NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2925, 20 August 1925, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Camulhm orchards grew fruit worth £4,800,000 last year. American insects are to be made the subject of a special census. Yarmouth’s weekly catch of herrings numbers about 300,000,000. Kew Gardens, London’s famous horticultural park, covers 280 acres. Compared with Englishmen, Scotsmen, and Welshmen, the Irish have much the largest heads. Street hawkers in New York number 7800, and do business estimated at £7,000,000 annually. In Norway a woman must possess a certificate of her ability as a cook before she is allowed to marry. The stationery and printing bills for a recent year for the House of Commons amounted to £52,504. A single female salmon of 301 b. weight deposits nearly 30,000 eggs, of which 4 per cent, hatch. Metal railway sleepers have to be used in many parts of India. Wooden sleepers would be eaten by insects. Convicts in the famous American prison, Sing Sing, are to he permitted to install their own wireless receivers. The normal beat of the human pulse is 72 per minute, although speeds of 175 and even ISO have been recorded. American men are adopting the walking-stick and the pipe, both formerly regarded as purely British customs.

One hundred different species of birds have been noted at Brean Down, near Weston-super-Mare, and Dnngeness. Britain’s biggest lighthouse is at St. Catherine’s Point, Isle of Wight. It has a light equal to 15,000,000 candle-power. While an Indian baby lay asleep in a hut in a crowded suburb of Calcutta a jackall entered and carried the infant off.

Signposts which can be illuminated after dark are being experimented with in London by the Ministry of Transport.

While crossing the Channel f'ron France to England a balloon descended upon the funnel of a steamer and hurst into flames.

It is believed in certain parts of 'England that a holly hush planted near a dwelling protects the houst from lightning. Every child on the roll of the Lynsted elementary school, Kent, recently received one shilling under the will of a local resident.

During the first months of this year the Cambridge police collected 918 ownerless bicycles from, the streets of the University town.

Fashions in clothes set by the Prince of Wales during his last visit to the United {States are still popular, including grey suits and grey or blue ties. Having by some mischance caught its foot in a “breakback” mousetrap, a rook has been seen flying round Ely with the impediment still securely attached. Stated to be the oldest tree in France, a plane, standing in a Rouen avenue, was recently decorated with a plate which records the age of the tree as 148 years.

Shorthand is one of the arts that have never been lost. A system was practised in Phoenicia before the Greeks existed as a people, and possibly also in Babylon.

While married men are said to live longer than bachelors the opposite is the rule where spinsters and wives are concerned, although the difference is very small. Five children of the late Mr. Merry, of Arran, share 491) years between them. The eldest, a daughter, recently celebrated her 101st birthday, while the youngest is 83 years old. Valuable State documents stored in the Victoria Tower of the British Houses of Parliament are so badly safeguarded that they are, in many cases, being attacked by fungus.

Screws, especially the smallest sizes, are being very cxtensivly stolen from railways carriages. Window straps are also popular as “booty” among the less scrupulous passengers.

A world’s record is claimed for the Blue Nile Dam, 170 miles south of Khartoum. It cost 12i million pounds and in the making 17 million cubic yards of earth were excavated.

“Coppernob,” a famous old rail-way-engine, which ran continuously on the Furness Railway from 1840 to 1899, when it “retired,” is being exhibited at the Empire Exhibition.

.Several British birds, including bitterns, kites, Kentish plovers, and bearded tits, are threatened with extinction, owing to the keenness ol collectors to obtain eggs or specimens for stuffing.

Jewelled anklets, which are being worn in Paris, were recently being mysteriously stolen from their owners’ legs. It was discovered that the thief was a clever fox terrier which had been named to snatch at the anklets and run. Lighthouse for the guidance of night flying aeroplanes on the Lon-don-Paris route number ten in all, those in England being at Croydon, Tatsfield Hill, Cran brook (Kent), and Lympne. While in an aeroplane 3000 ft. above the earth an American aviator and his haucee were married. The minister who performed the ceremony was in another aeroplane and used a megaphone.

Factories in Shanghai and TsienIsiu, for the manufacture of clothes, rugs and matches, are supplied with British machinery. In one rug factory there are 2000 children, .ranging from nine to 15 years of age. They work 11 hours a day for a wage of 3d.