NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14925, 24 February 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zeauikdebs consume over 71b 00 tobacco per head each year. Nearly 200 half-quartern loaves are yielded by- a sack of corn. During 1912 there will be two eclipse* of the sun and two of the moon. Raw cocoa during the past financial year yielded revenue exceeding £200,000. Every year the Home Office costs the i nation nearly a quarter of a million of money. Christian nations of the world total > 472,000,000 people; non-Christian, 948 millions.. ; Pheasants, partridges, grouse, bustards, and hares are included in the term "game'* in England. One quart of honey represents to bee* a flight of 48,000 miles between the hives and the flowers. By a new system of electric lighting at railway train of six - coaches costs £120 a year to illuminate. India's Imperial State Crown, which is the King's pergonal ; property, contains over 6000 diamonds. Great Britain exported to Canada' during the fiscal year goods'to a value-ex« ceeding £22,000,000. Average, weekly wages of postal. sorters employed in London have risen from 28 5d to 50s 7d in 25 years. Although no fewer than 20,000 • persona actually reside in the City of London,.thai day population is nearly 400,000. Estate duty only is payable where tticj net value of the property, real and personal, does not exceed £1000.. Europe's oldest sovereign is the Emperor of Austria, born in 1850 ; the young est, the King of Spain, born in 1886. • > The record for one -hour's .walking ' i«( eight miles 438 yards, held by Mr. G. E. ; Lamer, .who performed the feat in 1905. ' Hemlock, foxglove, monkshood, the! seeds of . laburnum, common laurel, am} 1 yew are all poisonous to human beings. ■ Queen Alexandra has presented half-% dozen easy chairs to the West Norfolk arrf Lynn Hospital for the use of the patient* Mrs. George Starr, wife of an • unde* taker in New York, found eight perfe® pearls in an oyster ] which she bought if No fewer than 100 women were fine<* in one day at Zurich for breaking a new law which prohibited the use of long hat* pine.. •.. / . _ ' A single housefly, allowed to live through the winter .will by the following September have 5,598,720 millions . of descend" ants. * - When several agents are instructed, to let or sell a house, only the successful one is entitled to ' commission on the transaction. " ; .' ',;.r | Herrings caught, •at Yarmouth and I Lowestoft in the season just ended total | 880,000 crans," a cran consisting, of 1000 herrings. r; ' ' One thousand turkeys were sent last I Christmas by an annoymous donor for dis-, tribution among the medical charities' of j London. . ; -v*.v- 1 | A Japanese Commission, under General Oshima, for studying European methods of .colonisation, has, says Renter, •arrived, at Naples. ■. . ■ - s - •' On m average Great Britain yields : 30 bushels'of wheat'to .the acre; New South. Wales, 15; the United States, 12 «ud Russia eight. , . For wilful damage .toi the master's pro- 1 perty a servant, is liable; but a summons ; must be issued, and the amount* cannot*be> deducted from wages. «. V, ,*' ', In the composition, of•;'< the House of Lords there . are three > Royal Princee~-thft. Prince of Wales, the Puke -of Connaught, and the Duke of Albany. The number of . subscriptions received from enrolled associates of the English) Church Union during • the year 1911 was( 11,837. This was a record number. To fatten-geese some, breeders keep thef birds in. a dark room, and by letting in! daylight every few hours persuade them iter i take (six or eoven breakfasts a day. • ■ • According to the Belgian census returns just published, the population of- thej smallest borough in Belgi um-- i Zoetenay, a. : short way - inland from Ost^nd—is - 26., President Taft has warned £ photographers ,in New York and Washington that they must not "fake" any - more; photographs of him shaking hands. jvith all sorts of people. Twenty of the prettiest girls of -the; village of Perry, Oklahoma, • are ■.. offering kisses to the general manager of the Oklahoma railways in exchange for a' new station at their native village. V A bequest ,of 10s a week to her coachman so long as her dog Gyp is"alive, to enable him to maintain it in comfort, has been left by Mrs: Laura Pearce, .of Tunbridge Wells, a rector's widow. . C L While a dredger was working lately "at Gosford, ' New South, Wales, ' the suction-! pipe became choked. • It was found that '& 6ft shark had been drawn across • the nozzle, and was held there by suction.!': " ' January derives its name - from the Roman god ; Janus, who, was 1 represented with two faces; one was the • face of an old ( man, typifying the past year; the other. that of a youth, in reference to-the new- year. In: Venice, when anyone dies,', it is the custom to fix a placard on the front of the deceased person's house, as well as in the neighbouring streets, as a.'sort of public notice, stating his name, age, .place of birth, and the illness of which he died. Moving ; picture 'entertainments and military drill are to be introduced to . vary; the dull routine of the life of the convicts i* the Indiana State prison. • The pic-,* tures are to be shown in the chapel ott Saturday afternoons, and the subjects-are to be religious. '">'■*y- yv.' Camel flesh '■ is ' being • sold r in'' Paris," the price ranging between that paid for prime beef and venison. The animals came from Algeria,- and it was their untamable nature which ultimately caused them to bo sent to the abattoir. Bear's meat was a novelty the same dealer introduced some time ago. - - , ' - Thirty bachelor girls in New York have formed themselves into a. SelT-Gcve'rhmeni' Girls' Club. Every member has made a solemn promise neither to marry nor to become engaged for one year. The club badge is a pin in the form of a latchkey.' It signifies, they say, that the members do» not require male escorts in getting to and from thoir homes at night. The follow-V ing fines have been fixed for failure'to keep the club rules: Engagement, 10s; marriage, £1; elopement,. £2. But the men, the club rules declare, must pay the fines. . * Wives are. still ""obtained by purchase in some parts of Russia. In the district of Kamyshin, on the Volga, for example,*' this ' is practically the only way in which marriages are brought about. The price 0 a pretty girl from a. well-to-do family ranges trom £20 to £40, and in special cases a v much higher sum is obtained. In the villages the lowest price is about ;05 It IS customary for the fathers of the intending bride and bridegroom to haggle for a long time over the price to be paid for the lady. A young farmer whose father ; cannot - afford to pay for a wife for him need not think of getting married. • A course of matrimony has been ineluded in the curriculum of the Gardens l .; Agricultural High School, Los Angeles.« : five classes of girls are daily taking, ad-;; vantage of instruction in courtship, matrimony, the care of babies, mother-craft, - and domestic science. It,is planned^ boys in Los Angeles i.hall be t permitted fe? to take the course next year, ibutswtaa ; - doubt is expressed about need of tru* It is argued that " the. female of™ ; species" will be so adept ; ?n. tha i - courtship and marriage by litU<> difficulty ' VMT that she iwi 1 i have hUI«J 'difficulty : iiT*imparting her ' knowledge to the !. s t;j ; deadly, male. ' ,\ f >