NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20312, 20 July 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Cigarette tobacco is now an issue in tho Navy. Tlio perfect egg should weigh elightly over two ounces. Tho total strength of the Loudon police, including all ranks, is 19,180. The British National Children e Homo lias now sent out more than .>OOO boys to Canada. Tho population of the Dnited State 3 increases at the rate of about 1,600,000 persons a year. Railway engines are said to make full use of only 5 per cent, of the heat generated in their boilers. Fif.ern great' whales, yielding 1500 banfji of oil, car. be dealt with every day in the new floating factory ships. " Flag days " in London last year wero responsible for the collection of £249,593., There wero altogether 522 collections. Britain's fleet of privately-owned motorcars is estimated to have increased at the rate of 2500 per week during many weeks of last year. It costs £3 a week to feed a sea-lion in the London Zoo; the lion of tho jungle, ou the other hand, receives Is 6d worth of catsnieat a day. Reputed to bo about 14,000 years old and the most aged sample of basketwork in existence, an Egyptian corn-bin was recently exhibited m London. Doncaster, England, with a population of 54,000, had an increase of 9669 unemployed in July; Bradford's increase, on a population of 286.000 was 6712. In London alone 100,000 people are living in basements which are unfit for human habitation because of dampness, lack of light, and bad ventilation. A boot-repairing allowance of one shilling a week is paid to each of the five chief constables of '.ho Metropolitan Police, two of whom receive £IOOO a year. Uprooting ferns and other plants growing in roads, lanes, banks, or commons is now a punishable offence in Berkshire, the penaity being 40 shillings for tho first offence. Disputes involving stoppages of work during 1928 in Great Britain and Northern Ireland numbered 302, the lowest total in any year for which statistics aro available. An adult female fly lives for about six weeks and lays about 150 eggs every 10 days. r lhese eggs develop in 14 days into other flies, which start laying eggs when two weeks old. For His Majesty's use in the Highlands this autumn, a motor caterpillar tractor of the latest type is being prepared This will replace the mountain pony previously used by the King. Last year's death-roll on the British railways was 460 persons, an increase of 25 on tho previous year; but tho number of persons injured was smaller in 1920 than in 1927. Out, of every hundred applicants to join tho Army only about 16 pass the medical examination, the most frequent causes of failure being bad sight, faulty teeth, and flat feet. Tin?re recently died at Oxford tho Rev. Louis Arthur Cockerell, a well-known cricketer, who played in the Rugby Eloven 74 years ago—only a little later than Tom Brown's schooldays. Walls distempered in creams, browns, and greens, with tho machinery in pleasant colours, are features in a new factory being built in Wolverhampton by a firm of paint and varnish makers Chocolate, which contains a high percentage of lime, is now being advocated bv some doctors as a valuable brain food., and in cases of certain ailments, including obesity, heart trouble, and cout Some of tho London borouehs are ajL largo as provincial towns. The population of Paddington in the middle of 1927 was estimated at 142,700, while Brighton had 141,100 inhabitants on the same dat*. " The popular idea that diphtheria is duo to defective drains and other gross, insanitary conditions does not appear to, have any truth in it," stated the meai-. cal officer for Somerset in a recent report. In early Victorian days top-hats were worn at cricket. There was a custom of presenting a new hat to a bowler who. performed the feat of bowling three batsmen in succession. Hence the term " hafc trick." Girls are more cultured than boys noiv-. adays, according to Dr. Josiah Oldfield,.. the well-known physician. *' Boys are too often satisfied to be louts." he 6aid recently. " Girls aro always anxious to. bo ladies " Great Britain imports almost a fifth of its yearly tobacco supply—4l,ooo,ooolb. oar of 220,000,0001b. —from Empire countries, Nyasaland, India, North Borneo, Rhodesia and Canada being tho principal sources of production. The Old Hall, Lincoln's Inn, England, has been taken down and is being rebuilt with every stone carefully put back in its original position. When finished the hall will appear exactly as it was in the days of Henry VIII. Budgeerigars, tho lovely little' birds which wero first imported into England from Japan, aro becoming more reason-, able in price. A pair, which would havo cost £l6O a short time ago, may now bo purchased for £6 10s. Tho shortage of sunlight in England' during tho past four years has been remarkable. It was 48 hours below tho average in 1923, 84 in 1924, 23 in 1925, and no fewer than 154 in 1927. This, year tho average is improving. Smoking a pipe or cigarette' is tho. novel preventive of seasickness suggested by n recent writer in the British Medical Journal. It has been known to stave off an attack oven after the feeling of sickness had commenced. Tho girls at the Cornish Hall End School, Essex, England, are learning to, weave on hand looms which are made hv tho boy scholars. All this manual work ' I? taught by the headmistress, who is quite an expert carpenter. Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald's new Ministryis the 36th since April 24, 1827, when Canning succeeded the Earl of Liverpool. Tho latter was Prime Minister for 15 years. No Prime Minister has since reached a double figure term. Russian eggs can be preserved for 12 months owing, it is said, to tho way tho hens aro allowed to run wild foraging for themselves; thus their eggs remain eatable longer than those of the carefully tended hens of Western Europe. The police in control of tho traflic at Gloucester Cross, England, in the city of that name, have to direct week-end traflic at tho rato of a thousand motorears an hour. Tho oflicer on duty is relieved eve 17 hour night and day. Mrs. Bowyer of Stoke-on-Trent, has obtained a small dairy herd and a generous supply of milk for an initial outlay of 7s 6d. A calf bought for that sum eighteen years ago has had fifteen healthy heifer calves. The average useful life of a dairy cow is two and a-half years. Bananas havo a long history, although they havo only been imported into Western lands within the last 50 years. The ancient Egyptians aro said to havo eaten this fruit, and it was certainlv known to tho Persians, Greeks, and Romans centuries ago. A new safe " listens " for burglars and., on hearing them, gives on alarm. Any: noise made by drilling or by otherwise* attempting to open the safe ;s heard by- " ears," in which are set up vibration* which causo the ringing of an alarm oei* and the swifting on of lamps.