NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18297, 13 January 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Elephants are terrified; of mice. Salt, is a government monopoly in Italy. Michaelmas daisies are now grown with, flowers 3£in. in diameter. A female lobster has been known to lay as many as 160,000 eggs at a time. A fly can lay 150 eggs at a time, audi in seven weeks can produce 432,000 flies. , '= A church in Santa Eosa, California, was > built from the wood of a single redwood J tree. .•.••■:;•- I Christmas puddings, which cost 3s Id in 1913, cost about 7s 6d last year in Eng--1 land. k ■■'■-. ■■•■;". . . Machines in use obliterate stamps on . postal packets at the rate of about 10G0 ' a minute. ' ; English oak used in building Westarin- '■ ter Hall, London, was felled between 1393 > and 1396. About twice as much power is necessary ' to stop an express tram as is necessary ' to start one. Last year British railways carried ,200,000,000 fewer, passengers than in the ' previous year. ',"'.. ' .- J Young oysters enjoy only forty-eight » hours'. fife as moving creatures; then they . I settle down for life. " The dirtiest paper-money is said to bo in, circulation in the Midlands and mining ■ districts of England. } Wild boars still, exist in France to such I an extent that 2000 were killed in one department during 1921. ,;'; An old Roman plunge-bath, fed by 'a , spring, and situated near the Strand, was reccatly sold in London. l ' A hat of gold lace with diamonds set in ( the brim, and made recently in Paris, has been insured for, £17,240. : : Men are .said to be better customers nowadays for toilet waters, perfumes, and scented soaps than Women. , If we moved our legs as fast, in proportion, as an ant, we should walk at tho ■ rate, of 800 miles an hour. < y In an explosion in a picture theatre at Mcntreaux (Switzerland), thirty oeqple were hurt, thirteen seriously.. * The smallest screws are thoso mads in watch factories. An ordinary' thimble would hold 100,000 of them. London's borough councils have, an average expenditure of £1 8s lid per head of the population in their areas. Dr. Robert Milne, far r42 years chief :'' medical officer to Dr. Barnado'B ; Homea, : died, aged 73, after an operation. -' Motor-prams..with a little platform bev hind for the attendant to stand on, cost from £45 to £150 apiece in Britain, -„' Candidates for admission to the Army colleges at Woolwich and Sandhurst have sunk from 800 in 1921 to 500 last. year./:: ■ : : The jury acting in a law case which lasted three months had to answer 12,005 questions and consult 73,800 : documents. ;: : While sorting out potatoes, a' Lincolnshire woman found that a protuberance of ; one of them was caused by a half-sovereign piece. ■...•;, " . For the first time in the history of the United States, there are now more people working in the factories than on the . farms. . Postmark advertisements of the British - Empire Exhibition will' apwear on 500,000,000 letters during the next twelve months. ;■;> ,' ; ; • Motor licenses current in the United Kingdom at the end of last August, num.- • bered 975,973. The number of cars in use' '••'-- i -was 514,769. ,; :^ ; " ' ; - ! ... Silkworms were first reared by a '~ Chinese Empress 4500 years ago, according to an old Chinese; book, entitled- "The - Silkworm Classic." - " f if, inter-University athletic contests in ■•■- America, crowds of 80,000 to 100.000 people ars common, some,of whom travel thousands of, miles. . : ,' If men, were to adopt a lower form of * neckwear, open at- the throat, many doctors believe that the national health would be greatly improved. . u ' . • r " Only eat when you feel you need food," and "Water 13 the finest drink in JF the world,"-are-two maxims of a f well- '? known London doctor. ,v- -- While out hunting, Major W. P. Staijid.ish, ex-master of foxhounds (Hambledon), of Marwell Hall, Oswestry, fell from his '■■■■■■■ horse and died later. ■ There are now 15 Republics in Europe, occupying two-thirds of the territory of ■ ." the : Continent and having a population of nearly 284,000,000. . , : A smokeroom planned: on the lines of a comfortable old English inn, with an oak ingle-nook; is a novel 'feature in a recently-launched liner. ■ • Varieties of beer to the number of 349 , were.recently tasted and tested by experts in London; some brewu only contained ' two per cent, of alcohol. , '■•■■ A typewriter which prints music instead '; oS ordinary reading matter has been in- : : vented by : an Italian .musician in; Lsondon ■■'■'■' , after twelve years* hard work. .■....■„ '--•';■'; Frederick Bullock,., a former captain of, Huddersfield'football' tciami and an international. full back, died -at- Huddersfieid" . :■■-"■-..:' Infirmary 'from ammonia poisoning,"""' A coal-heaver's widow obtained judgment for £3450 at Glamorgan Assizes against a Japanese company tor her hus- •■'-'-. band's Accidental death aboard ship. :•; .Carnations only flowered in July fifteen ■ years ago, now there is a variety which will stand outdoor life all the year round!,; blooming for " eight months in succession. ; • Two churches, .one in Edinburgh and the other, in Southporfc, are now fitted with a special appliance wHich; enables deaf worshippers to listen to She service. The London County Council spend an« nually £25,000,000 ; of; the ratepayers* - money, and 1 control? the welfare, health, and amusement of: more than : 4,000,000 people.' . : "' . " ; Setting out' on a lecture tour.on French' K:"--' fashions in America, a- well-known Parisian v actress has 'taken with her,,iorty-eigljt gowns and hats in thirty-four'';";.: large trunks. . ': ; ,•, : • ',« v The average price realised at -Devonshire House for pheasants, shot by the King and presented by him to the Hospi- '■.-. tals of London Combined Appeal, was £3 ■ 4s 6d a brace. * During the counting of votes at Llange-; > fni, three threepenny bits were found in an Anglesey ballot-box, there being a local superstition that a three.penny bit with a ballot paper brings luck. '-■ Frank Smith; a Northallerton railway- ; man, was beating - with a hammer his, two • young sons in their beds, when "his sister, ■ awakened by their \screams, saved them from death. Smith's body was later found on the railway. A message from Riom, Haute Loire, says during the absence of her husband a woman named Brunnier shut herself a trunk and; placed beside her head a brazier full of charcoal. " When her hus?';;;;." band returned home he fouic-d her dead - from suffocation. ■ ' -: An Antwerp message says that when " the Danish steamer Eysberg had landed twenty crates of eggs, the - : pile nuddenly ~ 'collapsed, making a.gigantic omelette :?Yf.; 5000 eggs. The owner decided upon an immediate sale by auction, and l all the housewives , in the district hurried to the ,i: scene to buy. ; V--.'.-.' : ' -The quantities of herrings of . British, . taking landed in the United Kingdom -.'.-•• ."'..if: during October totalled 66,429 metric'"" ' tons, compared with 55,588 metric in ■'>.' October, 1921. V;For' the first tan months of last year the landings weighed 221,311. , metric tons, while for the siiuilar Jperiod , in the previous year the .weight wee - 206,745 metric tons. ' .w^:?k";B^