NEWS m BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14223, 20 November 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS m BRIEF.

Kangaroos will soon be extinct. | A tonvof water contains 224 gallons. '1 Hawks fly at the rate of 150 miles ad hour. ~ < '.'■■','..'■■- . Canada receives £70,000 a year from her canals. Birmingbgam turns out 4000 miles of wire a week. / : :y', : .',.-'• , Over half of Japan's population are agri-' culturists. ; - v A first-class glass eye costs about ; £10 to manufacture. . ■.;.; ■*• There are over 29,000 pillar-boxes in the? United Kingdom. ■-'..„'. .• ""• Spain produces about 400,000,000 gallons of wine in a year. In Great Britain there are nearly twelve; million head of cattle. , ! Two-thirds of the entire area of France is under grass or crops. , ,■-.-• In one year 70,000 tons of sugar are> used by British breweries. -.- - Since 1816 London has spent over 6j millions sterling on bridges. . >f ;< ,vY The United Kingdom produces about* 40,000 tons of,cheese a year. The estimated : area of = the Chinese Enw ■-y i? pire is 4,300,000 square miles. Last year the trams of the United King- ' dom carried 2,625,532,895 people. Two-thirds of the: world's total beet* ./. root crop is used for making sugar. ; Tampering with Government arms ren* ders a man liable to serious punishment. Befojre it produces bark of -. commerciaß value a cork tree must be 50 years old;' ?y The value of the trade of the British! . Empire is more than £1,600,000,000 a year*, A governor, deputy-governor, and 24 directors manage the Bank of England's affairs. ■',';. ; ' '•-■;. - .■. T '■".'■ "*>--;/''■■--'; « .■•'.^ : >-,\; -' * The annual expenditure on furniture in* the United Kingdom is about £1 per in* - habitant. , •- :.'-\.'-- .■, - ' One farming hand .in the United-' States raises as much \ food -. as two, in the United/.: -■ : / i Kingdom. In} active service the death-rate among army officers is heavier' than among the rank and file. . -(> . .;/ : All attempts' to- ascertain the origin of the broad arrow on convicts' clothes haver ; proved fruitless. A public attorney in Germany receive* about £250 a year/ and a - minister for jus- ; tice £1800 a year. ,'-'V'" : ,' ; - r ''•-.,. : Fifty-two thousand three hundred -and . !■ ninety-six boys and 49,643 girls were born : in Ireland last year. - , > ThY population 'of the British Empire comprises about 22 per cent, of the entire population of the world. '; The Bournemouth Town Council rejects .-.-: ed a motion to institute a Sunday service* of trams in the borough. :; After 31 -years'.;' service ] the. highest income obtainable by an elementary teacher in Berlin is £212 a year. The" Bishop of Carlisle says it is his ' deepest belief that .the dead are cognisant* of what is going on now here on earth. '" Two brothers who had previously mar-* ried two sisters were • present at the > weddings of a third brother and sister at Tiverton. • A collie dog near Nantwich has had a* - night out which cost the owner about £30, the animal ;killing five sheepi and fiftee!*lambs. , The oldest sea captain in the merchantK; service, Captain Daniel.Jackson,..who is*. 101 years old, Has "rounded the Horn'" 140 times. ■;;::■■;;" '.'-. •;•■"'" zi-'-'^'''' a^BP^f^'': ' { ] One of the events at the Mansion House during the mayoralty of Sir. John KnilL will be the marriage \of his son: and. heir,. Mr. Stuart -KnilL The fire brigade at Alf reton, Derbyshire, >. , has resigned in a body because, St is said, the people persist in laughing at the mem- * bers when they turn out in their new uniforms. ■ An American i flag, which • was displayed by :a; Clonmel publican in honour of thevisit of -Captain Condon, the Fenian, to that town, was forcibly removed by thepolice. Rubber has reached an abnormally high price. In March, 1906, the price of rubber reached ss'9d a pound. Para rubber has, now reached the remarkable price of 9e■ 2d a pound. - * ~ A large. Union Jack, ; the gift of ! the school children of Mansfield, Notts, is to be sent to Mansfield, Victoria, in return for a gift.flag from the children of the Australian township. Ships (excluding warships) with an ag- : . gregate tonnage of 778,036 were in construction in the United Kingdom on Sep- '- , tember 30, as compared with a tonnage of 733,378 a year ago. It has been ascertained that the flamingo which was recently shot on the marshes at ! Bradwell, Essex, ; Was one which escaped from the Zoological Gardens, 1 *; Regent's Park, some months ago. Naomi Bradnee, a little Exeter girl who has just passed her fifth * birthday, is a wonderful swimmer for her years. She swims 160 yards with the greatest ease, and with an excellent breast-stroke. It was stated during a case heard at ■■• Rushall, Staffs, • that canal -■ boatmen i were j in the habit of. taking coal from their em- & : ;■; ployers' boats and exchanging it for vegetables from gardens along the canal. A young man who drove up to the Nimrod exhibition in Savoy-street was sternly ordered by a policeman to take his place at the end of the waiting queue. " That's v" i U all right,*' he said, "I'm Mr. Shackloton. "*.;; '■■:■-■ For violently/ pulling the pigtail of a young Chinese lady named Rosalind Phang, who is being educated at Grosvenor Col-, lege, a boy named Cecil Walker was summoned at Bath, and his father was- bound; over. - , Sir Edward :■ Clarke, K.C., who invented v %. a system of -shorthand, is formulating a ?; ■" system of swift long-hand by which'he estimates that people will be : able to write three times ' quicker than : by the ordinary method}' ' ( . The' British Association of Mycologists held their annual "fungus foray" on the / ■ Chatsworth and Haddon estate... Six ' new i J fungi were discovered. It is stated that there are 1200 kinds of fungus in the British Isles. A hothouse at Tuhbridge Wells contains two large «banana; bushes, < each heavily .- ■ laden with ripe, excellently flavoured fruit. ; Each bunch contains about 200 bananas.;:'.." A constant temperature of : 100 degrees has to be maintained. Grey is to be the winter colour for men's > clothes a silver grey, such as waspopular during the I summer, but a steel grey. In a coat which bears;; the hallmark of being the latest thing" the lapela ;" are smoothly rounded. The minimum height in the principal armies is: British, 63in; French, nearly 61 German, nearly 62; Austrian, 61: Italian, 61£ Spanish, 6L£; Belgian, nearly 62; Swedish, 63 American, 63; Prussian Guard, 67 Uhlans, nearly 66. Charles Wood,"described as a champion' boxer, late of Grimsby, who was sent to gaol for a fortnight at . Spalding for begging, remarked that he had got through £72,000. His wife received 27s 6d a week ' from the National Sporting Club. A remarkable dietary experiment is being made by Mr." Tuchy, of Bedford, a • gentleman in his" 63rd year. Ho is now living on a hillside at East Dean, near Chichester, and will sustain himself- for six months on water and fruit juice. .''...'.■»• Ipswich Town Council unanimously, re- , solved that. Lord Kitchener should be appointed high steward of the borough, in succession to the late Lord.GwydjT. - His : ; :.'•' family has had' a long connection withthe town. Nelson once held '-he office* ' j . ~',' *",-,*•,'.'-;f*.