NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16561, 9 June 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

India has 15,000 species of native plants. A Laplander will often skate 150 miles in a day.

Dutch children often us© their wooden shoes as toy boats.

Soldiers cannot be billeted on the premises of any foreign consul.

Admiral von Tirpitz usually wears clastic-sided boots and shoes.

No woman has ever been known to make a boot from beginning to end.

In Christian worship the use of bells goes back as far as the fifth century-

Owing to the demand for gold, wedding rings are now being made of platinum. Twenty thousands tons of potatoes are needed by the British Army every month. High boot heels were first used in Persia to raise the feet from the burning sands.

The Newport (Eng.) Golf Club members have decided to plant potatoes on their course.

Billeting was declared illegal in 1679, but authorised in the Army Discipline Act of 1879!

The Princess of Monaco has a pair of jewelled shoes belonging to the seventeenth century.

Forty pounds was paid last month for a 421b ham,, the purchaser being a Hamburg merchant.

The suburbs of Bagdad extend for 20 miles along the hanks of the Tigris, both above and below the city.

Twenty years ago China paid a Bank of England cheque for £4,400,506 as part of her indemnity to Japan. According to oculists, poor window glass is responsible for eye strain on account of the faulty refraction. Hostages used to be taken for security that peace stipulations were properly ' carried out. The custom has ceased since 1748. The greatest anaesthetic, chloroform, was discovered by Guthrie in 1831, and) was first employed in surgical operations in 1846.

A report of the German Farmers' League says that the average price of a' horse which before the war cost £25 is now £200.

Fireman Jack," the dog charity collector, and pet of the Tunbndge Wells Fire Brigade, who is dead, brought in £1000 in thirteen years.

The only peace treaty ever negotiated by women is known as the Ladies' Peace," arranged by Louisa of Savoy and Margaret of Austria.

An association of German deserters has been formed at Alkmaar, Holland, with the object of affording relief to deserters released from provisional interment. -

Not until 1872 was the administration . of German naval affairs separated from the Berlin War Office, Even then an Army General was placed in charge!

It is announced from Berlin that a new commercial treaty incorporating all phases of the economio relations between Germany and Turkey has. been signed. ■

The entire citv of Bagdad is surrounded by a brick wall, five miles in circumference and 40ft high, but, in soma .places broken down, and' by a deep, dark ditch. , ' '' ■ •', >',". ;

In Mexico everything -and everybody pays a direct tax, frorathe street porter to the largest, mercantile establishment,' ; and the stamp tax for documents 18 equally lucrative. ?

• The tallest soldier in' the British Army Is an Irishman named O'Connor, at present . serving ,-in the Australian, infantry. O'Connor stands 7ft 3in, ,and is a well setup, man of middle age. ~ :Lf ?~P >...

The armament of somS of our modern first-clasß battleships is capable of discharging in two minutes over 30,0001b of metal, not including the 1 discharge from the small machine-guns. ;•

- Stockings made from human • hair are worn' by Chinese fishermen' as the best preventive of wet feet. .; They are drawn over ordinary cotton stockings, being too rough for putting near the.skin..' ;■ ■ ~ The ' world's J - champion' typist, Miss Owen, has actually broken her previous record, which was} the typing of ; . 8379 .words in an hour. .She has lately ; typed 854'9 words in the same time, making only 62 errors. . , ~ ;'. ''?\;\ '■• :

The small bell. which is being rung dur- i ing Mass at the Church of Notre Dame de France, in Leicester Square, was picked up outside. Verdun.,by a young French officer during tie recent fighting and presented to ; the church. .<;;;-' : £.•,

The Turkish Embassy in Petrograd, which before Turkey entered the.war was the property of the Turkish Government, is now being used as a branch of the New York National City : Bank, as - a tenant under the Russian Government. ■.. '

Oatmeal lis one of the cheapest and most valuable of all foods. A bowl of porridge gives the equivalent food-value of a rasher of bacon at a third of the cost. Bread and pea-sonpor bread and cheese ia much more nourishing than sirloin and vegetables..' ■'' ' / ■'».'. ■'. -~' A .} "-. y*?

The Swedish papers report that a large number of Germans who left Sweden at Christmas, and should have returned. atthe beginning of the New Year, have not> arrived. The reason is supposed to be that. the civil mobilisation is. now being put into force. ■,-•. '*•>''.■» Mr. T. W. David, a Cardiff timber expert,' declares that wood pulp for papermaking can easily be produced at home, and cites the case of Glamorgan, where, he says, there are whole districts of waste land where timber for pulping could profitably be grown. Statistics show that a religions life tends to prolong existence, and ' that ministers are among the longest-lived individuals. Brain workers live longer than those who labour with their muscles, women longer than men, and the married longer than Che single. A statistician has discovered that at the London Palladium last, year .there were 1043 performances, which were attended by 3,000,000 people. • Of the audience, 61 per cent, were -women, 8 cent, children, and' 31 per cent, men, 46 per cent.; of the latter being in uniform. In- England, army nurses are paid as follows Matron, £75, rising by £10 a year to £150 sister, £50, rising up by £5 to £65; staff nurse, £40, rising by £2 10s to £45. The following gratuities are given at the end of ah engagement: Matron £15, sister £10, staff nurse £7 10s. Possibly the youngest pensioner from the British Army is a boy at' present engaged at a Portsmouth brewery works. Although not yet 16 years of age, he has served a year as a band boy in the Dorset Regiment, and was discharged with a ruptured lung and a pension of 5s a week. The famous picture, "The Thin Bed Line," by Robert Gibb -R.S.A., which appeared at the Royal Academy in. 1882.was bought at Christie's by Sir Thomas Dewar for £882. The picture shows the 93rd Highlanders at Balaclava, and is famaliar to the public by numerous engravings. '. - ■■'■• '. '."•: Mine-trawlers work in pairs. Each carries r one end of. a steel cable, several hundred yards long, which they draw through the si 4 , between them. When the cable encounters ; a-' mine it rips it free from its anchoring gear. The mine floats to the surface; picked men then fire ■ at it, puncturing the air-chamber and letting the water in, and it sinks harmless to the bottom : of, the sea. • i^'" In France a very practical ; system is adopted to test the nervous system of airpilots. The would-be pilot has /to-"hold > the bandies of a special" registering machine,; which is so finely adjusted thatv it will show the slightest tremor. Whilst he is so occupied a pistol; is fired suddenly, and if the machine records move than a very' slight tremor the candidate ' L» ; 4w»Btaii"v;"..7."- , [•'" "'