NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 30504, 29 June 1926, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

On the banks of the Till'd a River, where the Rattle of Colenso was fought in the Roer War, a shell which buried itself in the earth on that disastrous December day of 1809, has just b<*en dug up and, exploding’, killed the two natives who found it. A national census of insects in the United States has been started by the Department of Agriculture. It is to deal with the origin, habits, ami actions of all species in the hope that forecasts may be made of the periods in which they are most likely to appear in great numbers. After holding out against the electric invasion for many years, the clock in the tower of the Singer .Buildings at Clydebank has bowed down at last and is to be worked by electricity. This clock the largest in the British Empire, has four dials, each 26ft. in diameter, bigger than Big Ben. Raw materials become more valuable as they go through manufacturing proeessess. Pig iron is worth £5 a ton. When it becomes steel its value is doubled; when made into piano wire it is worth £IO,OOO a ton; as hair springs its vajlue is £IOO,OOO a ton; and as surgical instruments it is worth £500,000. The “locusts” which it is said John the Baptist ate were probably theleguminous fruit of the Carob tree, the dried pods of which are the locust beans sold in the shops asyfood for cattle. The Carob tree is sometime called the honey tree, from the sweet pulp contained in its pods while they are fresh. Mg’. Lloyd George has sent a cheque for two guineas toward the public testimonial to Mr. E. Jones Griffiths, Mayor of Pwllheli, on his retirement from the.headmastership of Pwllheli Boys’ School after 30 years’ service. Mi’. Lloyd George’s father was, for several years, headmaster of the same school. A lightship of 50,000 candlepower, which will automatically light up at sunset, as a result of the absence of light in the atmosphere, and be extinguished in the morning by the presence of daylight, is being erected at Rangoon. If the mantle breaks, they will be replaced automatically. The light will 'continue working for years without attention. It beam will be visible for 12 miles.