NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19490, 20 November 1926, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

It is estimated that there are about seven million cats iu Britain. The nap on silk hats is sometimes made from the fibre of the milkweed. A strip oi country 200 miles long in Pennsylvania, contains 40,000 oil wells. The stained glass windows in York Minster are valued at no less than £73.000. , London's street motor traffic lias increased from 581,269 vehicles in 1912 to 796,019 to-day. Skeletons of men believed to have l>#en killed in the Battle of Senlac have been found at Eastbourne. The giant bamboo, which sometimes reaches a height of 120 ft., grows at the rate of a foot a day. Waterloo is the largest station in Great Britain, where in 24 hours 1400 trains ar® dealt with at- 25 platforms. Of London's bridges, slow-moving horse traffic is heaviest on the Tower Bridge, with Waterloo Bridge next. Because it disfigured Matlock's beautiful natural scenery a derelict chimney-stack has been felled and removed. A quaint musical instrument, discovered in Southern California, is composed of acorns, carefully graded in siae. At a marriage ceremony in India, the bride stands on a large plate filled with milk and rose-coloured sweetmeats. Baldness, earthquakes, twjas and revolutions arc among the " risks" which can be insured against at- Lloyd's. For six positions in Council schools in one London suburb recently, there were 600 applicants, all fully-trained teachers. Scientists have'calculated that the temperature of th% moon's surface, at its noontime, rises to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Second-hand bookshops in London are receiving large orders from Moscow University and similar educational institutions in Russia. Mr, G. Mountney, of Fiskerton, Nottinghamshire, has died at 95, His father lived to be 97, his grandfather 102, and his great-grandfather 104. In addition to measurements and fingerprints of criminals, phonographic records of their voices can now, without their knowledge, be taken. Farms, especially in Essex, are falling vacant for want of tenants, and quite a number are being offered for sale at less than £lO an acre. Black and green tea are both produced from the same plant, the difference being in the age cf the leaves and the method oi preparation. j Londoners are eating more meat, the consumption for the first eight months of this year being 12,000 tons more than for the same period of 1925. Face exercises are the latest aid to beauty. Pouting the lips is said to keep them full and young, while sniffing develops fine, sensitive nostrils. Mirrors with a slightly convex surface, which have the result of slimming down the person using them, are said to be popular in American dress salons. Six lobsters from Donegal weighing together just under a hundredweight were lately, sold in the Liverpool Fish Market, The largest of them was 33in. long, A rucksack belonging to two young Russian climbers who disappeared in a snowstorm two years ago has been foupd in the Mont Blanc range of the Alps. Twenty loud speakers and 662 pairs of head-phones can be worked by the fourteen-valve wireless set installed in a Leicester infirmary, at a cost of £1,200. The highest wind speed ever recorded was during the typhoon at Hongkong, in August, 1923, when one gust was recorded as travelling at 127 miles an hour. A healthy person in good physical condition should be able to hold liis breath for from fifty to sixty seconds if he takes a deep breath before beginning the test Every time a person breathes or moves or talks lie creaks. This is proved by a wonderful new electrical stethoscope which magnifies sound ono hundred billion timet. Civil servants in Britain have been reduced in number by 95,656 since July 1919. There are now about 301,900, of t whom nearly 50 per cent, are ex-service men. Colour is being successfully used in treating illness in one London hospital: delicate shades of mauve, green and yellow replace the customary whitewash cf such places. The French speed record for typing, which was held by Miss Mitchell, was beaten by herself at the recent congress of the Stenographers' Federation at Auxierre. Under the Aliens Act, 5549 persons who held written promises of employment were < allowed to enter Britain last year. Of these 1540 were nurses and domestic servants. Every question asked in the British Parliament is estimated to cost, in printing, research, etc., an average of £1 ss. to ask and answer. One member has put : 879 questions, Claiming to be the oldest volunteer in the Home Counties, Mr. W. C. Ellison, of Stamford Hill, who is now in his ninety-fifth year, enrolled in the 2nd Essex in 1860. One of the large radio companies estimates the number of valve sets in use ir» the world at about four and a-half millions, and the number of crystal sets at a million less. Said to be the highest price ever paid for a single book, £55,000 has just been fiven for a Gutenberg Bible; there are elieved to be only thirteen of these Bibles in existence. Bamboo is the latest material used successfully for making paper. This means that bamboos, so long regarded as weeds in India, have become an important commercial product. Makers of counterfeit coins are liable to imprisonment for life as the maximum penalty; while seven years' penal servitude is the punishment for knowingly passing counterfeit money. Road repairs in London caused a block in the Strand the other day a quarter of a mile long, and a bus took 20 minutes to travel the few yards from Charing Cross to the Adc-lphi Theatre. Canada, which has 105 men to every 100 women, has an estimated population of 9,364,200. This Dominion ran.es twenty-fifth in population among the nations of the world. Artificial silk stockings and imitation fur trimmings are flow permitted the Pope for the use of cardinals, bishops, and other dignitaries of the Gathone Church, on the score of economy. lincluding patients-and staff, there are about 1200 people to be fed every day in the London Hospital, where there is every convenience, including a separate Jewish kitchen foi the preparation of special dishes Shakespeare, in forty-six volumes of abbreviated braille, is available te*", the use of blind subscribers to the National Library for the Blind, Westminster. One ton of lite rater- is sent out from this library every day. Curtain-hooks which stay fastened, a rubber ring for fixing on pails to make them less noisy, and a safety roundabout for children are among the exhibits at the Second International Exhibition of Inventions. All these novelties have been designed by women. Among the Members of Parliament, Mr. Winston Churchill has the greatest record for speeches during the twelve months ended August 4, Reports of these.mild 362 columns of the official report- -Ne** comes Mr. Lloyd George, with jDv columns, and Sir John Simon, with 136 columns.