NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Poplar recently had 2000 on its waiting list for houses. Wireless licences are held by 2,130,000 people in Britain. There is no stamp duty on cheques in the United States. One-third of the Paris streets are planted with tsrees* A sovereign actually contains gold worth twenty shillings. Buildings in London to the number of 5091 were notified as dangerous last year. A North London hairdresser provides his afternoon customers with a cup of tea. In a block of municipal flats in Mantell Street, Finsbury, there will be garages for 64 perambulators. London's buses are so standardised that every nut and bolt is interchangeable from one vehicle to another. Oak trees take so long in attaining any profitable sizs that it is not a business proposition to grow them. The Coronation Spoon in the Tower of London is believed to be the oldest English silver spoon still existing. British bronze coins are made of an alloy which contains about 95 per cent, copper and costs about £65 a ton. Starting as a maidservant, Miss Silianpaa is now Assistant Minister of Industry in the new Socialist Cabinet of Finland. Scotsmen give better tips than the visitors from England, according to the evidence of a taxicabman in a Belfast court. At a depth of a mile the ocean bed is well illuminated by the luminous organs of the fish living "there, according to a scientist, Dnder the new British Health Insurance benefits, 13,000,000 people will now have the opportunity of having their teeth attended to. Phoenix is not only the mythical bird of antiquity rising out of flame, but also a Homeric hero with Achilles in the Trojan war. It is estimated that about a million sterling is expended by the women of the United States in the effort to keep themselves beautiful. A new record is claimed for the London County Council's housing estate at Becontree. In one street alono there are i! 000 children living In the British Civil Service there are about 300,000 workers, half of whom are stated to receive an inclusive wage s of less than £3 a week. Clothes moths lay their eggs in any crack or crevice where dust can collect. The space betweea the floor-boards and the skirting-board is a favourite place. Left as a trust fund in 1785 for the care of a tomb in a London churchyard, the interest of £IOO has accumulated Until the trustees hardly know how to spend it. Golders Green, London, has too many elementary schools. There are 7790 scholars provided for and 2204 vacancies. Some of the schools are nearly half empty. Manicure treatment introduced into one [ food packing factory resulted in the girls taking a great pride in the appearance of their hands, with beneficial result® all round. Bee-keepers in Britain have been facing a poor prospect. Owing to the bad weather bees have been eating their own stores of honey and killing off all the drones. , As it is of i?o use for church purposes, the crypt of a church in Gray's Inn Ecad, London, is let off as a fruit-store. Before that it was a bookstore and a wine cellar. Men ar» now heavier in proportion to their height than they were. For a stature of sft. 9in. a man should now weigh 12st. 31b.; this is 91b. more than the old figure. Fitted with sleeping accommodation for four people, a new luxury aeroplane has been built for a Belgian millionaire. There is also a toilet-room, complete with wash basins and mirrors. * Scholars at Eton College dress according to their height. Under five feet four inches in height they wear the famous Eton jacket; when they pass that mark they don morning coats. Cardiff claims to be a city of beautiful women. "Visitors to the City Hall," said the city's Lord Mayor recently, "always remark on the fine buildings and the good looks of the ladies." The founder of Worth's, the famous Paris dressmaker's business, was Charles Worth, a Lincolnshire solicitor, who went to the French capital to design frocks in the days of the Empress Eugenie. The London and North Eastern Railway Company's duplicate " Flying Scotsman" Express, which makes the world's longest non-stop railway run, lately completed over 5000 miles without losing a minute. Oldham, Lancashire, which has 101 married women teachers and 11 who are widows, has appointed a sub-committee to consider whether married women should be allowed in the teaching profession in the town. A postcard from Heaton Park Military Camp, Manchester, posted on February 27, 1916, was delivered to an Ormskirk address on August 15 last. It was written by an Ormskirk boy recovering in hospital from wounds, but "he was killed later in the war. Owning a motor-car in China is distinctly a luxury. The licence fees in one city costs £7 10s a month, and when gasoline is cheap it is 6s a gallon. In addition, a jaunt off the main thoroughfare requires the services of at least four attendants. The most northern radio station in the world is that just planted by tho Soviet Government on Cape Desire, which juts into the Arctic Zone just west of Archangel, Siberia. It will be used to communicate with aerial Arctic explorers. The first gas for domestic use was conducted from the retorts to points of use through discarded gun-barrels, of which there was an ample supply at the close of various European wars. The barrels were made into a continuous pipe by screwing the ends together. At Cockermouth, George Sim, lithographer, Carlisle, was fined 40s for having thrown beer bottles out of a motor-eoacn at Cockermouth and striking; the occupant of a passing car. "It is a dangerous and nasty practice," said the chairman of the Bench, Canon Sutton. Nations who wish to go to law with one another can appear Defore the Per manent Court of International Justice, which sits at The Hague. There are 13 regular judges and four deputies, each of a different nationality. The Court gave its first verdict in August, 1922. The provision for illuminated batons for the Paris police to regulate traffic at night is being considered by the authorities. The baton, while being painted white, is illuminated with red and white "ghts, which are operated by a battery whico the policeman wears attached to his be.t. A man charged at Newport, Monmouthshire, with having been drunk and orderly, challenged the presiding «»g>s trate to treat him pmte ol beer in order that he might prove that they would not make him nk ; vfl Ht V™ k fined 10s, and advised to leave dnnJc alone. « g"ani to ' ft ' . " i