NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 1514, 9 November 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Gesa¥ Britain in one year spenda nearly; £30,000,000 on tobacco. Post offices were not established in Engi land until the 17th century. ■ In one year • the cotton crop of Egypt amounted to 757,350,0001b5. At Great Baddow, Essex, a runner bean 13in long has been picked. Mr. F. C. Hills, of Ryde, has dug a potato stalk. which had ninety potatoes upon it. The last battle on English soil was fought at Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, in 1781. . In China to . this day the thumb-print is used on legal documents, especially wills, in place of the written name. A coaling record for Southampton was set up, when over 4000 tons of coal were put on the liner Olympic in just over 14 hours. ". . . . - Mr. William Mayhew, 73, of Isleworth, who claims to be London's oldest barber, 'has celebrated his fiftieth anniversary of his wedding. . An American chemist is said to have de- , veloped a - liquid ' gas,, of : which a little steel bottle will carry enough to light a house for a month. French post-offices will in future be provided —-with stamp-moistening appliances, and innovation which' is hailed by the Press as a hygienic reform. ~Professor Sir Berkely Moyniham states that a tuberclo bacillus is capable, under t . conditions, of having 3,000,000,000 descendants in four days. The construction of the Panama Canal across the narrowest part of Central America—the total- length of the canal being about thirty-five miles—has coat £110,000,000. Alexander. McLaren, a young Scotsman, who has been earning , his livelihood as a shoeblack in Galgary, ; has been, advised by lawyers_at Vancouver, that he is heir to a fortune of £20,000. 7 Lives lost in connection with the British' mercantile manna last year totalled 1021, of . whom only twenty-four ware passengers. 1 hero were nearly 250,000 seamen engaged in British merchant"' ships, , Mr - Simon, an architect 'of Liverpool,' /if 3 awarde d the ' prize of £2000 in the Empire .competition for plans fo;r tho Manitoba Parliament. He will receive : ; £20,000 in fees if the plans are followed ■ out. t , ■, ; A find of Saxon silver pennies has been made at " Welwynn, Herts. . They are of ttw reigns rcf Eadvig (A.D. 955 9) and - Eadgar 1 - (A.D. 975), both Kings of Nor- * thumbland,' and were : coined • at' Jlia Chester Mint;' • / _r- "*'• -- • x ' One of the rules of the Iron Rail Club' c'-r for Girls, in New York, is . that whenever ■ ™,members Me a'man they shall droop, " their eyes and run" away. The club was founded by Miss Helen Frick, . daughter • of Henry - Knck, B jtixe ; multi:milKoiiwrfi,' , ,;v;j.;.r .TheHov.Jb. P. -Tyson^ known as the' ' carpenter-parson, 'is - superintending the : . erection •' of/ the new "Taylor : Memorial ~ - i;' Methodist Church at New York, and will - do much of the carpentering work himself; r was a builder before he became a mini' : ster. "■ • ' ■ V 'V v" : t' ■ An old pensioner has been i admitted to - ; the Stl Asaph Workhouse as a /.'.paying % guest.!' He offered the guardians 4s a ,£} week for board and - lodgings. The aboard allowed him to go into. the. infirmary, as'/ •. -j this will : not have the effect, of . depriving.mm of ; his pem.<ion. . 1 . v, It'. is ' a common .belief at' he present ; time .«nofog the;, lower .- classes in. South ' • Qerpnany- if ,®hildre^: J jJ^j , ' soldier ,-i verjr often in the street there is a war . ' ;■ coming, and' if- tfiey play funeral" a)* >, i/ epidemic come over the land and man '<>■-& ' deaths will result."" ' ,; A fashionably dressed .Spaniard, whoso - wardrobe included a dozen silk shirtis, arrived at New York as a stowaway, in the steamship Xoraine. .. He Laid . spent bo much money on his cloths,, he explained, that he could not buy a ticket..: , He was V'' not allowed to land. ' ' . Further Soman remains have been dis-< ; covered at Caerwent, on the Monmouthshire side of . the Severn Tunnel. ' Hugo, § circles of masonry suggesting that thero ' \ wjere two. amphitheatres, in. an . ancient city have, been discovered: ' also what ; ere believed to be the foundations of a'Temple I ,of Diana. , - t That the world was inhabited long ; lie-*- ■*.?