NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2089, 12 February 1920, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A jewel studded gold crown, which eovered -the heads of 30 rulers, duiv ill" the last 800 years, is on-sale by the new government of Hungary.. Ej: -Emperor • Karl was the lasi to ■wear it.. One emerald, 50 rubies. sapphires and 138 pearls bedecked it. Its selling price is £IO,OOO. - When the projected trans-Aus-tralian line from Oodnadatla to Port Darwin'is completed fli£_ traveller ,on it will be confronted with what will he, probably, the dreariest railway journey .in the world. The greater part’of the route lies through a desert region, practically devoid of life,- and. utterly uninteresting. * ' ... .. The mayor of a town in Ontario a few year’s back was honoured by a visit from the Canadian. Premier in Ids/, capacity of Minister of Trade and Commerce. ■ He,-curiously enough signalised the occasion by naming' twins, with which his wife, had just presented hint, “Trade” and “Commerce” respectively. Italy has not a. single coat mine in all her territory. Lignite,' yes, blit lignite is poor fuel for stoking locomotives, or for any purpose, except burning in an open grate. During the war Italians have been paying up to £2O a ion for imported coal. Before it they got their coal from Germany or England at a cost'of about J.';i a ton; • What is declared to be the longest fence in the world is that width forms a portion of the boundary between Isew South " Wales . am! Queensland. It is about 300 miles in length, and was erected at a cost of several thousand potuuls. It was not put up to keep out rabbits, but to prevent tick-infested cattle straymg’out of Queensland. ?.Los!. people Lire under the impression that cards were iirsl invented to distract the melancholy t'lmries the Sixth of Prance, but as a matter of fact no one can let! how long they have been in existence. 'There is a pack in the British .Museum known to be over a thousand years old, and there were .Japanese and Chinese cards in (he twelfth centurv.

Perhaps owe of the most extraordinary discoveries in regard to plants is dial they arc conscious of wireless messages. Kxperfs who liavo been experimenting- in I lie matter ■declare that plants receive and make response In wireless messages, and that the response can be detected by the. newer electrical instruments. The latter are so sensitive that they ean detect and register the minutest interna! movements in plants. hi the lard world colour enters very largely into quest ions, of courtship and marriage. The lovely colours of many male birds, developed far beyond protective requirements, intensified through generations of sexual selection, prove that birds undoubtedly, possess strongly-deve-loped colour-sense. The passion and ability to excel in this direct ion (for what other purpose than to catch ‘’her” eye!) appears to have reached its climax in (be ruff, .Handkerchiefs were not always square. At one lime they Avere .shaped tm the user's fancy, it chanced that this irregularity displeased Queen .Marie Antoinette, wiio suggested one winter evening at Versailles that a uniform shape would lie an indication of good taste. The result was a decree by Louis XVI., issued in the early days of* 1785, enacting that all pockethandkerchiefs should have rightangled edges henceforward. The presents Avhich Loyalty heslow upon Loyalty sometimes cause embarrassment. In IStiU Queen Victoria sent Sir Liehard Burton on a mission to The King of .Dahomey bearing various present*, including a silk tent and a handsome silver pipe. The king was grateful, hut added that, as the teat was 100 •small to. sit under in that climate, and he preferred a. clay pipe to a metal pipe, he would have been better pleased with a earriago-and-pair, and a white wife. However, to show appreciation, oil Her Majesty's kind intentions, he sent in return some native pipes and tobacco for her own smoking, a-c.ollectiftn of loin cloths, and an umbrella to be held ■ over her head when drinking. .