NEWS IN BRIEF

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2998, 13 February 1926, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF

Slot gas-meters are used in at least one northrn city in England as savings banks. The users insert sixpenny pieces, shilling's, and even half-crowns, leaving the money there till it is required.

A gigantic swimming pool has been opened in San Francisco. It is 1000 ft. long, 150 ft. wide, and it requires nearly seven million gallons of water. The building has 750 dressing rooms.

The National Lifeboat Institution found in its collecting boxes at Wembley coins from more than twenty countries. Among them were two of the East India Company and George 111. farthing. \ At the time of the Armistice, the Jewish population of Palestine numbered 55;000; this has now grown to 125,000. It is estimated, however, that there are over 14,000,000 Jews in the world.

Herbert Brummell, aged 10, lias received the certificate of the Royal Humane Society and a silver watch for rescuing two men> from the River Vi'py. One rescue was maidc wheji Herbert was eleven. art dealer who gave permission to boys to take away packingcases for a bonfire found too late that they had removed a crate in which were two valuable pictures. Both were burned.

Official tests carried out in the schools of British Columbia proved that children born in the British Isles were above the world average, followed by those of British Columbia, Canada, and the United States. ~

Although us many as 150,000 people have been collected in the Wembley Stadium at one time, the terraces are made of concrete only one and a-half inches thick. British motor-cars are selling well abroad. In the first ten month of 1023 the cars exported numbered 2,222; for the same period of 1025 the figure was increased to 14,004. When the London Fire Brigade goes out on a long job it is accompanied by its own travelling canteen. This is a smart, motor-driven vehicle, which supplies hot drinks to the firemen.

Diamond arrows mounted on armlets so that they have the appearance of piercing the wearer’s flesh, and earrings long enough to touch the shoulders, are two recent fashion fancies.

Mr. C. Francis Jenkins, of Washington, has invented apparatus for taking pictures and showing them on a screen many miles away by wireless. He has already taken a series of oicfures which he claims to have transmitted five miles. The apparatus is said to be able to transmit an already-prepared film as well as a scene taking place before the operator. iron and wood doors in railway wagons may be replaced by cement, if experiments recently conducted m Germany continue to prove successful. According to a report, a composition called iilisbenbeton has been used in the construction of the doors of railway goods wagons with a great measure of success. The cost of manufacture is much less than for iron, and, although the concrete ear is much heavier, the fact that the danger of rust is eliminated offsets this advantage.

Gigantic kauri trees are still occasionally met with. Messrs. T. M. Lane and Son’s at Totara North, on Whaugaroai Harbour, cut into boards a few days ago a log 43 feet long and 23 feet 9 inches in the centre which had been grown fcn the neighbourhood of Totara North, and yielded about 12,000 feet of timber, sufficient to biuld two five-roomed cottages.

Buzzards, so long regarded as

foes to the farmers that they were nearly exterminated in England, are now looked upon as friends, their diet consisting principally of rats, cockchafers, reptiles, mice, beetles, and frogs. , A new book just published shows that over 150 years ago people were complaining that bakers had to make their bread white to please the people, so that the baker had “to poison his customers in order to live by bis profession. ’ bicycle with a trailer and one on which a baby is carried —is certainly something of a novelty (says the Poverty Bay Herald). There is at least one Gisbornite who has solved the problem of how best to take his baby with him when he goes cycling. A body has been constructed on two bicycle wheels and the conveyance attached to a cycle. For the protection of the baby in unfavourable weather a windscreen and hood ait provided. Mr. Zane Grey is thoroughly satisfied with the deep-sea fishing in the Bay of Islands. Although most of the tomato evi ps in Masterlon have been light t h ; • } ear, an aniiKeui ga ‘cmer us tot ms the Age that he has 29 l inula heart !g !• 0 tomatoes.