NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2795, 9 October 1924, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There is a poultry population in La nenshire of 12,000,000 laying hens.

Two Birmingham .jurors, who were absent when their names were called, were each fined £2O.

Mr. Robert Applegilrlh, one of the founders of trades unionism, has died in his ninety-lirsf year. In Rhodesia a swarm of locusts six miles long by four miles broad held up a train for a considerable time.

The rate of infantile mortality in Middlesex last year—s2 per thousand births —is the lowest on record.

Of the £15,000,000 naval prize money distributable under the Prize Proclamation £307,000 remains unclaimed. The sound of a bell which can be heard 45,200 feet through the water can be heard through the air only 450 feet.

Among some Indian tribes it is in the highest degree improper for a mother-in-law to speak to her da lighter’s husband. At an auction of cattle near Mold, a cow was sold for one shilling. It was 25 years old, and apparently in good health. The Rev. Alexander Wilson, who died lately at Sandgate, aged 85, spoke eight languages. He learned Italian at the age of 00. The- fish-hook cactus is a trustworthy compass of the desert, as, no matter how hot the sun, it always points towards the south. The oldest book in the world is the “Rig Veda,” which was in existence, as complete as it is now, 1500 years before Christ. The number of deaths from consumption reported to the Lancashire County Council in 1923 was the lowest ever recorded. At the age 99, Mr. W. G. Paseee, a gardener, recently walked to and from a show at Tregony, Cornwall, a distance of six miles. The water is so clear in the fords of .Norway that objects an inch and a half in diameter can be seen distinctly at a depth of 150 feet. The Victoria Cross awarded to Private J. Smith, First Madras Fusiliers, for gallantry at Lucknow in 1557, has been sold in a London sale room for £4O. Southwark Borough Council is ■

superannuating Mr Jolm Beall, a rate collector with 50 years' service. This is believed to be a London record. A scheme is contemplated at | Ramsgate to replace the Marina pier j which was destroyed by tire six years ago, by a pier 720 ft. long and to cost £200,000. Sir lan Amory’s long-service prize at ihe Tiverton Agrieiilinral Show was won by David Graves, of Fffenlme, who lias worked on Ihe same farm for 48 years. Dr. Barwise, medical officer for Derbyshire, reports that the population of the eonntv is 714,0(12, of whom one-tenth suffer from goitre, or “Derbyshire neck.” Probably the oldest inhabited house in England is Laddosdown Court, Ivent. The late Sir W. St. John Hope said that it dated from “1120 or perhaps earlier.” One Wanganui resident is loud in his praise of the Hindu labourer as a grafter. Some time ago he purchased a section at Wellington East which was covered with gorse, and being unable to give the right swing to the grubber, he employed a man to clear the gorse tor which he paid 25/-. After a tune the gorse began to grow more vigorous (ban ever, and hearing of the reliability of the Hindu, he employed him to clear the section, which he did in a most satisfactory manner for the modest sum of 10/-. “The Hindu is a good British subject, works long hours, makes a good job for small pay, and he will do me,” he remarked to a newspaperman.