NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14109, 10 July 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Newspapers are printed in 59 languages. Russian women have a. great liking for dogs. ■■;;;: :-..■ ..■ \ • - Twenty-three Bank of England notes weigh loz. ■{: '...--■■ - Bavarians drink on an average 200 quarts of ; beer yearly. r ' Over 1,000,000 cat-skins are used every, year in the fur trade; .■.."'■ . Nearly all the cheapest claret is manufactured from dry currants. At the , present-day 'about 96 per cent. of all vessels built are of steel. One wholesale house in Paris just before Easter sold £6000 worth of straw hats. Geiman shorthand writers rarely take down more than 45 words a minute. In France, typhoid fever, patient* are given five to six quarts of water, a day. The greyhounds of Henry VIII. w*;re allowed officially 24 loaves of bread a day. At the bottom of the deep seas the water is only a few degrees above freezing point* A few years back over 15,000,000 leeches were used medicinally in England every year., ;.-.../' \ ...';'- ; '■■';;.' ■ : . '■', , ' The Emperor of Austria is said to speak each of the 23 languages current among his subjects. . ; ,■ '; - V .;., Two tons of stamps are despatched daily from Somerset House, London, throughout the country. At : Corunna, Spain, is the oldest light-, house in the world. It was built nearly. 1800 years agoThe total area of the Turkish Empire is 1,602,280 square miles, and the total population over 38,000,000. . :. ... , ' Since .the 16th century the Dutch have reclaimed more than 1,000,000 acres of land from sea, lake, and river. The heaviest policeman in England is stated to be stationed at Ashbourne, Derbyshire. He scales 23st 101b. - ' At a recent sale of wild animals in Glasgow, a " boxing " kangaroo fetched £94 10s,, and a laughing hyena £29 Bs.

The domestic pets of the world carry 30 per cent, of '"the common contagious diseases from house to house.

An octopus weighing; half-a-potmd. and with tentacles 7in long was netted in the Sol way by a Maryport fisherman.

In Denmark ai old: maids' insurance company pays regular weekly benefits i to spinsters of 40 years and upwards. The Royal Family of Holland have up to the present received over 7000 telegrams of congratulations on the birth of the little Princess. St. Simon's Day School, Leeds, opened 50 years ago, has had only two head teachers, one of whom will complete 30 years' servicethis year. " . - ■ During the Easter holidays at Eton, ;si bird built a nest and laid her iegga in a boy's silk hat, which had been left behind in a room. Intemperance in the British Isles is de- . creasing. Last year there were 9261 fewet convictions for drunkenness in England antf Wales alone. A German vessel, which > was stranded near Grangemouth, has been 'sold for ona penny, the purchaser undertaking to remove the wreck. After a long search a will in which Mr. Patrick Monahan, of Boston, disposed of £60,000, has been found fastened to thai bottom of a washtub. ; It is stated that a railway train travel- ! ling at the rate of one hundred miles an, I hour could not be pulled up in a distance! \ of less than two miles. Lord Charles Beresford calculates that if we went to war and won it it would cost us 1500 millions sterling. If we lost ib would be " Good-night."

. The canals and waterways of Holland,. with a total length of 5000 miles, are much more important than the railways, of which, there are about 2000 miles.

The bodies of persons who have perished in thesandy deserts become so thoroughly dried by the sun and wind as to be reduced to 39 per cent, of their weight in life. Not satisfied with the possession of. a churchwarden 93 years of age;; the parish of Sturton-en-le-Steeple boasts a lady churchwarden, who has just been reappointed.

In the Department of Herault, France, it is estimated that eight hundred pounds» of small birds are annually trapped and killed, to furnish gay feathers for bonnets.

A famous German doctor says that in most European and American cities nerve and brain troubles are constantly increasing, owing to the strenuous business rJid social life A number of cast-off silk hats purchased recently by an East End dealer are now being retailed by him: at 6d each to coster- . mongers for use as nosebags for their donkeys. -Germany, in 20 years, has spent ■ £30,000,000 on her waterways, and baa now hi navigable rivers, canalised river and canals over 8278 miles of navigabk waterways.

The municipal debts of the United Kingi dom amount to £577,249,733, of which local authorities ;in England and'- Wales owe £494,071,000, in Scotland £63,898,777, and in Ireland £19,279,956.

Ordered to pay maintenance to his wife, a man sent 230 half-penny stamps, all separated, to Willesden Police Court, and, these being refused, he sent the money in things and halfpennies. - A young woman who paid several hundreds of pounds at the auction of licenses; for "pitches" on Blackpool Sands admitted that a profit of from £6 to £8 per day was made by each ice-cream stall. i A speed of more •?:■ than •< 23Q0yards per r minute for 71 miles has been attained by m homing pigeon belonging to Mrs.v R. * Swar-f! brick Roebuck, in the ;,; North-west Lancai shire Federation race from Stafford.

* The latest suggestion for communicating with Mars is the laying down on the great alkali plains of America of four square miles of black cloth, which, it is hoped, may; be seen through the telescopes of Mars.;

At Harwich a fine of £42.and costs was imposed upon John Johnsonj described as a Sheffield commission agent, for attempting to smuggle 81b of saccharin. He had an inside garment fitted with nine separate pockets. Dr. Snell, Coventry's medical officer of health, reports that 48 per cent, of boys and 51 per cent, of girls in the Council schools have defective teeth. In all, he estimates that;' there are .'; 9000 children \ re-* quiring skilled dental attention.

Two ancient manorial customs will be revived when the Prince and Princess of Wales visit Cornwall—the presentation to ; the Prince of a grey cloak and a white >/ greyhound by the lords of the manors of Penkelley and Trevenie! respectively. Hop-shoots are the latest addition to the luncheon and dinner table— for decoration but as a vegetable. They have long since had their regular place on the menus of the best Belgian hotels and restaurants,' and now they are being introduced to Lon-> don clubs and hotels.

. Captain Goddard and Vice-Captain Parsons, of the i Fleet ; Fire Brigade attribute;%; ; the recent heath fires in Hampshire to t..e explosion r of blank cartridges lost during, , military operations. They say that, in . every acre of burning heather between 40 and *100 cartridges explode. Plutarch describes in full, the method by which the famous Greek swords were made. The iron bar was buried in the ground, and almost wholly eaten by rust. What, remained. was forged, and the swords thus made were said to be " to beautifully tempered that they will cut through bones and helmets; or:sever «■ nail without spoiling.the edge or the temper."