( fore authentic history began- is now one - : . of the. generally aocepted 'fectß.'^"^era.arer''^ said to-be more than 3000 pre-hisfcoric S buildings in Sardinia.. ~ .They .are almost aim,the fertile districts, and 'Urn .built in, : v^-§3 - groups which are •" separated : • from*' one another by wide and generally .barren • V places. ',:'-.V.i ' n'-t . All. bread is: not made from the flour ' of the cereals. Along the. Columbia t River . - • a kind of bread is made : by the Indians from a moss that grows-on the spruce fit! tree. This moss .is - prepared by placing; . t '-' .it in heaps, sprinkling it with water, and Y'. permitting-it to : ferment.> : Then i ia :(# rolled 1 into balls as big as a man's head;, ■' - a and these are baked in pits. ~1, ,l "' t | The largest driving belt in . the .* world, ' H 120 feet long, 7 feet wide, and nearly an inch thick, the weight : being a ton and a,' I half, to put a fly-wheat 224' feet in dia- "w, meter in communication with a pulley over [' -p 8 feet in diameter, to ran with a speed of * / 67 feet per second,'has been made in Pari* 'i, ) for a factory in Amiens. It is v made 'cd! : many leather bands laced.' together., '.. V According to a French authority nearly 7) all of the Parisian ' fdnerals y are managed: ?' by a syndicate of undertakers. There are * 1 ten classes of funerals, six Of which are re- - munerative. : The finfb tax- range'■'in'costi', ' from • £4050 to £320. An eight-class fun.iral casts about £1; - the' ninth 6, audi, { the tenth is free. The funerals directed by this company average 673 a week,*. - v The discovery of a. Rotterdam fanner 'i* o vi ; ; likely;. make a revolution .in cheeafe- ;?: making. -Cheese must -be preserved .many; months before it can bo placed on the mar- ' ket., -but the Dutch farmer has found thai by . passing an electric current through the ■ cheese blocks they can be, "matured within twenty-four hours. Recent expert ments in Switzerland have been very sue* i cesful. . ' x''- ' ..V'!

An umbrella made thief-proof by being locked in such a maimer that it cannot bo opened .has been invented by a London cloak-room attendant. The locking device : ; • consists of a metal collar, one end of which - may. be slipped down over the rib-Lips, and is securely locked to them by revolving the 1 three metal rings. These rings bear the letters and numerals of the . secret combination. A <;• In England prison warders are promised higher pay and shorter hours. All men: ■ , '&■ employed in convict prisons are to have n ! their salaries raised £10 a year. la local ' ,' /% prisons the present 12 hours of duty a day r > >£ will be reduoed to nine. "There will'be an increased allowance for warders living out J side the prisons—-8s 6d a week in the pro- 1 vinces and lis in London, an increase of about 2s 6d. The heavy balte are' to be *T,l|§ discarded, and box-calf boots will bs'pro-i y^pl Superstitious' people in France ape wori ried by the new method- of jcoun&iiig^thtf'' 'V hours. Trains which start' at"' l p.m. (now'"' % ' thirteen o'clock) 'Are, much less crowded 4 than others, especially on' Fridays. It 'v ; curious how the' supeistition of thirteen, persists.: ; Massenet - never dated ; his letters on the ratal day,- < Even <• his . manuscripts v> he numbered thus:—l2, 12 bwTl4, By a strange coincidence or fatality the great composer died, on «,the -thirteenth* of the , ./-j month in a year whose figures added up/ amount to thirteen., - s , /• ; y The "statistics of French insurance" com-i panies prove beyond question that v onJen live longer than men; nor ia the feminine , j advantage- in longevity a matter;ofJakufow . months,.or 'even years. The diffewace- ut one of almost a ■ tiiirdi : '' 'Thiii-t'd"J*7®Wto : M^''Si£^ age of death for women -mm*** « <?* ; books of one^ompftny^M^t»y<m^y> . mcai» b«e ■ several ■ «ntenam^^