NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2823, 13 December 1924, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

Emigrants from England last, year numbered 207,000 including 159,000 men. Thames ballast is some of the most valuable building material in the world. California produced almost 0 per cent, of the total hay crop in the United States last year. Stratford-on-Avon has been chosen for the 1925 congress of the British Chess Federation. France’s smallest conscript is a well-known music-hall performer, who measures only 3ft. sin. Three thousand " porpoises were caught off the coast of North Carolina last year to supply oil for watches. Inmates of workhouses and other poor-law institutions in England and Wales in June last numbered 209,750.

Nearly 3000 lives have been saved by the lifeboats at Ramsgate, Deal, Margate, Soulhcnd-on-sca and Folkstoue. The Birmingham Public Librarlent nearly throe million hooks la.s| year, the highest number in history. Westminister enjoys tire lowest .rate in London this year, 9/0 in the .G; and Poplar the highest. 23 in the .€. There are about 500 species of animal-eating plants. The\ imprison their prey with their leaves and absorb the victims. Preparations are being made to .'■liable listeners in Great Britan to •real the roar of the Niagara which is about 3,000 miles away. A smile went round the Court at Wairoa when a civil case was called on. The magistrate was rushing’ tilings through in great style, most of the .judgments being given by default. Ilis Worship had just given judgment, when the clerk of flic court informed him that the summons had not been served, as the defendant was dead.

The little ones were playing in llu playground at an Ellhani school and one hoy, aged 7, claimed Unit he was pretty when he was a baby. All the children bad their own'opinions as tn their appenranres, s.i when class was resumed, the teacher asked what the children would like lo write ;) s an essay. “Babies'" was the chorus. This was the contribution of the seven year-old boy: —“Babies are only about a font long when thav are horn and tlmy l'.ave no tenth and have no hear and earn I walk or craw) ami lli.av are in a pram.all the lime and thav have to he wealed ahoat and fed with hot ties.’’ One of the shortest sentences of imprisonment on record —ten minutes —was passed at Ihe Tottenham Police Court, lately on a voung woman, who had been charged with stealing sheets and blankets from a house, and bad been on remand for two weeks for medical examination. A> she bad already been in custody for some time the magistrate said lie would order her to he kept" in the cells only until the bunds of the clock pointed to 12. It was then .10 minutes lo 12Perhaps one of tile most curious railways that England has ever known was the line called the South Devon Atmospheric Railway, which ran between Exeter and Tot lies for slant period in 1817. The trains were run entirely by air pressure, which was forced through a pipe hod along the centre of the track, in order to maintain an adequate supply of air. pumping stations were provided at intervals pf three miles (says ail exchange). The Monklamls and Kirkintilloch line, which celebrates its centenary this year, started with a single truck and no engine at all. In order to provide the necessary force for propulsion, stout umbrellas were held out to he filled by the following wind. But flip return journey was not so easy. Those who had ridden oile way were forced to get out and push their “train” home ugain.