NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3888, 27 December 1928, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Big Ben takes thirty-eight seconds to strike twelve o’clock. Great Britain owns half the ocean-going ships of the world. There are nearly 30 million mo-tor-cars in the world, one for each 04 of the population. Japan possesses fifty-one active volcanoes, more than any other country in the world. Paris has now 20,000 taxicabs, and the official fare tariff starts off with the equivalent of twopeneeh alfpenny, a mile. Two men/spend five hours three times a week/to wind up Big Ben, the large clock in the Tower of the of Parliament. 'The century-old bridge at Weymouth, England, has been demolished to make way for a new one which will be opened in'May, 1930; The gold medal given every year to the most proficient boy at King’s Lynn Grammar School has been won by a dock labourer’s son. A bookshop in New Bond Street, London, has just celebrated its 200th birthday; it still remains, both inside and. out, just as it was two centuries ago.

Gigarette smoking is forbidden in the New. Jersey laboratories of Mr. T. A. Edison,, the famous inventor. The ban does not apply to cigars or pipes. Ten thousand- evening classes are arranged for the coming winter in London, with over 8000 teachex's. It is, expected that 230,000 scholars will take part. An anvil block recently made at Sheffield.for a five-tone drop stamp hammer weighed ninety-five tons. It is made of steel and is the largest casting of its kind ever made.