NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15912, 8 May 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Bbovze is an alloy of copper and tin. The Forth Bridge cost nearly £2,000,000. There is no established religion in Austria.

The great auk has been extinct' since 1844.

Gibraltar is less than two squire miles in are?..

The first steamship crossed tho Atlantic in 1833.

Liege was the chief cattle market of Belgium.

There are nearly 200,000 lunatics in the United Kingdom.

Australia possesses 1172 steamer! aB her mercantile marine.

The Turks always eat their opium, while the Chinese smoke it.

In New South Wales there are 100, more men than women.

The territory of seven nations joins that of the German Empire.

A frigate olrd can fly an entre week without stopping to rest.

It is computed that 67 people die, and 70 are born, every minute.

British troops serving in India are paid by the Indian Government,

In one hour a motor-cycle has been driven 70 miles 1588 yards.

In Great Britain last year 872,220,000 calls were made by telephone.

Harrow, the famous public school, war founded by John Lyon in 1571.

Old age pensions ware first proposed in the. British Parliament in 1775.

Iho wolves of Russia devour about 200 children and travellers even year.

Street traffic fatalities in London throughout the year 1914 totalled 658.

In time of peace Germany produces on an average 26,000 tons of copper a year.

Sheep could be purchased for fourprnce apiece in England in the 12th century.

Burnley in Lancashire has contributed no fewer than 10,000 men to the colours.

No fewer than 45 towns in Great Britain have a population exceeding 100,000. Smoking in British railway trains was officially prohibited prior to the year 1868. European Russia possesses the highest birth-rate in the world ; France the lowest.

Gold coins to the number of 18,752.241 were issued from tho Royal Mint last y«ar.

At least half a dozen hairdressing es tablishraents in London employ lady barbers.

The British Army dates, as ft standing force, from the Restoration of Charles 11. in 1660.

Military commissions have been granted to four metropolitan policemen now with the army.

Since the war began at least 1200 boyscouts have been assisting the coastguards of England.

Rural district* of Belgium have suffered through the war to the extent of ££6,000,000.

British secret service is now estimated to cost £110,000 formerly the cost was only £50,000.

The United Ancient Order of Druids has completed an existence of 134 years as a friendly society.

Germany's exports of aniline dyes to Great Britain were formerly worth £1,800,000 a year.

About 6000 stars are visible to the naked eye. A powerful telescope reveals 5,000,000 of them.

Pomeranian dogs owed their first popularity to the fact that Queen Victoria was very fond of them.

Every month a thousand tons of firewood are sent to tie British troops in

France and Belgium.

Prisoners in Sing-Sing gaol, New York, are being officially entertained by professional boxing matches.

By the Jaw of England one may not kill pheasants, partridges, grouse, or hares on a Sunday or on Christmas Day.

Sheffield manufacturers are to abandon the trade term "German silver," and substitute the words "nickel silver."

Cats hate water, probably because their fur lias nothing oily about it and consequently takes a long time to dry.

No less than 60,000,000 gallons of milk are received in London by rail every year, the output of at least 12C,000 cows.

Naples, queen of the Adriatic, is the most important of the Italian cities, and doss a large export and import trade.

Nearly 30,000 engine-drivers and motormen are employed regularly by the railway companies of the United Kingdom.

Where the soil has permitted, wells have been bored to a depth of 60ft with a new hand-operated post-hole digger.

Members of both Houses of Parliament in Japan receive, in addition to travelling expenses, salaries of about £200 a year. When firing at a range of 15 miles a shell from a 12in British naval gun reaches a height of more than 22,000 ft. More than 600,000 people subscribe to the building societies of the United King: dom, of which there are more than 1600.

Nearly 6000 orderlies were sent to the front by the St. John Ambulance Association during the first two months of the

Last year there were 8,181,263 people in the United Kingdom entitled to vote, or about one-third of the male population.

One-sixth of the total membership of the Nottinghamshire Miners' Association, representing 5000 men, havo joined the forces. Waiters at one well-known London

restaurant are being instructed in the French language at the expense of their employers. Constituting a loss to the British mining industry of 20 per cent., between 150,000 and 200,000 colliers are now serving with the colours.

Twenty-six millions sterling was spent by the 318 local educational authorities oil elementary education during the putt financial year.

In the savings banks of the Royal Nary there are 24,456 accounts, and the amount due to depositors exceeds a quarter of a million sterling.

Upwards of 5000 ships pass through the Suez Canal in the course of a year, re. presenting a total of more than 20,000,0%' tons of shipping. The entire white population of Hie British Empire is less thai the population of the German Empire, and rather larger than that of Japan. Purely fur the conveyance of mails and parcels'by passenger train, railway companies in the United Kingdom have earned £10,000.000 in a single .'ear. When the war broke out. and the registration of aliens was completed, then were no fewer than 4966 alien enemies employed in the hotels of London. It £1000 were placed at the disposal of the British Government, it would meet, the expenses of war on land and sea and of troops in training for one minute and a-half. In the course of a single day at least 12.000,000 of eggs are consumed in Great Britain, Greater London alone using 2,000,000, or eggs to the total weight of 115 tons.

This year sees the centenaries of the births of Sir William Jenncr, the famous doctor, Dean Stanley, Anthony Tvollope, the novelist, and Prince Bismarck, the German statesman. Three thousand throe hundred and thirty-three is the number recently given bv the Registrar-General of Belgian business men who are refugees in Englandformer proprietors of businesses, employers of labour, meat of commercial steading WW, influences