NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2559, 24 March 1923, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Artillery fire 'has been heard at 370 miles. Ten years is the average life of an oyster. A topaz weighing 51b. has been found in Brazil. Some of the beetles of Venezuela weigh half a pound each. Nine million people live within fifty miles of Manchester. Sugar-beet was grown on 8000 acres of British soil last year. Every eat in Marienbad is the subject of a tax of 13s a year. Many of the workers in coalmines suck a piece of coal while at work. There have been thirty-two Parliaments in the history of England. The mouth of a full-grown whale, when wide Qpen, measures 12ft. by 18ft. Sunday newspapers are now supplied to inmates of convict prisons in England. A crowd of a million persons standing in comfort would cover seventy acres. The cost of electric light to householders in London varies from 3d to Is per unit. Pigs that are washed put on a fifth more flesh than those that are left dirty. There are 18 members of the Order of Merit. The Order is limited to 24 members. Dust from volcanic eruptions has been known to travel 500 miles through the air. Every minute of sunshine raises 37,000,000,000 tons of water from the earth.

Every petition presented to the House of Commons must lie written and not printed.

Kensington Palace was one of the first buildings in England to be decorated with wallpaper. Billingsgate was an accepted market for fish over 1,000 years ago. It is the oldest in London.

Australia has more places of public worship in proportion to population than any other country. The Port London Authority is to spend £14,000,000 on modernising the port and works. Owing to lack of fuel and capital 20,000 miles of railway under the Russian Soviet have been closed. Three women have qualified as “weather clerks” under the London Meteorological Society. The difference in time between Australia and England amounts to ten hours and six minutes at Sydney. Every morning a horse kicks at the door of a certain house in Seaton Delafal, Northumberland, for a “snack.” Breslau, in Silesia, possesses a chimney 50ft, high, made entirely of compressed paper. It is stated to be fireproof. A novel musical instrument is a violin that can be folded, enclosed in a ease, and carried like a walking stick. Two years ago the British beer tax brought in more than £123,000,000; this year it is estimated at £90,000,000. Music can lull to slumber any form of disease curable by science, accoi’ding to a professor at Cincinatti University. About 9 per cent, of the milk samples tested by the Middlesex inspectors during 1922 were found to be below standard.

State education in England and Wales in 1922-23 will cost £82,122,267, which works out at the rate of £l2 per child. Fires in the City of London during 1922 decreased almost to the pre-war average of 150 yearly. In 1921 there were 286.

An elephant is possessed of such a delicate sense of smell that it can scent a human being at a distance of 1,100 yards. Parlours in addition to kitchens, arc disappearing in many workingclass homes owing to lack of housing accommodation. Income tax is payable by 5,000000 of the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ix-eland.