NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17633, 20 November 1920, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There are more than 12,000' varieties a' .orchids. ; '• • - 'V V} :£? The average lite of an oyster is aboffi 10 years. . , There are 3000 women ministers in ths United States. - A watch so small that it can be won in a finger-ring is fashion's latest f?ncy. The Match Tax brought the British Exchequer nearly £-3,400,000 last year. A skilled •worker can turn out about three dozen artificial flies for fishing in 3 day. The cost of Columbus' expedition that led to the discovery of America wa» £I4OO. * C Salt-water bathing is to be brought t<j Paris by means of a pipe line connection to the sea. Stucco is being applied on outside walls of houses in England by means of a:» pressure guns. The rooms of the Shakesperean hot's! in Stratford-on-Avon are named after th« plays of' the poet. In Japan burning or hanging in effigy ii still regarded as a means of punishment to faithless lovers. The 400 English sheep sent, out to tha peasants of the battlefields <?f the Mama are all doing remarkably well. A public clock at Now Barnet, Knglamt. lately struck two or three thousand times continuously during the night. There is not much difference between the average life of a dog- and of a cat. \ | dog averages 12 years, a cat 10. When the war broke out, the number of automobiles in use in Canada was 67,415, but to-day the number is 400.000. . The number oi persons killed in tha streets of London last year was 6SB. In addition, 19,02? persons wero injured. " .It is thought that 200,000 acres of cotton can be cultivated in Mesopotamia, producing up to 20,000,0001b. of colfem ' every year. . The mouth of the ; River Elbe has been blocked up by a gigantic .Swedish rait of '140,000 "tree trunks,-which was on its way ,to Amsterdam. - Worms are sensitive to .light, though they have no eyes. They do not hear as ' we. hear, but. they" feel Vibrations and -so - are warned of - danger, 1 j , The cinema "industry is one of the - largest in the United States.. and.-*ach • year 4000 miles of films are exported, miles going to England; - . . It has been reckoned thai on the various electric systems "of London, controlled ~ by ■* 30 * companies.' ther«~ are altogether " about 800,000 circuit connections. * - _ Mr. " Billy" Sunday, the well-known evanglist,. who was at one time * noted baseball player, recently declined an offer of £200,000 to act or' £ the|films-^ : ,M^-3C*';." The privilege of free rides on tram cart enjoyed ;at Hull ;by ; : blind people iarid! by ;t~ men who -lost a leg in the war is to bo extended. toxoid age pensioners. ' Under the English law, if "a"window has, received light- free from ruction for 20 years, it.becomes an '"ancient Sight," and i no building may be erected " which ' will obscure it. - - Captain George Bowyer, a British M.P., states that he has answered every letter , - and postcard he has received since he has been . in - Parliament, .to ; the- number of.-' nearly 9000. A race of.pygmies rocentiy discovered in the Belgian Congo are only 4ft. in height, and . very ;hko" ape's in appearance; • yet 'they, neither. lie steal, and will 1 marry only one wife. =§gg -i g § The salary of an. American Ambassador to Great Britain is only £3500. compared with the £IO,OOO {excluding entertainment allowance) which England gives her Am- *„v' bassador to Washington. 