NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18173, 19 August 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

In Spain, Tuesday is considered an unlucky day for weddings. GoldSsh were first brought to London just over sixty years ago. The health of Londoners is improving greatly according to insurance statistics Shoplifting is said to be a " seasonal" . crime, tho worst periods being when sales are on. ~ During May, 799 Jewish immigrants entered Palestine, making a total of 4400 since January 1. '< Last year 709 persons were charged with street begging in the Metropolitan Police district of London. The leconl number of lightning flashes for England is 1244 in two hours, counted on June 6th „ 1889. The output of coal from the mines of Great Britain for the week ended June 3 was 4,440,900 tons. Marble carvings in Athens, dating from 500 8.C., depict young men playing a game like our modern hockey. In Europe there are estimated to be 25,000,000 more women than men, the , latter totalling 225,000,000. The splendid bulldogs which are so popular to-day are the result of two centuries of careful breeding. An unnamed benefactor has donated £100,000 towards the new Midland University, Nottingham, England. John Price, a Newport (Mon.) docker, has won an Oxford University diploma in economics and political science. Many of London's buildings are growing taller by having hew storeys built on top 'up to the 80ft. maximum height. •-•:/.* IP London's streets are most dangerous between three and four in the afternoon, judging by records of accidents. A wagtail's, nest with five young birds was found in the tool-box of a grasscutting machine at Pulham (Norfolk). anonymous donation of £5 has been sent to Marylebone Royal Orthopaedic Hospital for benefits received there in 1840 , ■ * > A cripple singing outside a big London store was noted to receive money .from fourteen different . people inside &▼* minutes. ; '■■<>'■.■, Ruins of .a former building more than thirteen centuries old have been discovered j during ; tHe restoration of Whitby Abbey, England. ''. --.->■ i Tw> stone coffins of the' Merovingian period have been, found by navvies relaying a pas rilam beneath the Rue Saint-Maroel, in Paris;.

The use of the metric system of weights and measures, which has been optional since 1888, is now: to be made compulsory in Greece. . . Two Gillingbam, Kent, residents,. named Goldfinch and Cuckoo, were prosecuted for singing in the street at night-time, and wore fined ss. each. For making costumes which are sold for three guineas'in the West End, women are sa.id to receive as little as elevenpence in one London factory. A law case concerning the authorship of several of Alexandre Dumas' famous novels has been running for sisty-four years, and is still unsettled. Extreme heat has prevailed in Geneva and, owing to the melting of the snow,, ; Ltho Lake of Geneva has overflown its I banks in many places. I 'Mr. J. Pye, a postman, of Hampstead, I who has just Tetired, is estimated to hayo. walked nearly.i6o,oPj!) ; mile B ,in the course I of his 44 year's: service. St. Paul's Cathedral was illuminated by ! gas just one hundred yeafs ago; the first ■ gas street-lamps are said to have been [used-in iiondoh iri 1802. ■Miss .Grace Austin, who has died at , Shakespeare, Ontario, was born in Scotland, eighty-eight years ago, and was a niece of Carlyle. . j ," Four-course dinnens at a cost of one ~.'• shilling and ninepenoii each - are delivered, hot . and ready for use, to houses "from ' Margate's "community kitchen." , , ; By, pressing a key on the brontometer, lan observer can ; hot only the j number of lightning flashes, but also the exact time at which each one oceijrs, ■A Swiss watchmaker has recently exhibited a watch which weighs 5201b. • IV had been made for the Berne Exhibition of ' 1914, and its consti-uction cost £500. • To the satisfaction of the w'hole of Gib-• raltor thelimmemorial custom of firing the sunset gun, which was,recently abolished when .the Rock Summit-, signal station was closed as an economy,; has been restored. Scientific mc\hods for cutting down the fatigue of factory workers are proving »ni*! cessful, the result in' one confectionery foctctry being a vtwenty-savea pa; oeat. increase in efficiency; ' - During; its thirty 'years'! work; 55,000 lads have passed through the Church-, Lads' Brigade in Britain; twenty-one "Old Boys" received Victoria Crosses during the Great War. Khaki service dress, on the British model, has been made obligatory for officers of the Spanish Army, who, however, are allowed two years in which to wear out their existing uniforms., The staffs of British Government'Dfc- ' partments on April 1 numbered 317,721, Of these 141,638 were ex-service men. The total number transferred to the two Irish Governments was then 18.428. Jafk Young, aged 19, who was ordered by Sir R. Wallace at the London Sessions to be sent to. Borstaf for housebreaking, was stated to haye confessed to over fifty burglaries committed last year. Americans constitute practically one-half of the 16.774 immigrants who have so far. . entered Canada this year.; The total is made up of the following; British 4528;, United States. 8019; other countries, 4227. ;■ /V '; i -<-\ " The enemy must be killed; if the/riße is broken, use the butt; if the butt is broken, use the fist; if the fist use the teeth." This is one of the "secrets of victory" taught to Chines* soldiers. ' - \" .■■'.',■ The look-out man on board the Majestic, the world's largest: liner, is: 180 ft, above the water level, and* cart see for fifteen miles in every direction; in clear weather his view will cover some 900 square mass of ocean. ..■.■'•-.■■'., ,•".;; : . .■"-'m'.--'.■,Vf"': , -" ; ..'; , ."'*V-!,i«i'-'.'- :: - , : \''--S.-,: i «""^- ; .., : - i : r ■'■■'.'■ '?'-'■'■■-■?■■■:.'"

The Spanish Government baa given con- • sent: to tbe inau'guration of an aerial postal .: - service between France and Spain. It is ' understood that-..-the aeroplanes already" > plying on the Toulouse-Casablanca roate will be used. ■-..; Pekingese dogs, which were ..first intro--1 duced into ; Britain: after the sack of the 1 Summer Palace at Peking, •when some were brought as presents to Queen Vie- ' ' toria, have!: a history dating back mo r a | than 1000 years. _ , [ The total quantity of sea fish landed on > the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada i' during'••■'■the month of April was 231,353 , cwt:. valued at £!!224,289." compared with . 144,433 cwt,, : valued at 35201,334 landed ; j, j in the earae periqd last yeniv ,'/ * The hugs war canvas, 50ft. high and J 200 ft, long, the work of 150 French ar> ".-•': lists, which contains fifteen thousand por: traits of Allied soldiers arid civilians, has now. become American property, and will '-'shortly bo shown in New York in aid of 1 funds "for disabled soldiers.. . 1 It is stated In Geneva, ihafr 'orty thousand parcel of: food .hayo ; -WW-,- >: 1 been sent to.:R^i*? Wbrronjg*: g^ ? SSs»; . service Of the; I n^ '■■'-.■ ' Committee and of D* *?»■*££ ;&m&«& ; sion, and that *™£j^£*Ol. thousand wdl ,be _ . ....■■■„' ■■■&■< :*j, Sffje&n Serbian >.•'• In future, from■.:-:*fK;^.iaw'jfcrscourse student* will Ss ttni versities ! afc Oxford and They after.;•gw4«atins i W^ e f o «»lavia aa tcschera ; M&ubiy' schools «s a« »?«• _«•- . that country.