NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Malta is the most densely populated island in the world. 7 The Scilly Islands produce yearly 730 J tons of flowers for perfume-making. Several species of moss, a lily, a poppy > and a nasturtium. are luminous at nignt. The first temperance society in England was forired at ■ Bradford, in February, ; 1830. It is estimated that there are 16 tons ; of microscopic shellfish in every cub:a mile of the ocean. Glow worms are much more brilliant just be'ire an approaching storm than they are .at any other time. The average number of billiard ball 3 cut from the tusks of an elephant is ten —each tusk usually yielding five. A Firs!, Folio edition of Shakespeare's . plays, first published at the price of 20s, has been sold for is much as £8600. Special cards of invitation to an athome to celebrate a divorce - are one of the latest society "freaks'' m America. The Smithsonian Institution declares that the scientific conception of the age of the earth is 1000 million years at least At the Roeharopion (England) hospital for disabled , soldiers of all ranks, 70,000 patients have been dealt with since June, 1915. London's largest landlord is. perhaps, the London County Council . itself, which bouses 117,000 persons at a rent roll of £760,000. The interest alone on the amounts lent by Britain to France and the Allies represents Is in the pound of British income tax.. Ice chests, collapsible tables, cooking appliances, and electric fans will be fitted in aeroplanes to be built for the Imperial Air Services. It is stated that there are more specimens of the cedar of Lebanon in the gardens round London than on" Mount Lebanon itself. ' Snringbam has the smallest • range vof temperature of any- place _in the world. The summer temperature is 7% and the winter 77£ degrees. ' Britain is not over-populated. The population of the whole world could' be placed in the smallest Engliai county, with room to spare.; •; ; Aberdeen Harbour is to; be cleared of . . rock by means of a 25-ton steel needle, which falls -from -a height of 20ft. and smashes the rock tndersea. Among the - xandwi' v itmen advertised a recent- chanty:- fete at Folkestone, •; were two major-generals, eleven colonels, and a number of other officers. - --V-1 Crime in England in 1922 showed a decrease in such offences as housebreaking, shopbreaking, and larceny; ; but there were more murders than in 1921.. ; The birth-rate " for April, May, and ' Jane this year in England and Wale* was • ; . the lowest on record for that particular > quarter, except for years of the war. . - The most dangerous part of the British , aoast is between - Flamborongh Head and j'. ~ . • North Foreland. Next comes * that be- ■ tween Anglesea and* the Mull of Cantyre. Eggs imported into England numbered 2,200 000.000 a year, before the war;: in ; 1922 only I,Y-"O.(XX),QGO were imported, owing to the increase of home produc- : tion. ■ * V.v : v ' :■ Cabbages . were sold in St. Paul's Churchyard in "London 3GO years ago* ' when the cathedral clergy had the hawkera banished on account of the noise they made. : -j: £' After ■ being charged with i&ggpm and token -in ' hand by - the London Police Court Mission, a lad was sent to Wales, where be ultimately * became a prosperous farmer. " - ' ' The rarest 'shell in existence is . one railed the ''Cone of the flbly Mary. ' There is a specimen in : the British Mu- r seum which, a- few ' years ago,, was valued at £1000. . There is by no means the same certainty to-dav as a decade ago that the! atoms sf an element contain hidden stores of energy. It looks as if we shall still want coal. Crops are - being harvested somewhere. ; , $ in the world every month .of the ; year.. . South Africa, and Peru harvest in No.'ember, and t Bengal, Burma, and Australia in December. . Bovs who* have been in a Borstal institution are discharged on • Beesae, and >; r joust satisfy the directors of the iJorr.tai§£®vj|l Association that they are Irnng an honest Jw , * md industrious ■ life. Among the natives of South Africa there is a general belief in the splifc aont One tribe believes in three the head, another m the sitfmach, and a third vin the big toe, : U Watercress is said by sons® doctors to contain all the three litamites necessary to the human body. " Grown on land of little value for other crops, it would yield £15 to £20 an acre. When a camel is pressed beyond its speed iusd is spent, it kneels down, and nothing in -the world will make it budge again: The camel : remains ere iit kneels, and «her« it kneels it dies. The cat was unknown in England tin the ninth or tenth esntory, when there ml a' stating that a man r t^' a, d be fined fonrpenee for killing & and i: f eigbtpence if - He* killed the King's cat."L' • h- recently took : possession -/ of - a ! pastry shop in Paris, customers I and as--1 sistants ? dashing wildly oat at tJi6 appearj ance of the swarm. The invasion s lasted [three hours in spite of. all «s£orts to (tar the place. V . Light exercises pressure on objects that | receive ■: it- y--.-Ife.-.gMPt.-gtos raw tbgr size like a football from the . E=: i st iTZ trs-a.- ■ create matter. •: ' ■- >~;a I Gold was the fi nt-.metal weAby; : and the arbitrary value initiated for Us supposed magi «! and, made it of civilisation. - --- -- ' . • rk'( jbeing can' be exchanged ' I f? OS« of the same: ... SJf 0 r for the same price as *md at ; the - original • sale. ■ '--j -. v [ [ Most Italians.of. the P^r.^ Bs^ is., to some extent., attnbuted to the t»ct that the working people of average, eat less meat than do tboie of any other European nation. , Germanv kept up her supply of high explosives owing .to the discovery tnat the gases nitrogen , and hydrogen, ob- < tained respectively from, air .and from water will yieH- ammonia, through tee.? combined action- of pressure and iron. There is no such thing as * born crimi- . nal. and it is impossible to maintain, that|«f criminality ' as such is inherited to any , great extent. " Childish crime », as a r rule simply an over-abundance M oonstrnrtive energy,? blocked or misdirected. Some Egyptian boats, made of ce-kr, probably m use 4500 rears ago. have been found buried .near, the banks oi the Kile, and . furnish an interesting proof otfei-g; the power of that wood in certain circumstances to withstand the ravage* of time. Certain features tiKuaHy . regarded .as": .< distinctive of man are found: in new-born -??*' gorillas and chimpanzees, but mt in the adults. J Apes are more specialised than man in adaptation kto.. a ■ particular - mode 'i- "r----of life; they have kist many primitive characteristics which he has retannxL It is a whole day's wosrk mm to fell even the smallest mahogany tree. On aewsant d the spurs which project from the base of the treectk, a tewd! has to be erected., and t&r isve gut eff , r very fwst wood friac IQh-