NEWS IN BRIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15551, 7 March 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF

Tureot lay 14 million eggs in a season, and cod nine millions. A great many women in Tibet perform carpenter work equal to the men.

Memory, it has been ascertained, is stronger in summer time than in winter.

Two hundred penny-in-the-slot machines which supply newspapers, are now installed in Berlin.

The London Opera House was burnt iffl 1789; Covent Garden, September, 1808; and Drury Lane, February, 1809.

"Tabby," now exclusively applied to cats, was formerly "atabi," a special pattern of silk made only in Persia. In 1833 there were nearly 2000 bobbinnet machines in Flanders and France, producing eleven million yards per annum. Blind horses never err in choosing their diet when grazing. Their sense of smell guides them infallibly in the selection ot food.'

Education is so general in Denmark and Sweden that they are the only European countries in which all the military conscripts can read and write.

Smooth-faced Russians are very uncommon. Nearly every man wears a. beard. At one time it was the general belief in Russia that a beardless man was soul-less.

Among the Alps there are several post offices at a height of 6000 ft or 7000 ft. One letter-box, from which the postman makes four collections daily, is nearly 10,000 ft above the sea-level.

To prevent dishes sliding down into the water while they are being washed, an ingenious California woman has patented a dishpan with projections from the bottom to hold them on edge.

The cries of the sea birds, especially sea gulls, are very valuable to sailors in misty weather. The birds cluster on the cliffs and coast, and the cries warn boatmen that they are near the land.

Many women in New York City find tasteful and remunerative employment as window-dressers. Most of this work, however, is done by men- Some expert and tasteful window-dressers get as high as fifty dollars a week.

The largest lobster caught in the district within living memory was brought ashore at Xotland Bay, isle of Wight, recently by a fisherman named Simonds. It weighed 91b 3oz, was 2ft long, and sin across the largest claw.

Salvation Army uniforms for women, including ' the bonnet, cost about 38s each. Nearly all of them are made in Luton, England. The fashion never changes, and the girls do not worry about the way the bonnets ought to be trimmed.

At the golden wedding celebrations of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Soncs, of Southend, 11 children, who have grown to maturity, out of 13 were present, and a package of wedding--cake which . Mr. Sones pat away on his wedding day in 1863 was eaten.

The following are stated to be the largest incomes in Germany ithe" Emperor, £1,100,000; Fran' Bertha Krupp, over £900.000; Prince Henckel, £600,0uU; the Duke von Ujesfc, £300,000; and Hen Ziese, shipbuilder and landowner, about the same.

With an envelope containing a not® and a half-sovereign attached to its collar, a fox-terrier called at a post office in Hull, for its dog licence- V On the licence being placed in the envelope, together wir.h half-a-crown change, the dog trotted oS home.

Three good laughs an. hour and three square meals and three hours' work outdoors every day is the recipe given by Mrs. Thomas Bennett, of Brooklyn, New York, for living as she has" done to .the a{(© of 102 in the full enjoyment of her faculties. ..

In olden times, when a knight entered a company of ladies, he removed his helmet, to indicate that he considered himself among friends, and that there was no need to protect himself. This practice has survived in the custom of raising the hat when saluting a lady. '

• The What'll Club, which has just held its first annual dinner in New York, is the only Atlantic Ocean club existence, - and has its headquarters, on the steamship Minnetonka. •On each .voyage ...of. .tho Minnetonka the > two most distinguished' passengers ; are elected i members. •*

At "the 'Wonder Zoo and .'Big. Circus .at Olympic there are now; to be «een .the tallest and the shortest women in Europe, Marisiaaa, a Frieslander, sixteen years old, stands 7ft 4in high, and weighs 2lst, and Asra, from Central Mexico, is. eighteen years old, stands 26in high, and weighs 131b. The German Government has for years; fixed the retail price of drugs, even to the extent of - designating -what must be charged for bottle, cork, label, or oint- ■ ment box used in dispensing the medi-. cine. Such list, revised each year, furnishes a curiously interesting supplement to the German drug journals. A resident of Mansfield, who is eightysix years of age, and is claimed to be the oldest bellringer in active service ia the country, rang "the old year out and the new year in" at the parish church.* He has now been ringing regularly for seventy-three years, and is always in his place in the belfry on Sundays. He is in excellent health. '

Officials of the Farnham (Surrey) Fire Brigade explained to the local committee recently that the brigade had no headgear large enough for two newly-appointed firemen. The chairman suggested that cna of the requirements of candidates for future vacancies might be that their heads should not be too big for the helmets in stock. A chemist in Belgium, by taking the • albumen from the residue of malt, grains and putting it through a process, is said to have produced a pasty food, claimed to taste like meat, but with three times as much nourishment. The cost of the i™. is said to be . small Physicians in Brussels have experimented on men with' it, and with excellent results. •ct^L telephone is being Put to many strange uses as a labour-saver and aa emergency aid In the «*wSp£Jrs\ m 'T* iactories the workmen K ! P elr own time records, but telephone to the book-keeper whenever they stan, or finish a job, 80 that he cam mak9 the entry. Automatic telephone temperature-recorders are used in orchards to , save fruit crops from frostwhen the temperature falls the central operator ,s notified, so that she can » the farm hands and " them out with smudge-pots. a . clock constructed throughout of glass mrt nf re n n £1X yeare ' work on the part of a Bavarian glass polisher. The plates and pillars which form the frame™°fh ar %if i 6 la «s, and are bolted together with glass screws. The dial-plate hands shafts and cog-wheels are of glass' and glass wedges and pins are used for fastening the various parts of the running gear together. _ Like the clock itself the key by which it is wound is of glass. The construction of the remarkable timepiece^ was a matter of inhnite pains. t^ ece trtfT tod to be mad; as many £ L u i! mes before a clock that would eo could be produced. «uuia go The yearly engine mileage of the London and -North-Western Railway is equal to a journey (1) round the world in every three hours, (2) to the moon indent? fiftflpn J a ? d , { {3) l<) the SUn in about fifteen and a-half months. Crewe engine works occupy 137 acres of ground ,th! covered area being forty-eight acrei When the London and North-Western was formed m 1846 by the amalgamation of several lines, the united undertaking £?70mnnn a s -! h % .exceeding. £17,000,000 and 420 miles of lines. By means of amalgamations, extensions, and leases, the railway has expanded in all directions, and to-day - possesses neirly 20QQ miles of line ana a nominal caiiital exceeding £124 t OOO,OOO. : v ' . 1 —