NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17983, 7 January 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Eoumania has ordered 200 locoinotheS from Germany. In 1914. 89 percent, of the world's oceangoing tonnage used coal as fuel; ii' 19-L only 72.3 per cent, depended upm coal. At the Ferrari stamp sale u Paris two" British Guiana stamps of 18i i, initialled J.D.S., were sold for 60,000 fra. cs (£1132), Swiss railway carriages returning from Italy are often found to have been stripped oi blinds, seat coverings, leather, and even, electric fittings. Hot weather and little wind combined to cut off the supply of oxygen from Wisconsin lakes, resulting in tho death 08 millions of fish. The White Star Line has granted fae ;, ,Li ties to Liverpool University that will givd engineering students experience at sea Hiring their vacations. A big Japanese toy factory hi's had t< discharge many employees; German competition is blamed for the dwindling demand for Japanese toys. The British Office of Works is making annual payments of 5s for the upkeep of each of the graves of German prisoners if war buried in this country. In New York a woman burglar declared her glands made her do it s a physic: m testified that her disease, hyperthyroidism, gives rise to criminal tendencies. The Mount House, Shrewsbury, where; Charles Darwin, the naturalist, was Von* in 1809, has been bought by the British! Office of Works to house clerks. In reporting that an income-tax summons had not been served, the warrant officer at West Ham Police Court stated that the alleged defaulter died more than 12 years ago. Owing to delay in wages settlement thel whole staff of Bracekidge Mental Hospital, Lincolnshire, went on strike, and refused to do more than attend to helpless cases. The story goes that Alexander Graham! Bell, shouting to a friend over one of the earliest telephones, was nearly ejected by ' his landlady on complaint of her suffering lodgers. The number of National Savings Certifh cates sold in the United Kingdom during the week ended October 1 was 1,155,077, bringing the total to that date up U} ■479,093,547. John D. Rockfeller, jun., has gived £12,C00 to enable the University of Chicago to excavate on the site of Arraagedi don, where the first battle known to history was fought.

Rome reports that the obelisk in thd Piazza di San Pietro was slightly damaged by a "thunderbolt," but makes no men* tion of any fragments of the meteorite having been found. The number of United States Shipping Board vessels swinging idly at anchor in Staten Island Sound was increased to 171 recently, when 12 more ships were added to the great fleet. In England a suit has been sold for} £25,000. It is a suit of armour made byl Jacob the Armorer for the second Earl o2 Pembroke, and it was bid up to this figure) at an auction sale. Automobilists ran over a rattlesnake) near Ferndale, New York. In a punctured) tyre was found a fang one and three-eight? inches in length. The snake measured sft., 7in. and had 17 rattles. American - soldiers in Hawaii lose mucH time in hospital as a result of the tatooing craze. Such sickness is now declared Sunishable, and pay is stopped for the) uration of the disability. It tvill soon be hard to trace the trencH lines of the great war. Xew trees ara springing up in place of those blown tes pieces, and the upheavad subsoil 1i trans-" forming itself into verdured stretches. The presence of s blue-eyed policeman! was expressly requested by the bride at u*| Ashtead, Surrey, wedding. As not one) could be found in the district, however, al policeman with hazel eyes was sent ini stead. American scientists plan an expedition bo) South Africa for the study of unusual geological formations north of Pretoria ? it is hoped to shed light on the origin ofj granite, long a perplexing question to the) penologist.

r —- o: The Leaning Buddha is a Chinese nvaj of the tower of Pisa. This twelth-centUTyi pagoda, near Nanking, is 100 ft. high, oS 13 stories, and incline? 12ft. from tbd perpendicular, while the i79ft. leaning tower of Pisa inclines 16jft. In Cyrene, the ancient Greek colony id Africa, has been found on a block o£ marble the translation of a letter front Augustus on the government and the administration of justice; this will form ai basic source for a history of his reign. "Treat it with Respect," is how th* United States Department of Agriculture* WF,rns farmers, to whom it is giving 12,500,000 pounds of salvaged _ war explosives for land clearing. This material is designated as "'comparatively safe." A contract has been made for delivery, of mails by seaplane between Seattle and Vancouver, 8.C., with not more than ten) round trips a month, to connect with in* coming and outgoing steamers. The comi pensation is fixed at £40 it round trip. American Indians under the> Government! control were allowed £112,000 in tho fir&b six months of 1921 for farm improvemf :!$, including 150 new houses and oa barr-s* Modern bathtubs', player-pianos and electric lights are to be found among these) Indians. At the Chicago Pageant of Progress thO '11-passenger hydroplano Santa Maria) carried an operator and a suitcase projector, to beguile the tedium of flying wilh! motion pictures while hydroplane and audience were hurtling through the air a(j 80 miles an hour. The Wistar Institute of Philadelphia ia building a £6000 home for rats. Thera will be an office, a laboratory, a rati gymnasium, and everything the rodent heart could wish for. The object is observation and experiment, particularly in} the direction of food research. The famous rock of the Lorelei, on the; Rhine, the repied home of the Siren, has* been purchased by an athletic club, withl the object of safeguarding it from disfigurement and from usages out of keeping with] its historic surroundings. The rock is distinguished by a remarkable echo. Close on 600 men lost a day's work at Ji colliery in Lanarkshire tlirough a troitfl choking the water supply for the boilers. The cage could not be lifted to the pithead, as the boilers were not working. After a great deal of trouble the cause ofl the breakdown was discovered. The trouti weighed lib. 6oz. In his will, by which he left £6207, Mr. W Clarki 61, Bromwich Road, Woods-cats, Sheffield, stated :-" Having felt deeply, the losses during the long war, it is my] wish that such as refuted to go into active; service shall be debarred from visiting my, house. This also applies to their wives) who influenced them."

France is now the leader among Euro* pean nations in tonnage of iron ore reserves with 35 per cent, of the total foB the Continent; tie United Kingdom fcU lowing with 18 per cent.; Sweden with, 12.5 per cent.; and Germany with 11 pet' cent. Central and southern Russia, Spam,, and Norway are the only others possessing] more than 2 per cent, of the total. Mrs. Domenico Zaccahea, of New York,; mother of 19 children, of whom 16 are living has been ic correarondenoo with President Haiding over the question of getting her husband a better job. At. present the father of the family, which, sets up the claim of being the largest la New York city, is earning £4 a week as a porter. The case came to the attention of President Harding through a photo . ; , g,aph of all the Zaccahea. In «%«* - New York Sunday ™W». fIS nglv impmsed, Mr. Hardin* »&*»s£ .. to Mrs. Zaccahea, in irt|*>-?W.-..; t cordial