NEWS IN BRIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15730, 3 October 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF

Sheep draw little, express wagons in India and Persia. Oakland and San Francisco are agitating for a connecting suspension bridge nine miles in length. For every married man who commits suicide, there are three bachelors who thus close their career. An electrical process for preventing I boilers from corroding and scaling has | been patented in England.. A Swiss scientist declares that microbes do not exist in mountain air at an altitude ; of over two thousand feet. A pineapple cannery, casting £50,000 is to be built in Honolulu for handling 12,000 tons of fruit annually. 1 An entomologist in Yorkshire, England, has a farm of nearly four acres devoted mainly to the raising of butterflies. A pig is usually kept in every stable in Persia, as it is thought the presence of the porker is beneficial to the health of the horses. The popularity of whale flesh in Japan is steadily increasing. For several years past this meat has be.en used, both fresh and canned, very extensively in that country. A resident of Hersham Surrey, gave la to a man who accosted him on" Waterloo Bridge at midnight. The man took a ring from his finger, saying, "This may repay you for your kindness." The gilt has been valued at £6 by a jeweller. A man weighing 3201b the moment he was released from the State asylum at Georgetown, Virginia, attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself into the River Ohio, but ho was too fat to drown. He was rescued after floating a mile down the river. Over one-half of the trees struck by lightning are poplars. From this fact scientists conclude that the poplar has some value as a conductor of lightning. Therefore, agriculturists are advised to plant these trees in the vicinity of their farm buildings. A certain justice of the peaco in Maryland evidently imagines that cows can read big print. He recently gave a verdict against a railway company for killing a cow near a road crossing, for the reason that " the defendant had no sign up at the crossing."

Some jolly picnickers near Montaubon, France, after enjoying their dinner beside' a haystack, rambled off, leaving the empty ginger-beer bottle standing near it. The sun's rays became focused through the glass, and set the stack alight. It was burned to the ground.

Most of the Japs' horses are shod with straw. Even the clumsiest of cart horses wear straw shoes. In their case the shoes are tied round the ankles with straw rope, and are made of the ordinary rice straw, braided so that they form a sole for the foot about half an inch thick. r"

As Sotheby's, £250 was realised for a large paper copy of the first edition of "Gulliver's Travels," issued in. 1726. A. first edition of Scott's "'Waver]y,".lßl4, brought £200, and an uncut presentation copy of the first edition of Tennyson's "Poems," 1830, fetched £136. '•' . Inquiries, among foreign residents . in London show that ' whereas French and German reservists have responded to the call of their', countryi with enthusiasm, a considerable .proportion of Russian and Austrian'- residents have decided to., re. main in England whatever happens.;> ■:«• London Comity Council school charwomen balloted; oh, the. question whether they would prefer a; full working week of forty-eight hours to. the; present thirtytwo hours' week. About 1400 voted for the present arrangement, ; and nearly all the rest were in favour of still fewer hours. "Examine your change, especially- your florins," was the advice of Scotland Yard to everyone. A well-known Scotland Yard; detective recently, informed a Standard representative that in some unknown place in the metropolis there is installed' the most perfect outfit for. making florins" yet known. ■". ■■■■■■ _ " //. •'■ ■■■• \ The fattest and heaviest man in the world lives ;at Bound Oak, Brierley Hill, Staffordshire. , He ,is George Lovatt, and weighs 34 1 stone. He is 6ft in height and is forty-five years old. Lovatt is a cripple as the result of ah accident. %i election times he is usually taken to the poll on a cart. - '. *V"i/'..>'>..-:r "''■ .-J§ Fishing with rakes was lately indulged in by the people dwelling near the Merriwa River, New South Wales.' Aninflow of .. thick, muddy .water drove, .the fish toward the shore in "quest of. clearer water, and the people stood on the beach, rakes in hand, and,,thus drew in large quantities of the finny tribe. ■. -.*;..-> California, is proud/that out. of the thirty ponies used- ■?■ in the : recent polo; .match with• Great , Britain, eleven came from California. ■ -The pride is justified, for, as!in polo good mounts are two-thirds of the the search for proper ponies iscountry-Wide; The best horse on .the, English side is alsq Californian. , As an example of the big; gap left in many London hotels by 1 the call to arm?:; it may be mentioned that the Savoy/has" had forty-five-waiters called away from the grill-room alone. Ninety men from : the kitchen have also left, and at one time it was feared that the French cuisine would., have to bo given up, and English cooking solely relied upon. • if A '•!-!!: Belgium has more famous battlefields to the square mile than any other -European" country. For three centuries all the contending armies marched andv 'countermarched across the country. Some of, the? proudest battle honours borne :on i; the/ colours of our finest- regiments were won on Belgian soil.' For example Waterloo,;! Quatre Bras, Ramillies,' Oudenarde, Fontenoy, Landen, Nivelle and Namnr. A Paris beggar, who was thought to be penniless, has* just passed from:;earth; leaving a fortune behind him. V Ah old man named Etienne Rollin, who used to go about the streets offering a few vegetables for sale, and. was known as "Father Leek," died of hunger atid cold in a garret in _ the Rue . de Montigny. When the police examined his garret, they found: £1200 in notes and gold -in his mattress. : Police Sergeant John Figg, in acknowledging a presentation from his comradesof the Dover Police Force on his retire/; nient, denied that ill-luck attached= to the ! number thirteen. He said he was'one'of a family of thirteen 1 he started work, at thirteen; was thirteen years in his first employment; joined the Dover Police on April 13, when he; was twice thirteen years old; and his family number' thir- '• teen. - - ~ ,/ ,

The cruel return march from the South Pole perhaps did no more to kill Captain Scott and his men than their bitter disappointment at'finding the Norwegian flag already planted there •■ by. Amundsen. Graceful and appropriate, therefore, is the action of the Norwegian people, who unveiled in their own " country the first memorial yet erected to. the brave Englishmen. It was "paid for, by public: subscription. 11.I 1 . At the close of 1912 the whole world contained 12,318,000 telephones, of which the United States had 8,357,625, and all Europe only 3,153,000. The city of New York alone possessed:44l,l2B,-almostex-actly double the number .-possessed by London. Chicago stood third -among the great cities of the world with 279,383 telephones. But Los Angeles and San Francisco held the percentage record, each having one telephone for about every four inhabitants. ' i "■ \ A return issued - recently -. shows . that during the three months 'ended r June 30, 140,067 aliens landed 'in ' the United; j Kingdom from ports •; in ' Europe and ' the Mediterranean Sea. , while : .' 59,213 - landed \ from other ports. V Leave to laud was with- -■ held 402 castes. During,the same period 124,243: embarked for ports in Europe and - 46,467 for other ports. The number of ex- ~- : pulsion orders granted during the three : - months was 106, compared with eighty; two in the sarnie period of 1913* * -,'