2 - - . ; The British Foreign Office recently ap- - j|jf proved -without avquestion a refund to the j Egyptian ; Government of 'C £60,000., . -_' Later it w ; ag found that there" had been a C -clerical error "and the sum should "bo £6OOO. The Great Wheel, which for over 20 . years, has been a familiar sight to visitors to Paris and has given thousands of tfcem. . a' bird's eye ' view, of the city, to dis- - appear. Tho work of disriiiutling hs» already begun. Animals-have not all the same means of regulating bodily temperature/,- J'ogs WBM and cats sweat chiefly from the pad of the feet; pigs mostly*on its snoot, .But | | pome, such as rats and rabbits, do perspire .at all. • Liverpool has .now competed 100 of 'ho" ~"-~~ total" of 1200 new houses which % are being - provided. ."'I,. Some " of the occupiers took" ;in their furniture before the paint was dry. | The apolications for.' the houses 4 -" - numbered 14,000. » Carlsbad, tho famous health resort, is built on a crust, underneath which is a subterranean lake of boiltr-g water. The ho! sulphur springs t have ic-'t-be v ceaselessly' watched' and the pressure kept down : lest the town be destroyed. In the British Museum are to be teen "-.r, 1.0.U.'s which go back to 2500 B. C, In the Assyrian and Egyptian department "* , there are a number of clay tablets record-, ! ing trading __ and loan transactions of _ Babylonian civilisation '4OOO years n?o.' Wives whose "husbands were killed in the war I los-e their pensions when Itliey?' remarry.- Nevertheless, war widows in Great-Britain are re-marrying at the r?to .- I of 2000 a ; month. If this " rate -con tin cry. v-i----thev will all be re-married bv thfr aid of 1927. * The United States Government "misv«-vs ?show that mora than" 4.000,000 cattle and" " ' sheep on American -ranges died- of starva- \ .' tion and disease last winter. This means a: loss lof more then - 1,500,000, of t^ meat, or enough to provide nearly- 14Sb. ' ; for.* every man, % woman "and : child "us the. ■ > nation.

-/ Daring 1913 " vessels •; asgregatii? 62,000 fonr, were btjilfc in Norway, <j? which .15,C0. ;; were for " Swedish ' and- Danish eccounts In. Denmark about. 33 000 tons were btsilt ie - <1919, of 'which 2650 tons were for v Norwegian account. : Sweden b«»!t 53.000 tons, of which 4000 tows were for Danish account. Th© bitttminoaa-coal corommption in iha United . States for the present coat year, j which . will fma <»n /March 31,1-1521, wll' I not likely exceed 56b.iKK).009 tons and may jbe no ' more than 500,000,000 tons. Tim j means thai the" mine® must produce a little '. better than '.10,030,000 : tons »■'-«««& inj order to supply the demand. ■: I ? The ' report of. the , Medical School j Officer for' London for 1918 i* cheering j reading, for it reports the lowest d«-ath- v"/,', j rate among /children everi isccrtieri. Par- ' " ];::: 1 ing the year more than 3X/.OQO children i were medically inspected, and 153.200 res ceived medical treatment. The general 4 . f condition of. '.-the . children,/ml -rt-gfeirdji! :£ s , ' nutrition and cleanliness,- was d:iticrt'r better than in the "year\ before the": war* - /■'- A belfry nsuaily --contsJn#; from fit to . ; £- * twelve hell*—though , twelve if. an uneom-. (i.- - : mem ntinrbf-r, th« tifiuai beiiJar c«igbt, Theso be'h vary in note from the" I'sxr-r. which is ihe..beav{cst, down to the iss-We, the lightest. , They , are «ng |a/ {3sattgea. . . - That is to say that the tenor a; wars chines *- *'/ first, and after thai the other bells ii.-.w » - in Tsr.-'n:-' orders. A peal conns'- «■ M least five thousand chasge?. ail different, , .so thai the b*U-rin£er ha* to eonewiinto „ a great deal, tar he will «poil the peal. > > There exists Li the Cambridge Sehpoi of Fcrtnry a wonderful specimen of tbo .oblotis- tree,-, which - has . assisted - the .'dss-'-.- * - co-very of a secret' <?f growth.. • The truck - ; in question is about j 3C&fc. by - 2in. Ha curious shape is dee to no more thtis & little braise or two which persuaded it to grow in one direction and ' not ;at w§jgjos%sM »ay othe?. *"- Other -discover:?* and ex- ' I penment* prove that an artistic bfv>»? it may be ng> more j violent "than pressure with tha nsak* a tree expand ia a desired dfr«&i!?», i>- i,', ■ "t" v