NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2563, 5 April 1923, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Tlie average water eels travel a distance equal to a quarter of the earth’s cireumfei-ence, about 0,000 miles, in their lives.

The stars are divided into two great streams, moving in opposite directions, according to a Dutch astronomer.

Tn Kentucky an ungovernable temper and religious differences are only two among 11 legal grounds for divorce.

The greatest shops in the world are to be found in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Toronto, according to a London expert.

There arc at least 1,000 tabletennis clubs in England, and new ones are being formed at the rate of hundreds a month.

Eor a finger nail to reach its full length an average of seven-twelf-ths of an inch, from 121 to 130 days of growth are necessary.

Tn Great Britain there are 150 places claiming to be health resorts which supply almost any variety of climate desired.

\\ hito stone is mostly used for London buildings, as it weathers best; coloured stones do not'stand London conditions so well. The floor of the ballroom of one big London hotel rests upon 240 spiral steel springs and is “tuned up” once in every ten years. The largest photograph in the world, measuring 9(Jit. by 10ft. has just been completed in America. It cost less than £3O to produce. Unemployed people registered in Great Britain on January 1 of this year numbered 1,455,800, which is 337,033 less than on January 1 of 1022.

A mole’s home in the earth has always four or live outlets. By means of one or the other the inmate is always able to elude any danger. v The veterinary science systematically studied until the eighteenth century, although it is said to have originated in 300 A.D., in Rome. Doctors in a West London suburb are suggesting a “black list” of patients who go from one medical man to another instead of paying their accounts.'

“Friends who have been kind to me” benefit ted under the will of nil American. The heirs included waitresses, bootblacks, business men, lawyers and doctors. Shoeblacks, once so common in London, arc gradually disappearing; there are now about 400 left of the 2,000 who used to earn a living by cleaning boots.

Passengers who hire a certain taxicab in Nottingham will be able to listen-in to broadcast concerts, as the owner lias fitted a wireless apparatus to his vehicle.

The Great Western Railway in its new amalgamation, lias about 1,500 stations and halts and carries 170,- ()()(),()(>() passengers and (50,000,000 tons of goods annnally. Postmen in Ashford, Middlesex, receive a hall-day holiday every Wednesday, and those ot the public who expect letters piav have them by calling at the post office. Hippopotami, wolves, birds of prey, bears, and even nightingales in the London Zoo are among the “friends” of a young lady who is a Implant visitor there. Combining the features of a public house a Continental cafe, restaurant and dub, a new type of inn j s to be tried on the London County Council estate at Bellingham. Harwell’s new M.P. recently invited his 30,(>(>(> constituents to tea with him at the House of Commons, is the constituency is 400 miles from London the offer 'fas not largely accepted. Extending 12 miles between Basingstoke and Alton, a branch railwav has not been used since its metal lines were requisitioned in 1910 |V»r use in France. It has now been definitely closed. A piece of string about Bft. long, with the ends tied together to form a loop, is the favourite plaything of natives in many parts of Africa; with it they play various forms of “cat’s cradle” games.