NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3724, 1 December 1927, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

It the City of Paris, there are stated to be more than 100,000 trees, only one of which is an oak. A Kingston man has died through a nail in one of his boots piercing his foot and setting up lockjaw. There is a sign near Mary’s Well at Nazareth reading “speed limit ■ten miles an hour through Nazareth.”

The first book printed in Britain was “The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers.” This was issued in 1477.

Nearly three million people in Great Britain now keep dogs, the most popular kind of home dog being the fox tender. As there are fifty-three Fridays in the current financial year, oldage pensions in Britain will cost an extra £550,000. Four valuable'cows died recently in the Isle of Wight from eating white lead left in a field. One ate a whole pound of it. A Leicestershire miner, named Joseph Moon, who died the other day, had worked under the ground for 62 years in the coal mines. Out of the total number of traffic accidents in Great Britain last year, nearly one-sixth were due to pedal-bicycles. An eye surgeon has declared that a man born blind in one eye has been known not to discover this defect for' thirty years.

An intelligent working man has a vocabulary of 5000 words, while an educated man should know from 8000 to 10,000 words. Dogfish, once regarded as a pest, are ■ now providing a valuable source of income for fishermen. •This fish is particularly popular for frying. The London Metropolitan Police horses have been shod with rubber shoes, which, .it is thought, may 'save them from slipping on roads paved with stone. Greyhounds are, perhaps, the oldest known type of dog. Stone carvings dating back to 'about 4000 8.C., show figures of these graceful animals.

In 1867 the United States bought Alaska for about a million and aquarter pounds. In 1925 Alaska exported over twelve million pounds’ worth of products. With a record of over five million miles flown in six years, British aviators have had only four accidents causing the death of passengers during that period. A straw hat which will not blow off has appeared in the United States. It has two small vacuum cups on the inner band which adhere to the forehead.