NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19031, 30 May 1925, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Mexico produced nearly 140 million barrels of oil in 1924. Britain is now exporting large quantities of cucumbers to Germany. Nearly 5500 motor-omnibuses arc plying for traffic in London this year. Families in London are smaller than they were in 1911, according to official statistics. Sixteen cottages at Worcester have been sold by auction at an average price oi £3l lis. A pigeon sold in Shropshire to a buyer in Scotland flow more than 200 miles back to its home. Fifteen hundred domestics were taken to Ontario by the Salvation Army during tho past "year. The world's heaviest liner is tho Majestic. Fully laden she turns the scale at 64,000 tons. A. sash worn by Prince Charles at. Culloden lias been sold to a resident of Dun» dee for 36 guineas. Some of the most poverty-stricken •children in London are to be found "in' the - schools of North Kensington. Between twenty and thirty thousand married people in Great Britain are stated to be certified as insane. A woman of 107 who died in Nova. Scotia the other day left 133 descendants, including ten great-great grandchildren. Herrings are so abundant off the coast of Schleswig, Germany, that they fail to find purchasers at" one farthing a pound. A retired Durham miner,. Ml*. Martin Thompson, who celebrated li/s 90th. births day lately, has worked for 73 years in the mine. Osaka, the Japanese city, now ranks fifth in size in the world's cities. The first four are London, New York, Berlin, and Paris. Until a few years ago some of J.he finest " French" grapes were grown on the South Coast of England and shipped across the Channel. Small investors in British Government; securities at the end of' 1924 numbered 15,082.109. Their holdings were worth j £777,834,000. Among 600 emigrants sailing on tho Cunarder Ansonia from Southhampton recently were eight farmers and their wives and 49 children. A stretch of Llie Swedish State Railways, running 286 miles from Lulea to Riksgransen, is the. longest electrified railroad in Europe. Mr. Fred Gibson, a Wind newsagent in a village near Melton. Mowbray, cla : ins to have walked over 127,000 miles in;the course of his work. As many as 72 weddings took place at St. Aid helm's Church,, Bedminister, Bristol, on Easter Monday. They were solemnised in batches of four. Tho Plymouth Guardians have granted a loan of £42 to an unemployed farm labourer with sis children who has been guaranteed work in Australia. Six septuagenarians, whose ages total 445, were among the passengers on th<j Cunard liner Caronia, which left Liverpool for New York a few weeks ago. Luton magistrates were recently sitting in relays to deal with 1500 summonses foi non-payment of rates. Cases were being dealt with at the rate of four a minute. Water for drinking and cooking has to be carried to an Aberdeenshire school by the pupils. The local supply has been " off " for some reason sines last Junej A deficiency on the Poplar (London) leaving a profit of £20,032 at December 31< Ulster was the best recruiting ground for the British Army in 1924. There werp 241 recruits for every 100.000 of population. London came next with 229 pec; 100,000. A rare watch, which shows the day of the month and the phases of the moon,, was recently sold in London lor £l2 10s* It was made for George 111. by a Quaker, Daniel Quare. Dr. Arthur R. T. Longhurst, a Crimean and Indian Mutiny veteran, aged '94, died in England recently. He was superintends ent of the hospital in which' Florenca Nightingale worked. Passengers on tho Canadian trains are asking for dictionaries to aid them in solving cross-word puzzles. These books will therefore be supplied in cars already equipped with libraries. / A Nottinghamshire family of 35 persons, consisting of father,, mother, four sons and their wives, a daughter, her husband and 23 grandchildren, left for Canada, a few weeks ago. Bought by a Rotherham dealer for 2s, an emerald ring was later sold- by auction in London for £1450. It is now believed that this was one of the jewels belonging to the Russian Royal family. A signed blank cheque was sent to Coventry magistrates by a motorist summoned for leaving his car in the street, who asked for the amount of the fine to be filled in. It was filled in for 10s. Seven hundred officers of high rank belonging to the old Austrian army aro on the verge of starvation. One field-, marshal recently died of sheer starvation, after selling even his medals to buy food. The British railways, which will celebrate their hundredth birthday in September, have now a staff of over 700,000;, they v carry 1770 million people and 343 million tons", and earn a profit of £51,000,000 in a year. An old villager, near Lincoln, when making his application for tho old ago pension, made the discovery that ho was 80 and not 70, as he supposed. He had thus been entitled to the pension for ten years. * The Central News' Madrid correspondent' states that the new provincial laws have been signed establishing, among other innovations, taxes on bachelors over 25 years of age, and on widows without, , children. Grey squirrels are becoming so numerous in Richmond Park that over 400 a year are killed to keep them in check. They are an importation from America, and have driven the British red squirrel right out of the London parks. Farnhain Park, which has belonged to tho See of Winchester since A.D. 806, when King Ethelwald granted it to St. Swithin, is to be sold. The moated castle, which da'tes from the, twelfth ccih tury, is, however, to be retained. Chimpanzees have shown remarkable intelligence. Cases are recorded, of theso apes'putting four boxes, one,on top of another, to reach a desired object, and of fitting one stick into another in f order to get possession of something out- '*• side their cages. Canada's sheep population in 1924 is estimated at 2,684,743. made up of 1.454,763 sheep and 1.229,975 lambs. Of this number no fewer than 831,227 aro accounted for by Quebec, an increase over 1923. In New Brunswick, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta the number of sheep decreased; Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Walbey, of Edmonton, have just celebrated their golden wedding. Mr. Walbey, who is 74 years of ago and works as a compositor, rises at 4.15 every morning to catch his train. Mrs. Walbey treasures letters from Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary, thanking her for the voluntary work she did during the war. French mortality statistics for, 1924 show that, although tho number of marriages remained stationary during tho year, Jw excess of births over deaths was on y ?2 216, against 95,000 m 1923. population of Lorraine) is now ofl.'C'allj as 39,209,518, against 41, in 1 , eluding the then population of the pro-, iuces since rccov§Wu.