NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19406, 14 August 1926, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A Claphani schoolboy named Early has not been lata once in five years. Nearly ten million words are cabled or sent by wireless across the Atlantic every week.

Dsing the most up-to-date machinery, a baker can nuke about 470 loaves in seven minutes.

A grain of rice on which 150 words had been engraved was sold for £IOO at Cairo, recently. Last, year ihe State of California turned out more than £20.000,000 worth of canned goods. The Shaftesbury Society gives about 50.000 poor children a day in the country every summer.

There ar> nearly 12,000 husbands reported missing in London, according to official figures. Over 13 million tons of coal and 38 million pints of oil were consumed on all the British railways last Year.

Cast-iron houses are being constructed for the Corporation of Derby, and 20Q0 are being built in Scotland. Over 20,000 meals have to be supplied every day to the Barnardo Family, including about 1000 gallons of milk. 1 Neither routs nor rates have been paid for some years by the inhabitants in a certain street of Port Talbot.

A scientist has been able to detect the sound worn'.s make in gnawing fruit by means of a strong microphone. A clock is being made at Leicester, the hands of which weigh half a ton. The minute-hanc'l is fifteen feet long.

A florist whose name was omitted from the city telephone directory has been awarded damages by a New York court.

If Webster's unabridged dictionary wore printed in Braille type it would fill 128 volumes and cost about £560.

With nearly £15,000,000 in their Municipal Bank, the people of Birmingham claim that (.he city is the thriftiest in the world.

If all London's refuse wore burned in modern destruct-ora it is estimated that electricity worth £2.000,000 a year could be produced. Two 40.000 h.p. water-wheels are to be installed by the Sao Paulo Tramway Company of Brazil. They will bo the largest in the world,

What is said to be the thickest coal seam in tho world has been discovered in the Klip River Valley in South Africa. It measures 2 Lift. To take care of salt-water fish in a new aquarium in Chicago, a million gallons of sea water is to bo taken in from the Atlantic coast. «

A swallow's nest; containing fivfe efjgs intact was found in a railway truck which had been delayed tor some weeks at a Welsh railway station.

A gold watch dropped, by a passenger at Epping station, was found still ticking and intact on tho footboard 'of a tr&in five stations further on,

It is chiimed that a new showerproof stocking, made from artificial silk and treated by a patented process, cannot be marked by mud or water. For a wager, Mr. Harry Lorraine, the motor-cyclist, recently started from Bristol on a ride round Britain handcuffed and shackled to his machine.

The hat; trade is booming so much ) just now that Luton recently had only sixteen men unemployed out of 10,000 insurable workers in tho trade.

One of the queerest nesting-places was chosen by a pair of tomtits, which reared a family within tlie muzzle of a captured German gun at .Leighton Buzzard.

j The highest water tower in Britain i 3 to be ibuii.t at Gonle. It will be 165 ft. high, havti a capacity for 750,000 gallons, and when filled will weigh 8000 tons. [ A hotel at Montana received a pleasant surprise when oil suddenly started to come through its water system, showing that 'the water well had; become an oil well.

Wallpaper used to cost about id a yard; it was used in China 2000 years ago, lint the earliest known, specimens of English manufacture date back to about 1509. Mr. William Peplcr, a Southern Railway driver, of Bcrmondsey, has retired after fifty years' service. His father, also a driver, had fifty-three years* service., . .. ,' ■ „ ...

A cat and a stoat in England recently were fighting for possession of a rabbit. A . passing cyclist killed the stoat, drove away the cat, and took the rabbit home for dinner, '

A loud-speaker has been introduced at St. Peter's, Rome, making it possible to hear in 'various parts of the cathedral, where formerly, not a word of the sermon could be heard.

Discarded motor-car tyres are now made into shoe:! that i are worn by Spanish peasants. Similar shoes arc worn by the Chinese and by natives in South African diamond mines. A little clock which never wants winding has been invented for motor-cars, It-s spring is kept wound by an ingenious electric device worked by tho current of the r lighting batteries. " The present-day convict is far better educated than his confrere of olden days, but he is softer and more apt to whine over trifles," said the governor of Dartmoor in a recent report.

Imitation pearls, which arc so popular just now, can be bought at prices ranging from a few shillings to £3O a string, The price depends upon the number of coats of enamel givrjn to the pearls.

Mr. Dennis Russell recently bought an estate in tho Kimberloy diamond district for £10,(XO, and a few days later a diamond of 149£ carats was found. The gem has since been sold for £7475. The League of Nations Union has, during the last three years, had a steady increase of 100,000 members a year. A few -weeks ago it had reached 551,842, and the number of branches wa3 2312.

A team of carthorses suddenly became excited when passing through a puddle in Boston. An investigation showed that a short-circuited cable had charged the puddle with about 100 volts of electricity. Digging in his garden at the head of Lake Superior, an American boy lately hit on a brass bottle containing this note: " Fort Howard, February, 1830. Indians attacking. Ammunition running low,— J.D."

An oak, which was recently cut down at Wingerworth Hall, in Derbyshire, measured IBft. round the butt and is said locally to be thousands of years old. Its wood is being used in the building of the Bakewell clhurcfa.

"Three" is the- magic number of a household in Pantygog, Glamorganshire, where triplets have arrived for the third time. The mother Mrs. Gecilie Jenkins, is herself one of a trio, and her husband is also a triplet.

Mrs. Jane, Jones, who has died at Conway, recently, was owner and for years in charge of the smallest house in Great Britain, standing on Conway Quay. Dm house has a frontage of 6ft. and JS 10ft. from back to front.

Sparrows have invaded the parish church at Great Bardfield. Essex and the vicar, the Rev. K. E. Cartwrigh has expressed the hope that aU cthoi parishioners will be as regular at the services and make their voices heard as clearly." Many privileges, including a tree furnished* flat, light, coal, attendance, and £l5O a year, with £lO for lanndry, s;re enjoyed bv the occupants of Morden Gelleee." Blackheath. 'lbis charity is for the benefit of old merchants, manufacturers, and traders.,