NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3871, 15 November 1928, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A ‘Chicago citizen has given £lO,000 to the Liverpool Cathedral fund. The wheat harvest in Italy is this year 20 per cent, above the aver r age. Arab boys in Palestine secondary schools are to wear European dress. Mark Lane, London —formerly Marte or Market Lane—dates back to the year 1285. Insects, according to scientists, have been on the earth for 50,000,000 years, while the human race is only 500,000 years old. There are 600 bunches of grapes on the famous vine at Hampton Court, this year. The population of Canada is now 9,658,000, an increase of 139,000 in twelve months. A blind boy plunged into the Danube and rescued another boy whose cries for help he had heard. Four Lancashire men starting partnership at Denton in 1867 are still working together. The average- man takes 20,000 steps a day. With summer-weight (shoes he lifts 10,000 fewer pounds a day. The manufacturers of tinfoil use 3000 tons of tin every year. Britain also imports foil valued" at £250,000 every year. Miss Lizzy Clay, of Bangor Isy'coed, Flintshire, has walked 200,000 miles in the course of her duties as an auxiliary rural postman. ‘Slugs dre being bred and reared at Leeds in order that their habits

may be studied by the experts of the Ministry of Agriculture. Within the memory of .Canon Newbolt, who is 84 years of age, St. Paul’s Cathedral was often filled with people eating, talking, and reading.

Walking shoes, which have to receive fresh coats of gold or silver paint every day, are popular among wealthy women of the Parisian “smart set.” There are 47 public swimmingbaths in London, and 4,995,915 people bathed in them in 1926 —the last year for which complete figures are available.

Untidy people are soon cured in Munich. If a. policeman sees a pedestrian throw paper or fruit-skins on the pavements, he fines him one shilling on the spot. A British or Australian shell of 380 mm. calibre, four feet high, and weighing about 4401 b., was unearthed recently at Laon and handed over to the authorities.

Theatres and cinemas in the London area will have to be adequately warmed next year, as the London County Council have made a regulation to that effect. A well-known English woman motorist, Hon. Airs. Victor Bruce, has been awarded the special prize in connection with the Alpine trial for a single-handed drive. Dropping bombs containing suitable chemicals from an aeroplane on big fires is a novel suggestion put forward by a member of the London County 'Council. Plymouth was the most sober town in England last year, compared with pre-war figures, anci Norwich had the highest percentage of convictions for drunkenness.

Lightning struck a house in Duppipheim, Germany, setting it on fire, and the flames spread until practically all the buildings in the district were burned down.