NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2564, 7 April 1923, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

About 10,000 varieties of fish are kiiowu.

Ottawa in Canada, is 3,540 miles from London. In Persia tears shed for the dead are preserved in bottles. London spends £l7 10s per child annually in elementary education. French chalk is said to be used in polishing certain grades of rice. It is estimated that one hundred and sixty million people speak English. The tomb of Mohammed is covered with precious stones, valued at £2,000,000. The total amount owed to Great Britain by foreign countries is over £2,017,461,000. Three hundred and sixty mountains in the United States are over 10,000 ft. high. Widows were taxed in England from 1695 to 1851 and titles from 1784 to 1833. “Mary” is the name of more than 1,000 fishing boats engaged round the British coast. In one military cemetery in the Western Front there are 2,192 unknown burials to 1,156 known. Ships which cost about £12,000, IS months after the Armistice, can now be bought for £20,000. Mothers-in-law are the chief home-wreckers and spoilers ot marriage to-day, according to a Chicago .judge. “Listening in” to wireless while being shaved, etc., is the attraction offered to customers by a London barber. For five hours after he ceased to breathe, the heart of a patient in Manchester Royal Infirmary continued to beat. Maidenhair ferns, which grow plentifully in Arran, are sometimes used by the inhabitants as a substitute for tea. A man has constructed a perfect model motor-bus from Cocoa tins and firewood. A mangle rooler was used for wheels. Capable of carrying several hundred men, a 600-ton submersible liner has been designed lor the French Naval Ministry. “Treasure Island,” Stevenson’s famous story, is recommended for boys up to the age of 13 in preference to Shakespeare’s plays.