NEWS IN BRIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16098, 11 December 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF

I Bets new store tip honey where it is | light. I In Greece both men tnd women wear 3 I wedding-ring. A ten-shilling tax on cats has been, : imposed in Berlin. ! In 23 days over 20.000 men were eni rolled in Victoria, Australia. | Lord Knollys has a collection of 32 I rings given him by different Royalties. The catgut used for violin strings is no* : obtained from cats, but iron thecD orgoats. i Fifty year? a.go tea wis too .i»ar to be an ordinary b-v-'.i-: In the jth-,,-* housej hold. ; _When elephants ar-< in th* vicinity of i tigers, hey beat, ittt-r trunks en' the ' ground. : I- >r i yorthbouTT.e, who ..- ~ lis TO: a ! year, is a pr.vate mi ♦.!'.,• K- nt Volunteer . Fencibks London suffer? a:, aw rig* 1-"ks -' 33 ■ per cent, rf bright. ?u;i.= i..:.c t: ■. sigh the ' presence of sm>j.<r-. t It is faid that \\r. .-:■-» j v.-i i sum ' equal to about fifty th.-■„■-1: d r-...cds for 1 two cups of transparent rl t.;-. ! Sir Cecil Sprirj 7: -•> '.::■■ t>. •-h Em- : bassador in Amen "a, ....-"'i , :'e bv entering the War OrTi-.« sis a clerk. In Montana and Pi-k<&, U.S. . xh* thermometer has be"" known. to fall a hundred degrees in t ' eniy-four hours Queen Alexandra refuses to v. ■>. >.r «- ■ preys on account of the "*-ielty to bHa I which the collecting ii the f-.a:':itr« .-- volves. Bulgarians have a mutation for ! longevity. They boast of Possessing rr>"re centenarians than any other people in | Europe. A South African magnate has promised ; £100 to each of the first four members I of the South African contingent who win j the V.G. Kin? Ferdinand of Bulgaria is an enj thusiastic botanist. His collection of Alpine plants is considered the most comI plete in Europe. King Constantino of Greece is an eni thusiastic pedestrian. He has tramped, incognito, through many of the countries in Europe. Newcastle taxi-cab owners have decided to abolish the 6d fare owing to the price of petrol, and to charge Is a mile or a portion of a mile. The manuscript of " The Cotter's Saturday Night," with Burns' autograph, waa recently sold in London for two thousand five hundred dollars. Since the Balkan War the Greek army has made enormous strides, both in strength and organisation. The fall peace strength is 300,000 men. Jackdaws have been known to enter open bedroom windows and carry off ladies' jewellery, thus causing innocent people to be suspected of theft. Three-fourths of all the pills sold in the United States are made in Detroit. This arena of activity has therefore ac- | quired the name of "Pill City." A dentist in Paris, with the intention 1 of insuring a comfortable feeling after I death, committed suicide after leaving in« I structions that his body was to be stuffed. I Tn comnarison with other Fnronejin

In comparison with other European i monarch*, the King oi Greece is poorly 1 paid, for the thrifty Greeks psv ouly I £70,000 a year for the maintenance of , the Royal family. j M. Zaimis, the new Prime Minister of j Greece, was Premier eighteen years ago, j towards the close of the Grssco-Turkish I War. He only retained the position a j year and a-balf, however. • I Since the outbreak of the war the life- ! boats of the British National Institution have saved 354 lives from ELM. ships, including mine-sweepers, torpedo-boats, patrol boats, and seaplanes. Drunkenness is an uncommon vice in Greece. In food, too, they are very abstemious. Some peasants eat meat only twice or thrice a year; but there is much less poverty among them than in Italy. The Duke of Newcastle is the most notable amateur photographer in the House of Lords. Kis Grace has secured pictures in practically every country in the world, s and his favourite " subjects" are children. October is above all others the mentis of battle. There is not a day that does not commemorate some victory, or two, or three- It la the uicn+h of Hastings, Sebastopol, Trafalgar, Edgenill, A gincourt, and Balaclava. The Royal Marines perhaps enjoy tho most widely diversified range of nicknames, being known as " turkeys," " red necks," " bullocks," soldiers," "leathernecks," "His Majesty's Royal Regiment of Housemaids," and "Joey." For the first time in history China is a competitor with European shipbuilders, pressure of work in Scandinavian yards having compelled the Brusgaard Steamship Company, of Norway, to place orders for threo ships in the East.

In Cambridgeshire there is a baby whose selected and impending name is " DardaneUa Jane,' -while a gallant gunner in Dover proudly lays claim to the paternity of a child who rejoices in the name of Dardanelles Annie "Hawkins. Lady Sybil Grant, daughter of Lord i Rosebery, "is running a newspaper for her I husband's (Major Grant's) men at the front, which tells them news and tidings ;of their wives and families at home. Lady Sybil collects the "copy" herself. The extreme politness and hospitality of the Greeks is one of their chief characteristics. Tradespeople whose business it is to sell liquor often insist on " treating" the foreigner free of cost, or at least give him something extra as a present. King Ferdinand of Bulgaria is a distant cousin of our King's through an uncle of Queen Victoria's. He was born in Vienna on February 26, 1851. and for some time he served as an officer in the Austrian army. He possesses large estates in garyj Greek funerals strike Europeans as unj canny, owing to the usual practice d? ] carrying a dead person through the I streets with the face uncovered. The boots of the dead are always put on in token of his long journey, but they are removed before burial. In Corfu, as soon as a peasant girl is betrothed, she wears a vast mass of false hair padded out at the side of her face and braided with strips of red material. The hair thus used is worn all through married life, and goes down from generation to generation. The British Army has the best balloons of any country in the world, ai. I these balloons differ from all those made in other lands Our balloons are mice, not of silk, as used to be the custom, but of the intestines of oxen, and it takes no fewer than 40,000 to make one balloon. The German papers continue to publish advice addressed to the public designed to fight against the economic crisis. One journal recommends its readers to pick up fruit stones to make oil : another urges they should net throw away or barn old newspapers or old paper of any kind. Queen Eleonore of Bulgaria, in her ! vounger davs, underwent a complete 'course of hospital training. -*ith the aj>i proval of her father, Prince Henry B . 'of Reuss, who was himself skilled in ! medical lore. This training served her in, j good stead at the time of the RussoI Japanese War. The Greeks are peculiarly sensitive about their language. There are two forms of Greek spoken—the pure language, used by the newspapers and spoken bv the educated classes, and the popular "or " vulgar" language, which contains a number of Italian and Turkish words. Between the partisans of these two forms of Greek there is keen discussion and rivalry.