NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4428, 18 March 1930, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

There are 900,000 Londoners who live more than two in a room.

A Royal decree has been published in Spain making obligatory the possession of an international motor license in the case of all foreign motorists entering Spain by ear. -Rum is losing its popularity in the British Navy, an ever-increas-ing 11111111)01' of sailors prefering to commute the daily “tot,” which is an eighth of a pint, for the sum of 3d.

Trains which carry exhibits and demonstrators to promote health and sanitation and impart agricultural knowledge are now being run i.n practically all the railways in India.

The results of a recent investigation by a British research laboratory indicato that what is known as the common cold may he any one of at least 100 different kinds of infections.

In (lie United Strftus and its possessions there arc roads totalling 3,019,035 miles, which is 13,000 more than those in practically all the rest of the world, excluding the Americans.

Gramophone records oi' the voices of famous Freucli singers, actors, statesmen, anil other public people are stored away in a museum in l’aris. The collection was begun 18 years ago. Out of every hundred applicants to .join the British army, only about 1(1 pass the medical examination, the most frequent causes of failure being bad sight, faulty teeth, and Hat feet.

The death roll ‘on the British railways for 1928 was 460 persons, an increase of 250 on the previous year; but the number' of persons injured wjrs smaller in 1928 than in 1927.

, Poultry farming is increasing so vrapidiy in Norway that that country is now exporting thousands of hundredweights of eggs every year, whereas 25,000 cwt. of eggs were imported in 1923. Wireless telephone calls to the liner Leviathan when at sea are now possible from America land stations, the charge for New York calls is 28s a minute, with a minimum of three ndnutes.

In a certain postal area in the Mill lands, England, where over 100,000 packets are posted every day, about UOU cannot be delivered owing to their being carelessly or insufficiently addressed. A question put time and again to tlie officers of whaling fleets operating in the Antarctic is: “llow long do you think the whales will last?” It is generally believed by the questioners that the whale is doomed to rapid extinction owing to the animal slaughter. When a similar question was put to the chief officer of Lhe Kosmos, his reply was: “When i lirst joined a whaler eighteen years ago my friends told me not to be a fool, that whaling would soon cease to be an occupation. 1 carried on, however, and ever since then people have been saying the same thing. All 1 know is that each season is more successful than the previous one, and each season sees more and bigger whalers engaged in the iudustry. There are enough whales left to last my lifetime out/’ he concluded;

“and Pm satisheil to leave it at that.”

A remarkable escape from serious injury oscurred during the final event of the day at the Whau River outboard speecl-boat x'aces recently (states the “Lew Zealand Herald ’). One of the contestants, the Nymph, left the water during a race, a handicap sweepstake, and jumped over another boat, the Chief, which contained Mr. O. J. Melvern as driver and Mr. O. C.

Kushbrook as mechanic. The Chief, which was making the top turn for the run to the finish, had partially rounded the mark when the Nymph, driven by Mr. E. J. Schofield, endeavoured to cut in, hut caught the wash of the other boat. The boat literally jumped into the air and shot over the Chief, missing Messrs Melvern and Rushhrook by a matter of inches. The gun whale of the Chief received damage through being hit hy the propeller and tins on the Nymph’s engine, which was considerably damaged.