .agreement for • Bedfordshire workers over 21 are to have 7-Id an hour for a 50-hour week; the rates for youths are to be by arrangement. Although poor in water-power, Italy is putting her rivers and lakes to good use in increasing the supply of electricity, thus cutting down her coal imports. Children injured by street accidents in London annually out-num-ber the entire elementary school attendance of such towns at Eastbourne and Hartlepool. Fitting up the Majestic, England's largest liner, was a costly proceeding, the stores including 16,000 cups, 30,000 plates, 2,400 teapots, and 8,000 tumblers. “Mourning postage-stamps,” now on sale in Germany, bewail the loss of the German colonies. One example shows a. flag at half-mast, and has a wide black border. There are 529 houses in Hampstead, London, condemned as unfit for human habitation. The Borough Council is at present engaged in putting 230 of these in repair.