NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20324, 3 August 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Tabard Garden, Southwark, five acres in extent, was recently declared open. English is to be made a compulsory subject in the schools of Czecho Slovakia. A first edition copy of Gray's Elegy (1751), realised £1340 at Sotheby's recently.

The drinking of alcohol has gone down by 30 per cent, in (Sweden during the last 26 years.

The Admiralty has prohibited the use of patent cigarette lighters in ships car rymg aircraft.

Before lighthouses were lit by oil they were lit by coal fires. Tho last of these burned until 1822.

A bluetit was fund sitting on 12 eggs in a nest in a letter-box at Aloui33coniijef Bnghton, England. A sudden storm recently is estimated to have cost Luncaliire pigeoD fanciers not less than £12,000.

The whole village of Candon, France, has been destroyed by a fire which broko out in an outbuilding of a farm.

Lftjring the first five months of the year the total tax receipts in France exceeded the Budget estimate by £20,675,000.

Mr. Bernard Shaw has had the distinction of ins name being given to a trawler launched at Selby, Yorks.

Only about five per cent, of English people go to tho theatre. Everybody goes in America.—Mr. C. B. Cochran. Tho first patent for the roller skata was granted to Robert John Tyers, fruiterer, of Piccadilly, on April 22, 1823.

Two banners aro to be installed in Peterborough Cathedral at the spot which marks Mary Queen of Scots' first burial place.

Eighty-threo-ye-a<r-old Mr. Charles Plume, of Enfield, has celebrated his 65th year as a bell-ringer at Enfield Parish Church.

Grunt, goggle-eye, hound fish and schnapper are among the kinds of fish eaten in the Bahamas, says the Colonial Office report. Ex-Queen Souriya, wife of the ex-King of Afghanistan, has decided to call tier new baby dangher Mary, after the Queen of England. There are 53,000 Boy Scouts in Canada, according to fig ires given at the annual general meeting of the Canadian Boy Scuts' Association.

Mr. Frederick Richard Dixon-Nuttali, lately president of United Giass Boitlo Manufacturers, Ltd., who died in February, left £425,857.

The sum of £2OOO was awarded to William Charles Fell, of Kensaj Green, for the loss of a lea resulting from a taxicab colliding with his motor-cycle.

For " her careful attention and kindness," shares of the par value of £3510 were left to Mildred Foley by Mr. William Jones, master mariner, of Swansea.

•An aviation course will be given in the ordinary curriculum of the University of Buffalo, according to an announcement by the officials of the institution. A loop railway line is to be made ftom a point west of Karagateh to Adrianoplo so that the Orient Express oan enter Turkey without crossing Greek territory Guy's Hospital has established a remarkable record. Founded in 1724 more than 200 years ago it has only had 14 matrons, of whom seven are still 'living.

Long-missing letters of King Charles 11. to the Lieut.-Governor and States of Jersey have been discovered in a secret drawer of a descendant of the Lieut.Governor of the period.

There is one species of slug with 30,000 teeth. The common variety of snail has over 14,000 teeth, arranged in 130 rows, while another variety has teeth in 140 rows.

An attache ase containing two pints of etlior and a quantity of chloroform, Diorphine. and atrophine, and Jwo cylinders of laughing gas was stolen recently from a London doctor's motor-car. The Rev. Maitbnd Kelly, who, as a boy, tolled the bell at a South Devon parish church on the death of the Duke of Wellington, died recently.

Ice cream from a passing seller's barrow was used by a police constable to extinguish a fire in a motor coaob at Eastbourne Only the driver's Beat of Iho motor-coach was dqpiaged. The West Midland Joint Electricity Authority has placed contracts amounting to nearly £250,000 for the equipment of the first section of the superpower station at Ironbridge, Shropshire An American millionaire, who drives to lunch every day in a taxicab, has discovered that tf he stops within 200 yard 3 of the restaurant, where he lunches he saves 10 cents. He invariably does so. " The Suckville Children," tho famous picture by John Hoppner, R.A., has been sold to a private collector. The price given for the picture, which will go tt» America, is believed to approach £IOO.OOO In his will, the Rev. Richard John lacon, of Rollesby, near Great Yarmouth, makes provision for the gift of £1 to each male person aged over 21 residing in tho j parish of Rollesby at the date of his death.

The London County Council has decided to allow a film to be taken of its activities, including a debate in tha council chamber. It was suggested that this part of the film should be a " t-alkie."

The death at tho tge 120 of a sheik, who leaves behind him four wives and over 100 sons, daughters and grandchildren, is reported in a Mosul newspaper His youngest son is only ten years old.

Two fine bay horses entered into a now homo at Buckingham Palace-mews tho other day. 1 hey are Caesar and Castor, the late Lord Rosel.ery's favourite pair of carriage horses. They have been given to the Kinu and Queen. vjv

When the inquest on the Victoria Embankment (London) subway fire opened, the |ury went down a manhole and inspected tho scene of the outbreak. Beforo going down they were sworn in at Carmelite Street fire station.

A man was fined five shillings at Highgate Police Court recently for throwing peanuts on the ground in Finslwry Park. The magistrate said it was the duty of the public to assist the authorities to keep the parks and open spaces tidy. A python's eggs arc about the samo sizo as those of a hen. After laying about a hundred, the female coils herself round them and remains thus until tho young are hatchod. I his takes two months, during which time the snako fasts.

More than £13,000,000 worth of fish of British taking was landed in England and Wales last year, an increase of 3 par cent, in quantity and 4 per cent, in value over 1927. The quantity was 13,44<?,000cwt. Herrings accounted for over 4,000,000cwt.

American jewellers have purchased tho largest rose diamond in the world. It was found in tho State of Minns Geraes. The rough diamond weighs 118 carats, and it is estimated that when cut it will t,o worth £IOO,OOO. U has been christened The Southern Cross.

Having walked from Liverpool to Covt ntrv on his wav to London in search of work, Joseph Walsgrave became tired and cave a tremendous yawn. The yawn dislocated his jaw. He was taken to hospital, where tho jaw was put bac- into place and ho then resumed hia tramp.