NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18275, 16 December 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The area of England io 50,874 miles. Spiders have from six to eight eyes. The world uses 600,000,000 pins a week*, The common flea is really a wingless fly-

Radium is 170,000 times more valuable than gold.

There are more than 500 muscles in the human body.

Tlie muscles of the human jaw exert a force of 5341b.

Dew is only fourid on vessels within 30 miles of land.

It takes a gallon of milk to make a pound of cheese. Giraffes can see behind them without turning their heads.

About 1100 kinds of insects make their homes in oak trees.

Lusitania was originally the name of a large portion of Portugal.

At the age of 15 years a dog is more decrepit than a man of 80.

Three hundred years ago the population of London was only 150,000.

In proportion to its size, a fly walks about 35 times as fast as a man.

The Bank of England was founded by a Scotsman who died in poverty.

One hundred pounds of raw beef weighs only 671b. after roasting.

Lions and tigers too weak in lung power to run more than half a mile.

Scotland Yard still has 30 women policy left out of the original force of 114.

Beetles, moths, and butterflies do not grow once they are out of the caterpillar stage.

Three hundred {thousand worlds *tbb eize of this earth could be stored inside the sun.

T4ere more than 300 railway stations within 12 miles of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Madrid lies higher than any other European capital. Its height above the sea is 2090 ft.

Tobacco does not cause cancer, according to a great medical specialist in diseases of the throat.

A giant aeroplane to carry 24 soldiers has been successfully tested at the Brooklands aerodrome.

The years between the ages of 25 and 40 seem to pass more quickly than any other period of life. There is every possibility that Birmmpham will haw a third municipal golf course by next spring.

Believed to be 500 years old, a salamander 6ft. long has been discovered in a temple pond in Tokio.

Two boys named Beans and Bacon were charged at Mansfield Police Court -with playing football in-the street.

Flowers and leaves in their natural colours are used in the "painting" of remarkable pictures by a London artist.

Antioch, in the fourth century, is believed to have been the first city to make any attempt to light its streets at night. Poultry feathers, weighing 4000 tons, and valued at over half a million, were imported into Great Britain in 12 months The jury acting in an Italian law case which lasted three months had to answes 12.000 questions and consult 73,800 documents.

Chateau Devachan, San Kemo, at which the first Peace Conference was held in April, 1920, is to be sold by auction in London,

A Frenchman has written on an ordinary postcard 23,154 words—l2s,ooo liters. The writing is said to be legible r< the naked eye.

The term " giving quarter " appears to have originated' in the ancient agreement that the ransom of a soldier should ba one-quarter of his pay.

' Aeroplanes fitted as offices, complete, with desks, typewriters, card index cabinets, etc.. are the latest development in commercial aviation.

To play a part in th« filming of a. famous play, the Admiralty have lent a Dreadnought complete with its complement of officers and men.

Birds and bats are the only living vertebrata capable of flight; squirrels, lizards, snakes, fish, and lemurs fly through the air with great swooping leaps.

"Transformations" of pure white hair, much in demand among London society women, cost up to £35 apiece. The best white hair will bring at least £3 an ounce.

Poison gas so deadly that one-tenth of 1 per cent, of it in the atmosphere would be fatal, has been used successfully in clearing a ship of rats, cockroaches, and other pestß.

Taxes on food, drink, and entertainments alone amount in the case of a work-ing-class family of five in England to not less than 14s a week, according to Mr. J. E. Clynes, M.P.

A fraction of a grain of musk will scent a room for years, and the curious thing about it is that at the end of that time its weight is not diminished by the smallest fraction.

With sleeping accommodation for 200 passengers, and able to carry 100 tons of freight for a non-stop run of ,4000 miles, an aiiship 900 ft. long has been designed by a German engineer.

Vanua Lava, an island in the New Hebrides, is literally a mountain of sulphur, 1600 ft. in height and about 100 square miles in base. The mountain is G9 per cent, pure sulphur. Carrying 13,000 people, the linora Majestic, Olympic, and Homeric require 440,000 pieces of household and table linen, including 110,000 table napkins, 35,000 sheets, and 17,000 tablecloths.

At an office in London rats have caused serious loss of business by destroying letters containing orders for goods, and making a nesfc of ihem. Their favourite envelopes were those having a celluloid front.

Restaurant meals are now taxed in Germany, the impost increasing with the cost of the meal; thus, on a meal costing Is 3d. a diner would pay a 50 per cent, tax, while on more than 8s the duty is 100 per cent.

The Oxford Board of Guardians has decided to give pocket money weekly to the boys and girls under their purviexf, the sexes to have "equal pay," in grades from Id, 2d, 3d, and, in the highest elma 6d a week.

When Eton opened in September thers •were 1139 boys at the school — a new record. The school was granted an extra week's holiday to celebrate Princess Mary's wedding to an old Etonian —Viscount Lascelles.

Charged with nearly burning down a church, stealing from tea-rooms and fishing vessels, and stealing a horse, which he afterwards tried to sell for 3d, an eight-year-old Ramsgate boy was receintly sent to an industrial school.

The members of the ballet at the Paris Opera House have a morning dancing lesson from 10.30 till noon, an afternoon rehearsal from 1 to 4 p.m., private tuition from 5 to 7 in the evening, and then appear on the stage from 7.45 p.m.

A bull attacked and killed a farm labourer named Thomas Towler, aged 61 years, in a field at Stephen Park Farm, Essington, near Clitheroe. The man'* b'odv was covered with braises, and the field showed signs of a terriUe Btroggl* between man and beast.

Only queen bees and workeia have tfce power to sting. The drones cannot stisg. The stinger is curred, ard is carries sheathed. After_ the point enters tbetfj is a now of poison. It is beliered that a bee cannot trting a second time because, owing to backward pointing barbs, th* stinger is left in the wound. Thua tfc* bee dies as a ws«I& pi its Tfmgoaaus.