NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2813, 20 November 1924, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The soil of Siberia is sometimes frozen to a depth of 63ft. The average life of a railway locomotive is thirty-eight years. In 1695 a tax was imposed on bachelors and widowers in England, The cactus was first imported into Britain from Mexico in 1700.

About 60 per cent, of the population in Western Canada, resides on farms.

Nearly 3,000,000 gallons a year is the Royal Air Force's rate of: petrol consumption. Employees of tradesmen in Japan wear their employers’ trade mark on the back of their coats. The hottest sun never blister a negro’s skin; the black pigment prevents the rays from penetrating.

Bath chairs are so called because they were originally used at Bath by invalids taking the waters. A powder made from fish, which will increase human height, is announced by a Japanese scientist. Butter produced in Saskatchewan. Canada, during July, weighed 2,284,0091 b. constituting a record. • July was,, in some parts of England, including certain London districts, the wettest mouth on record.

Although only 4,400 stars can hr seen with the naked eye, a catalogue of 4,000,000 is being prepared. The mainspring of ‘‘Big Ben,’’ at Aldershot Camp lately broke, after 15 years’ uninterrupted working. Rice paper is not made from the rice plant, but from the pith of a. tree growing in the island of Formosa. A Wanganui apiarist vouches for the truth of the following story: On a board in front of one of his hives a small pool of water had collected and in this a bee that had been out foraging got partly immersed. The insect turned over on its back and was helpless. Its plight was noticed bv another bee, which immediately wadded in, turned its companion over, and helped it out.

Complaining that: he suffered from rheumatism and that the electricity in a building affected his head and was detrimental to his nerves, Arthur Robinson, a middleaged man, believed that sleeping out was a sure cure for his ailments, and appeared before the magistrate at Hamilton to answer a charge of being an incorrigible rogue with no visible means of support. Accused had been sleeping in the railway station yard and pestering the railway officials, and had done no work for about two years. He stated he was too run down for hard work. Accused vas ordered to be detained for reformative treatment not exceeding 18 months.