NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2859, 17 March 1925, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The alphabet of the Tnrlnrs contains 202 letters. Barcelonin’s first enderground railway was opened recently. Houses erected at Southend durLcssons with the nid of n gramophone are to he given in Leicestershire selinols. An Indian game hen, owned by Airs. Williamson. Alarypnrf, Cnmberland, is 20 years old. Only onee had corporal punishment to he indicted on a'-convict in British prisons last year. After being closed 25 years, Cwmorthin *slat,c quarry, Blaenufestiniog, is to be opened. St. Dunstan’s have taken in 035 men, who due to war wounds, have gone blind since the Armistice* Spherical cast iron shells made iheir first appearance about 1(500 These were nearly tilled with gunpowder, the rest of the space being occupied by a slow-burning materia] to act as a fuse.

The Thames flows for twentythree miles through the County of London. There are twenty-one bridges across it and nine tunnels underneath, two of the latter being for road and foot passengers. - “Electrified’' shcc]> on a Californian farm are said to have produced a greatly increased yield of wool and twice as many lambs. The method adopted is similar to that used in electrifying crops. The earth’s axis inclines at an angle for tho same reason that ■a spinning peg top circles round at an angle, and only gradually assumes ah upright position, going to an angle if knocked. Sixty thousand tons of east-iron segments will be required for lining the tunnels of the new ClaphamAlodern Tube extension. The total amount of material to he excavated will he about 500,(100 lons.

Three men were each lined 10/a.t Hereford lately for playing pilch and toss in the churchyard at Breinton during evensong. It was stated that (lie vicar had been forced by the noise to slop the sermon.

\\ bile showing a pit boy how mice were electrocuted, an electric pump attendant in the Croxdale Coal Mine (County Durhanu) accidentally touched the terminals with a lamp he field. He was instantly killed.

Before the rising of (die curtain on each act of the Chunve-Souris Company at the Strand Theatre, London, every member of the cast crosses himself or herself four times in accordance with the ritual of I lie Creek Church. Sir Hugh Lucas Tooth, ALP. for the Isle ol Ely, and the youngest member in the House, played I'oof*ball in his constituency recently. He was right hall, for Airmen. a village in the heart of the Fens, against ALa rc'li Town. As showing the revived interest in lhi“ British breed of bulldogs, Mr If. T. \V. Howell, secretary of the Kennel Club, points mil that tvlierea-- only i)72 regisi rations were made i'i liili), in l!)g| the total was over 1,-100.

The word Zodiac means belonging to animals, and is the name given to ;i hell round the heavens containing twelve const (‘1 la t ions wihieli were named after animals owing |o a fan cicd resemblance to the outlines of their forms. Two foxes which entered a fowlhouse at Pearscdowii, near Bath, in December, and destroyed 30 fowls were shot while making a second visit.' The owner says these raids are an annual occurrence and always take place'just before Christ-

mil*. lii (iuernsey,. according to an analysis of Hie.census of tho CliiiniH‘l Islands just issued, “the proportion of gardeners is remarkable and much higher than found in any of the English counties.” The total population of Ihe islands in .1021 was 00,220. For over .'to years Beaumaris Poll Sanitary Authority have maintained a Hunting hospiftal in (lie Mcnai Straits for infectious cases I t om overseas, tint not one lias ever liceu Created there. It has now been decided to semi any eases to the Bangor Isolation Hospital. Lizards and, other victims are fascinated, by a South American snake by means of its tongue, which is part-coloured to match the reptile’s forehead, cheeks and underjaw. When the tongue is shot out it looks ;ts if the snake’s snout were suddenly elongated into a wi iggling point. A. queer African snake, which lives on eggs, has a tooth-like spike projecting downwards from its back bone, just behind the head, which is tipped with enamel. When it swallows an egg the latter passes down the gullet instil lit encounters the spike, which breaks the shell. The steamship Trial elite had a strange experience not long ago off tlie coast of Peru, when, for mile after mile, she ploughed through a sea milky "white. The scientific department o:f the United Stales Navy accounts for this phenomenon by the presence of myriads of flouting microscopic white plants. Mr. Thomas Knotty postman was warmly praised by this* deputy coroner at Hackney, whan a verdict of accidental death was recorded in the ease of Caroline Allen, of ing 1924 average out at .24 a week. Dalston, who was burned to death. Knott ran into the house and extinguished the flames with his mail hag and overcoat. Two Maori lads went into a cart shed at Tangoio, near Napier, to have a smoke. Lighting ni caudle for the purpose. The caudle-’ fell on

to a tin of benzine, the -died bursting into flames. One lad, .hu-k Wauo, was burnt to death, whil-t the other was seriously burnt. Taking llie average pile, of wool as 1/3 per lb., an iulciv.-ding fuel probably not .realised by many in New Zealand is (says tin* NVls.m Mail) that if one pound of wool was added to the fleece of every sheep in the Dominion, an increase I'., the conn try’s finance of about .C 1.500,000 per annum would result. Extraordinary swarms of herring have recently been reported in tin' North Sea, especially off the Schleswig coast, the entrance.to the Eider River being described as “blockaded.’’ The lish can lie lifted out by hand and in buckets, says a message and some of iho boats have brought in catches of 25,000 pounds. A tooth ton feet long, of some antediluvian animal yet unknown has been discovered in dramatic fashion at Copra mo, Italy. Striking the tooth with his pick, a man quarrying for gravel in a lumiel twentylive feel below the level of the ground made the discovery. This is no! the first time that traces of prehistoric anmals have been found in this district. This tooth which at its base is nineteen inches across, will he taken to a Rome museum, where an endeavour to “re-con-struct” the creature to which it belonged will be made.