NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3031, 4 May 1926, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

It is estimated (Fiat the slowmoving traffic of London is causing a loss of over £70,00.0,000 a year.

At a depth of GGft. the water of the Dead Sea is twice as salt as it is on the surface, and at 1000 ft. three times as salt.

When a hen attains her third year her laying capacity is at its best. She will lay, on an average, from 300 to 500 eggs in her lifetime.

The spread of an albatross’ wings is 14 times the width from back to front, while the spread of the swallow’s wings is only four times the width.

Among men, 51 per cent, are stronger in the right arm than in the left. In 33 cases the left arm is stronger; in the rest the two arms are equal. The Irish Free State’s adverse trading balance stood at £17,678,000 at the end of December last, as compared with £10,059,000 in the previous year.

A wireless installation has been fitted in Doncaster workhouse at a cost of £7O, towards which the officials have contributed £43, the proceeds of social events. Bradford’s policeman have formed a special dancing class at a dancing academy where they gather every Wednesday. All ranks participate, from constables to inspectors, and even superintendents. Black and green tea are both the produce of the same plant, the difference being in the age of the leaves and the method of preparation for market.

Recruiting for the British army in 1925 showed a marked improvement over the previous year, and for a short period it was necessary to restrict the number of enlistments.

Child churchwarden and sidesmen are on duty every Sunday afternoon at Trinity Church, Richmond, Surrey, at special children’s services. There is also a children’s church council.

Carp can readily be taught to come for their food at the sound of a bell; but, on the whole, fish do not hear nearly so well as land animals, nor ’do they possess any strong sense of smell or of taste. The substitution of aluminium ware for earthenware in mental hospitals has been approved by the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Articles which may be considered unsatisfactory in aluminium will be excepted. Two hundred people, chiefly miners, were summoned at Newport County Police Court on January 28 for non-payment of income tax. One miner, assessed as a single mau, said he had 12 children. A steel worker owed £4O. At a. hearing of a scries of rate prosecutions at Port Talbot it was stated that the whole of the inhabitants of one street had paid neither rent nor rates for some years. The chairman remarked they had evidently discovered a real Utopia. A petition, bearing nearly 1500 signatures, and praying for the appointment of a Royal commission to consider and report on the question of English spelling, has been sent to the British Prime Minister. The Simplified Spelling Society prepared the petition. The Rev. C. D. Banks Gale, Vicar of Blackheath, Staffordshire! has anounccd that in future baptism will not take place at the Parish Church unless the father of the child is present as well as the mother. There seems to be an idea that the father need not come, he says.

It is officially stated that 33,801 Jews (14,034 men, 11,049 women, 8118 children), entered Palestine as • immigrants during the year 1925, while 2141 Jews emigrated from Palestine during the same period, so that the net increase of the Jewish population by immigration was 31,GG0.

A youth of 19, who was sentenced at Leicester Police Court to a month’s imprisonment for theft, was stated by his father to have been all right until he fell out of work and received the dole. “That ruined him,” said the father, “and he is too lazy now even to wash himself.”

A Norwegian captain whose steamer was recently in Leningrad relates that the dock, labourers working in his ship struck for higher pay. . In less than half an hour, Red guards with rifles appeared and drove the labourers back to duty. They were made to work continuously for 75 hours without pay. Miss Caroline Thackeray died at Zanzibar on January 30, at the age of 80 years. Miss Thackeray, who was a cousin of 1\ illiam Macpeacc Thackeray, and eldest daughter of the Rev. George Thackeray, joined the Mission in 1877, and retired 20 years ago. She continued to live at Zanzibar, however.

Following the instructions given to the Camberwell Cemetery superintendent to prohibit wreaths with glass shades from being placed upon graves in the future, a deputation from the British Undertakers Association waited upon the Public Service Committee of Camberwell Council, but, it was announced, the Committee re-affirm-ed its decision. The income in 1923 of 2126 charitable societies in Great Britain and Ireland amounted to £26,273,000, an increase of a million and aquarter over the previous year, when only 1995 institutions reported. The expenditure amounted ot £23,586,000, leaving a balance of £2,600,000. In view of bad trade and high taxation, this is a remarkable result.

It is stated in Parliamentary papers that the British Government’s expenditure on ink last year was £3700 for liquid ink and £2500 for ink powder. The Stationery Office supplies ink powder to out-stations of public departments generally at home and abroad, this reducing the cost of packing and carriage and minimising the risk of damage in transit.

A. pilot of the R.A.F. had a wonderful escape from death near Fincdon, Northampshire. He was flying a single-seater at a great altitude when engine trouble developed, and a very strong wind left the pilot helpless. The machine sideslipped and fell into a farmyard, and the pilot was thrown onto a straw stack. The engine, winge and propeller of the machine were badly damaged.