NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2814, 22 November 1924, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Aqueducts cut for 2H miles through solid roolc of lieu Nevis are jiiirt of* 1 :i vast scheme now being started fur harnessing water power over an area of .200 square miles of the Scottish Highlands. In a boys’ class at a Wiltshire ullage some of the pupils were tested as to their acquaintance with railway trains. It was found that live had never seen a train, while Hi had never 'been in one.

‘•You have the lowest birthrate in the world in New Zealand,” remarked Dr. Vaughan during a lecture at Invercargill. “In America we’re trying to catch up with you, hut you keep forging ahead and healing your own records.’’ A famous scientist says that within the earth is a large wave that moves around the planet once every 8,800 years. The wave slightly moves the of the earth’s axis and poles, resulting in climatic changes.

The total receipts of the Auckland Dominion Industrial Exhibition and Winter Show, held in June last, were £9,051, and the expenses £7,288, leaving a profit of £1,703. The gate receipts amounted to £4,579, and space charges £3,081. A man in Texas is making his living by the occupation of hatching ants. lie sells huge quantities of them to the Californian fruitgrowers as the variety he raises feeds on tlu* eggs of fruit destroying insects. His ants are, therefore, of wonderful value in cheeking the ravages of these pests. Mr John Campbell, who died at Belfast, aged 112 years, held very definite views of women. When asked what kind of girl he would advise a young man to choose for n wife, he promptly replied: “None at all of the present generation. They are not worth taking.” A Poverty Bay farmer recently communicated with the Department of Agriculture as to the suitability of the climatic and general conditions of that district for the growing of olives. The answer he received was to the effect that olive plan.at ions should do splendidly in Poverty Bay, as olives grow well further south.

The most wonderful bronze bell n the world hangs in the temple of I’a Ohungtsu near Peking. It is ike an inverted ehalieo. 14i't high, t v in rirciiiii(VD‘iw»t'. ami fiin thick at the lip. II weighs 52 tons, and is engraved inside and out with S-1,000 characters, each one-ball !an inch square. It was cast 500 .ears ago by order of Emperor Yung-!.... Un account of tiie eariy seeding .if lb,, biddi bidd: in the higher counry above r’eduiiig' ami a round beyond Apili, shearing operations on .ome holdings have been completed .'.ldle a number are still Imsilv en- ■ aged. says an exchange. Tin wool in the main, is well grown, dean, .wight and of fairly good staple and rowers consider the clip to be a rv good one. ,\ mailer exeivising the minds ol :to- Canadian Govoi nmenf is (be number of immigrants leas ing (’a,nda and going to the United Stats. for four mouths of the year >hilo farming is at its height there is"plenty of employment, but. with •lie harvesting over the labouring i-hiss b gin to drift out of the eo;:,ttv, ami bis! year the number to aso Canada was 100,000. i’.i the observant railway traveler, the chalked abbreviations of file dilations of trucks and wagons ..ached to goods trains provide a ..onie.’it ~-f fleeting interest while •nssiiig in the express trains. Some ■ f these are particularly apt, and i •ypjcal example is chalked on trucks if timber for the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, which usu ally hear the cryptic word “Wembpy” (remarks the "Otago Daily Times’’); Titer was a poignant sequel to a •nature talk" which a Brighton toucher lately bad with her class rf young girls. Uor tin- purpose.' if the lesson each of lln* children ras given a wherry, and when the ossnn was over, cherries were dis'rilmted among the best-behaved if them. One of tile children to •;et this gift of cherries for good behaviour was Alive Strong, a girl if six years, who ate one of tjie cherries and died shortly aftcrvards. It wits stated at the inpicst that, a cherry stone had lodged in the girls lungs and that Ibis was the cause of death. A remarkable, instance of a narrow escape from fatal injury through being struck hv lightning occurred at Tisbury (states (lie Southland “Times”). Mr James McCann, i farmer in the district, and at one time a champion axeman, was getting through a wire fence during the thunderstorm, when a flash of lightning struck the wires and the fluid passed through his body. Mr Mr Conn was rendered unconscious for two hours and still hears the marks of his injuries on his fa.ee and hands.

An island. as yet uncharted, is “rowing 1 in the Thames in full view of the House of Commons. It lies been forming gradually for years, and now, within a few yards of St. Thomas’ Hospital, is showing verdure of rushes, willow, and grass. A. solitary sunflower grew there until a man plucked it as a souvenir of London's' new-born territory. When the tide is low pigeons, sparrows, gulls and sometimes a lordly swan land on the island to bask in the sun. “1 saw two wild ducks feeding there with their brood during the summer months,'' said a boatman to it Daily Express representative reeentlv.

“I am delighted with New Zealand newspapers,’’ said Mr, H. L. Russell, an American agricultural scientist, in an interview at Auckland on Saturday. “They give one news and reliable information,

which is marked contrast with the great majority of the newspapers of the United States, which live for sensation." Mr. Russell's particular quest is for information concerning co-operative dairying un-tli oils, and in this connection lie remarked that he had alteady seen more published in Auckland newspapers on agricultural matters than lie would find in an ordinary American paper in five years, lie had hundreds of clippings of ju>t (Inkind of information he wanted. The newspapers, by their attention fo agriculture, were undoubtedly performing a great national service.