NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19660, 11 June 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

One-tenth of tho world is still unexplored. One-third of the Paris streets are planted with trees. One-seventh of the territory of France is composed of forests. Sackville Street, Piccadilly, is the only street in London without a lamp post. The average family of five persons in 3ritain drinks about 351b. of tea annually. People born on Christmas Day are, according to an old inscription, 'lucky all their lives. Rice paper is not made from the rice plant, but from the pith of a tree growing in Formosa. The average depth of sand in the deserts of Atrica is estimated to be from. 40ft. to 80ft. There are 16,000 diamond mills in Belgium and 700 or more workshops for cutting the stones. Englishwomen now have an average expectation of life of 60 years. This is eleven years more than in 1890. The neiv grandstand at Epsom (England) is the largest on any European racecourse. It has room lor 20,000 spectators. Water affects the colouring of the plumage' of a bird native to Senegal, a specimen of which is now in the London Zoo. • Motor licenses issued in Britain up to the end of March this year were nearly 100,000 more than in the same period l/ist year. The verse-writing hobby of Mr. Arthur Keene, a Bradford road'sweeper, ha* earned him the title of " Kipling of the Crossings." Britain's national drink bill for 1926 is stated to work out at about £6 17s per head of the population. This is 7s less than in 1925. Aeroplanes flying in mountainous country have on more than one occasion beeu attacked by eagles, who mistook the strange machine lor a rival bird. Foghorns that begin to blow whenever a thick mist gathers havo been invented. The action ol the damp air on calcium carbide sets the device in motion. Women voters outnumber men in four British constituencies, and in two of these, Cheltenham and one Glasgow Division, the present M.P.'s are bachelors. A rainbow may sometimes be seen all day long in a cloudless sky in Siberia. It is said to be due to reflection of the sun on fine particles of snow in the air. At tho School of Oriental Studies in London some of the most difficult of the African languages are taught by a lady, Professor Alice Werner, a Newnham College graduate. Ipecacuanha, the basis of one of the most, popular cough remedies, has recently lisen, through shortage of supplies, to 25s per lb, four or five times the normal price. St. Peter's School, York, celebrates this year its 1300 th anniversary. The ground on which the present school stands was purchased from Guy Fawkes, who was a scholar there. In' Gilsland, near the Northumberland border, arc lonely farmhouses, where tho kitchen fires, fed solely with turf or peat, have not been allowed to go out for at least 200 years. London's council schools are visited every year ,by Germans. Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Turks, Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians, who wish to inspect tho system of education. British infantrymen normally carry a weight of 611b. The American military authorities are now considering cutting down the United States soldier's burden from 981b to 581b. " Silver paper," used for packing cigarettes, chocolates, etc., is oi three kinds—tin-foil, lead-foil, and aluminiumfoil. The real tin-foil may be worth as much as £IOO a ton. The president of the Canadian Pacific Railway controls 20,000 miles of railway, 83 ocean and lake steamers, 100,000 employees, coal-mines, sawmills, and millions of acres of farm land. While translating an old Japanese novel 500,000 words long, dating back to a.d. 1004, an expert at the British Museum has discovered the mention of a game akin to the modern football. A kittiwake gull, ringed on the leg for identification purposes in the Fame Islands, Northumberland, was recently retaken in Labrador, after a flight of about 3400 miles across the Atlantic. Some chameleons will 'only drink by catching drops of moisture as they fall from leaves. In captivity, therefore,,their quarters have to be sprayed every day to keep them from dying of thirst. Finland has a larger percentage of wooded area, in comparison with its total surface, than any other European country. It leads with 51.2 per cent., while Great Britain has the smallest, or 3.6 per cent. During occupancy of Spain by the Arabs every rich home had at least one fountain filled with quicksilver, which rose in a stream and fell in drops on glass. The sound of the falling drops wis likened to fairy bells. Mrs. M. F. Howarth, of Stockwell, though 74 years of age, is one of tho keenest students of the woodwork class at the London County Council's Brixton Women's Evening Institute. Her homa is furnished with book cases, tables, and various ornaments, all cf which she has made herself. The ordinary bluebottle fly moves its wings about 330 times a second. This great speed is exceeded by the bee, which vibrates its wings at nearly twice this rate Tho wings of the averago butterfly move nine times a second. Dr. Emile Berliner, the inventor of the microphone, has' perfected a new device, known as a "sound sponge," for killing echoes in buildings of bad acoustic properties. Tho invention consists of special discs distributed about the vvalls. Covering 271 miles each way. the London North-Eastern express, which leaves Newcastle at 8 a.m., reaches London at 1.35 p.m., departs at 5.30 p.m., and arrives back at Newcastle at 11 p.m., is believed to make the longest daily run of anv main train in Britain. On the brick tablets of the Royal Library of Nineveh are marks which suggest that the science of finger-prints was understood in Ancient Assyria, It is known that finger-prints were used for identification purposes in China in A.D. 700. Women and money will be barred from a new colony a group of yonhg sailors have announced t.hev will found on Santa Maria Island in the South Seas. Th« sailors have all been divorced, separated from ill-natured wives, or disappointed in love. A Marseilles lawyer to a lunatic asylum. In a codicil he mada the following" explanation: " I have earned this money from madmen who pass their lives quibbling and fighting lawsuits. I cousider, therefore, this legacy is a restitution." An American golfer has undertaken to drive a golf ball across country from Mobile, Alabama, to I/<>s Angeles, a distance of about. 1800 miles. He estimates that it will take him five months to complete his self-imposed task, and that lie will require about 1.500,000 strokes. Mr. Rowland Rispin, of Alvaston, Derbyshire, has completed a imniatur® calendar for 1927. which is claimed to be the smallest of its kind iu the worm. The calendar can be covered by a t.ire«-pennv-piece, but is so clear that it can be read quite easily without the aid <tf a magnifying glass<