NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4419, 25 February 1930, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There are 20-4 lifeboats stationed round Britain’s coasts. More than 3000 factories have been built in and around London since 1900. The telephone system of Spain is said* 1 to be the most perfect in the world. ' Nearly 2,000,000 gallons of pcjtrol arc consumed daily in (treat .Britain. On the Swedish coast there is oncT regular woman member of a lifeboat crew. An international oratorical contest is to be bold at Washington in October. There are 115 windows at the I Terrace front alone of the British Houses of Parliament. London created a new tonnage record last year by registering something like (10,000, 9(H) tons. Most animals and birds arc so covered with fur or feathers that no direct sunshine reaches the skin. In England more than 2000 swimming certificates were awarded to Tottenham school children in a year. In the three months ended September 30 last, 340 persons were killed and 10,260 injured in the ..streets of London.

Snowdon, the highest peak in England and Wales, reaches a 'height of 3,571 ft. Its name means “The Hill of Snow.”

More than 350 Jives have been saved by Cromer lifeboats, the centenary of .which station was recently celebrated. A yearly average of 12,000 murders are committed in the United States —50 times the number recorded in Great Britain.

The pay of the soldiers and sailors of the United States of America is higher than in any other country in the world. ■Shoals of fish at a depth of 200 fathoms have been located by means of a scientific instrument known as an “echo sounder.”

Science has not yet explained satisfactorily why American Indians are red-skinned or why the Chinese are yellow. Policemen need much knowledge in Britain. There are, for instance, 288 headings under which summonses may be taken out. London’s loneliest job is, perhaps, that of the 'keeper of the Golden Gallery of St Paul’s Cathedral, 300 ft. above the street level.

Airs. Thomas Ballingal, of Dominion city, Manitoba, Canada, celebrated h<jr 102nd birthday by taking her first aeroplane flight. Coxswain Henry Blogg, of Cromer, has twice won the “V.C.” of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution —the gold medal. He is the only man who has won it twice. A homing pigeon belonging to a Frenchman, which Avas released u year previously, arrived recently in an exhausted condition, at Windsor, Ontario. A Maori who appeared at the Magistrate’s Court at Wanganui informed the Court, that lie had four children of his own and his brother had three, and that he kept (hem all on 20/- a week. “How do you live?” he was asked. “I live bn te taftva —I grow ’iin —to rauriki,

te tuna- —him orright, too —te missus grow te kumara and te kumikum. Oil, we live orright,” he added. “No order,'’ said Mr. Salmon, S.M. Another tragic warning to parents about the deadly aurum lily was embodied in a recent Sydney 'incident. Three little children-were playing at “grocers,” and among the goods for sale was a chopped up aurum lily root. This looked so real that a baby boy of two ate some. He was soon screaming with pain, and next day he died. At the inquest a Government analyst said 'the lily root contained an immense l umber of tiny iieodlelike particles of a. chemical called calcium oxalate, the action of which was to .pierce the membrane of the tongue and throat and set up such an irritation that poisoning and death , resulted.

A clergyman, anxious to introduce some new hymn honks, directed the curate to -make the announcement. The curate had also ■a. notice to make concerning the baptism of infants. Accordingly he announced: “All who have children they wish baptised, please send in their names at once.” The clergyman, who was deaf, immediately rose and said: “And 1 want ■to say, for the benefit of those who .haven’t any, that they may he obtained from me any day between 3 and 4 o’clock —the ordinary little i.ncs at a. shilling each, and the special ones with red backs at half-a- ---< rown each.”

Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure For Influenza Colds.