NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3614, 17 March 1927, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Some spidcnvebs are so strong that birds have been known to be captured in them. Cats arc, in British law, domestic animals and cannot, therefore, be trapped or snared. According to notable German scientist, apes possess a well- developed sense of humour.

A chief constable's position in Britain is worth £IOOO a year, with a pension on retirement. Eggs arc now dipped for preservation in an oil bath maintained at a temperature of 235 degrees Fahrenheit.

In ono consignment, a Norwich firm recently received an order for 17,000 canaries for the United States.

A meter that registers the strength of X-rays 'being administered to patients has been " devised 'by a Vienna physician. A new form, of burglar alarm which sends invisible rays across the, room to be protected has recently been invented. Sold in 1908 for £2025, the famous picture, “The Gleaners,” by French artist, L’Hermitte, recently changed hands at £1522. To put the British Hmises of Parliament into thorough repair would cost well over £1,000,000. The work would take 15 years to do.

It is now possible to identify any piece of timber, however old, by cutting off a “slice” of minute thinness and inspecting it through a microscope.

Chocolates dropped as an advertisement from aeroplanes over Berlin’s streets have caused so many bruises that the police have stopped the scheme.

Several of London’s principal thoroughfares, including Pall Mall, Whitehall, and parts of Piccadilly and Oxford Street, are still lighted by gas lamps. Few would reecognise Queen Jane as one of the long line British sovereigns. Yet Lady Jane Grey was Queen for ten days in 1553. “The day may come when we shall be able neither to walk nor write,” said Dean Inge recently. “We shall use the motor-car for the first and typewriter for the second.”

Great hordes of locusts are devastating the crops of Guatemala and reducing many farmers to extreme poverty. An appeal has been made to the United States for scientific aid.

The farthing is really a “fourtiling,” or fourth part. Saxon pennies had grooves cut in them in the form of a cross so that they could be broken at will into four fourtilings. After 30 centuries the method of producing gold leaf by beating small crumbs of gold with mallets for weeks at a time has given place to an efficient electro-chemical process. In Palestine the official languages are English, Arabic, and llclt\»j\v; but French, Greek, Spanish, Gorman, Rumanian, and Italian are also met with to certain extents. AJmong the recent applicants to join the London Metropolitan Police Force have been men fresh from college, who wish to pass on into Ihe Criminal Investigation Department.

Every muselq/in the body, save those, of the left arm, is constantly in use during a strenuous game of lawn tennis. Even the left arm receives sufficient use to keep it in form.

'She 'discovery of the X-ray in 1895 opened a new field of photography whiVih lias grown so vast that at. the present time more films are-used for radiography than for portrait photography. . The name of the street where the Bank of England stands was originally Three-needle. Street. The property was owned by the Needlemakers’ Company, whose arms were three needles. Wide rubber arm bands that can be inflated and are kept from collapsing by means of a valve have been devised for - swimmers. The wearing oh these is said to make sinking almost impossible.

Cuttlefish have another gift in addition lo their well-known ability to eject streams of “ink” in selfdefence. They change their colours at will, from pale brown to purple, grey or green.

Arriving in England on a recent Monday evening, two American visitors went to Cheltenham on Tuesday, Brighton on Wednesday, toured London on Thursday, and left for Paris the next day. Synthetic cocaine that cian he used as a local anaesthetic is reported from Germany. It is said to be a bye-product from some of the intermediate substances used in the manufacture oC artificial rubber.

Every swan found on British rivers or seas may be seized by the Crown, and become its property unless it bears its owner’s mark. The King’s birds are marked on the beak with the Royal Initial. A remarkable performance was put up by the Avon Bowling Club last week in the match against. Kaponga (Taranaki), each of the three Avon rinks registered preeiselv the sme score —31.

“If the game is good enough to play, it is worth paying the small amount asked for the privilege.” In this manner the Berhampore (Wellington) Football Club calls attention to the fact that subscriptions from playing members show a shrinkage.. A striking, example of the working of the railway family concession ticket scheme was given in Ashburton the other day when a

woman and nine children travelled to Christchurch and back for 34/-q the amount of three ordinary fares. Such is the scone of the scheme that the father of the family could have travelled with them without any furher expense. Had it. been excursion time, the tickets would have cost 24/- only. The alarming spread of noxious weeds, particularly of ragwort, blackberry aud Canadian thistle, at To Miro, caused much concern among members of the Waikato County Council at the monthly meeting at Hamilton. Cr. S. Lye said that some quite good sections were now practically covered with these weeds. It was his opinion that the Government should see that these sections were occupied, even if it was necessary to subsidise the settlers for a few years. One would naturally gasp at the idea of paying a settler to go on the land, but the damages done to other properties by the spread of the weeds was hard to calculate. A motion along these lines was carried unanimously.

,That motorists should wear a white glove at night in order to indicate the more clearly in which direction they proposed, to turn, was a suggestion brought forward at a recent meeting of the council of: the Canterbury Automobile Association. When it was recommended that policeman on point duty should wear white gloves also, the .chairman said that that point bad been discussed with the by-laws committee of the City Council.

The proprietors of the Evening Post have signed a contract for a new seven-story building in Willis Street, Wellington, to replace the present building in which the commercial side of the paper has been carried on for the past thirty years. The contract price is over £53,000. This is in addition to the up-to-date printing house just completed, which cost over £50,000.