NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2524, 30 December 1922, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Chateau Devaehan, San Itemo, at which the last Peace Conferences- as held in April, 1.020, is to he sold by auction in London. A Frenchman has written on an ordinary postcard 23,154 words — 125,000 letters. The writing is said to he. legible to the naked eye. A flying repair workshop is being constructed for the Air Ministry; it will accompany operation fleets of aeroplanes. Mo fewer than (52,042 people are in receipt of relief from the West Ham Guardians as against 11,783 in September, 1014. Jewelled dresses valued at as much as £IOO,OOO have been worn in London recently by the wives of American millionaires. The term “giving quarter" appears to have originated in the ancient agreement that the ransom of a soldier should be one-quarter of his pay. Aeroplanes fitted as ollieos complete with desks, typewriters, card index cabinets, etc., are the latest development in commercial aviation. To play a part in the filming of a famous play, the Admiralty have lent a Dreadnought complete with its complement of officers and men. Birds and bats are the only living vortebratn capable of flight; spuirrels, lizards, snakes, fish and lemurs fly through the air with great swooping leaps. “Transformations" of pure white hair, much in demand among London society women, cost up to £35 apiecei. The best white hair will bring at least £3 an ounce. Poison gas so deadly that onetenth of 1 per cent, of it in the atmosphere would he fatal, has been successfully used in clearing a ship of rats, cockroaches, and other pests.

Taxes on food, drink, and entertainments alone amount in the case of a working-class family of five in Fmglaml to not less than 14s a week according to Mr .J. K. Clynes, M.P. A fraction of a grain of musk will scent a room for years and the

curious thing about it is that at the end of that time its weight is not diminished bv the smallest fraction.

With sleeping accommodation for 200 passengers and able to carry 100 tons of freight for a non-stop run of 4,000 miles, an airship OOOffi long has been designed by a German engineer.

Vanua Lava, an island in the New Hebrides, is literally a mountain of sulphur. 1,(500!‘l in height and abouf 100 square miles in base. The mountain is Of) per cent, pure sulphur. Carrying 13,000' people, the liners Majestic, Olympic and Homeric require 440,000 pieces of household and table linen, including 110,000 table napkins, 35,000 sheets, and 17,000 tablecloths. At an office in London rats have caused serious loss of business by destroying letters containing orders for goods, and making a nest of them. Their favourite envelopes were those having a celluloid front. Restaurant meals are now taxed in Germany, the impost increasing with the cost of the meal; thus, on a meal costing Is 3d, a diner would pay a 50 per cent, tax, while <ui more than 8s the duty is 100 per cent.

The Oxford Board of Guardians lias decided to give pocket money weekly to the boys and girls under their purview, the -mxes to have “equal pay” in grades from Id. 2d, 3d, and, in the highest class (id a week.

When Eton opened in September there were 1,139 hoys at the school —n new record. The school was granted an extra week’s holiday to celebrate Princess Mary’s wedding to an old Etonian —Viscount Eascelles. Charged with nearly hunting down a church, stealing I rom tearooms, and fishing vessels, and stealing a horse, which he afterwards tried to sell for 3d, an eight - vcar-old Wnmsgate hoy was recently sen! to an industrial school. 'l’lie mouthers of the ballet at the Paris Opera House have a morning dancing lesson from 19.30 till noon, and an afternoon rehearsal from 1 to 4 p.m., private tuition from 5 to 7in the evening and then appear on the stage from 7.45 p.ni. A hull attacked and killed a farm labourer named Thomas I owler, aged (H years in a Held at Stephen Park Farm. Essington, near Cldlieroe The man’s body was covered with bruises and the Held showed signs of a terrible struggle between man and beast. Onlv queen bees and workers have the power to sting. The (Irenes cannot sting. The stinger is cm - ved, and is carried sheathed Alter the point enters there is a Hoy of poison. It is believed that a »«c cannot sling a seco.nl time because, owing to backward pointing barbs, .!,« s .i,«cr S left Thus the bee dies as a result of vengeance.