NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The population of Europe is estimated at 475.000,000. I'he most sensitive part of the body is tin tip of the tongue. Twice as much power is needed to stop a train as to start it. Englishmen wore hats at dinner in London in the 17th century. A cubic foo of water :is convertible into 1662 cubic feet of steam. Celluloid and xylonito aro different names for the same substance. India accounts for only two per cent, of the world's production of bilk. Toads, bats and snakes can live longer without food than any other creatures In the County of London alone women voters outnumber the men by about 500,000 The longest word in Shakespeare is honorificabilitudinitatibus, in " Love s Labour Lost." Road-making used up 13,040,000 tons of granite and limestone in 1927, produced from British quarries. ! It requires more than a century for a cedar tree to grow large enough to yield a 30ft. telephone pole. Thirtv-onc cities in the world have more than 100,000 telephones. London is tho only British city among them. Among the treasures of York Minster is an Anglo-Saxon copy of the Gospels. This is the oldest relic in the cathedral. The number of mechanically propelled road vehicles in Great Britain has grown from 873,700 in 1921 to 2,052,453 last year. Not a single vote was registered for Dr. 0 O'Neill, wiio fought a by-election in Armagh County (South) in November, 1909. Forty thousand people own London, and the biggest ground landlord is tho London County Council. It has 120,000 tenants. The New Forest, with 60,000 acres, remains the largest in England. Tho Forest of Dean comes next, but is only one-third the size. The largest meteor on record was that of August 18, 1783, which traversed Europe from Shetland to Italy at 30 miles a second. The station staff handling the millions at Charing Cross, London, including one stationmaster and 15 booking clerks, numbers only 48. The popularity of the. London Zoo shows no signs of waning. The attendances in 1928 numbered 2.324,328, against 2,158,208 in 1927. Tho cracks recently mended in Lincoln Cathedral at a cost of £SQ,COO are believed to have originated in the great earthquake of 1185. The soot discharged into tlie atmosphere each year in Great Britain represents three days' coal output of all tho mines of the country. Dundee's jute trade becan in 1830 with an import of 20 tons. To-day the quantity of jute arriving yearly is 200,000 tons. It all comes from India. During the past eight years the population of Scotland has increased by only 9000, while that of England and Wales has increased by 1,500,000. Complete sets of new money are obtainable at the Hoval Mint toward the end of each year: 9492 sets were sold during the last Christmas season. The, new Government House at Delhi lias 540 rooms and a mile and a-half of corridors. It stands in a park of 530 acres, and has 12 acres of garden. 'Hie faces of babies in India and I'ersja are often washed in tho liouid in which hollv bark has been soaked. This is intended as a charm against evil spirits. Loudon's ambulances have a busy time. During a recent 24 hours the 15 ambulances were called out .125 times, an average of one call about every 12 minutes. Under a charter of Edward 111. Queensborough is tho cheapest port in the United Kingdom. The maximum charge for a ' vessel loading or unloading there is only - Bs. Bread cost 1" 3d per 41b. loaf in London in 1800, and just over ll years later the highest price, of Is sd, was reached. Its highest price in recent years was Is, in 1921. 4 A British thermal unit .is the amouut of gas heat required to raise tho temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit A therm is 100.000 of these units. Liberals captured every one of the thirty-lour Welsh seats in 1906. They polled 217,462; while the Unionists, with 100,547 votes, had not a single representative. Trees aro larger in diameter in summer ban in winter. They also vary in this respect from day to day, being larger from noon to twilight than from twilight to noon. ' A newly-invented boring tool enables one man. unassisted, to bore a hole into the earth 30ft. deep and liti. in diameter. The weight of the whole outfit is only 901b. Alter hanging in the church at Tliundersley, Essex, for 340 years, a bell has been taken down, and despatched for recasting to the London firm who cast it in 1588. Man's brain attains its maximum capacity at- 30. but a monkey s brain is at its greatest weight, between the ages of two and three, and after that remains stationary. 1 arge countrv estates in Great Britain are now verv 'difficult to sell, tho great demand being for property covering about 50 acres, with a house containing 10 or 12 bedrooms. \ field ant has been known to hold in its'jaws a weight 3000 times heavier than itself. If a man had proportionately the same strength in his jaws he could lift in Lis teeth 275 tons. November. 1928. was the warmest eleverth month recorded in London for 15 years, although in some parts of Southern England it nearly won another record for wetness. t The first alarm clock appeared in 1420. Its owner was a councillor of Milan. His clock sounded a bell at a stated hour, and at tho same time a wax candle was lighted automatically. London, with seven and a-half millions, is still the world's largest city. New York is second with just over six millions, Berlin third, Paris fourth, Chicago fifth and Tokio sixth. A pair of well-matched, precious stones are n-ore than three times as valuable as a single stone. Thus, one emerald may be worth £3OOO. but a matched pair will•.* fetch £9OOO or £IO.OOO. Bookmakers aro more numerous than auctioneers and house agents in England, according to the number of licences issued. Thero are 14,641 " bookies" to 14,284 of tho other profession. Nearly 5000 married women between the ages of twenty-one and thirty havo the right to vote in the City of London. There aro now 25,000 men and nearly 22,000 women on tho registers. Of tho goods produced in Groat Britain and Northern England and exported from lio Port of London, the greatest quantity is cotton manufactures, followed closely by woollen and worsted manufactures. The London Counl.v Council maintains the. London Firo Brigade. and receives an- • nuallv toward the cost of maintenance » grant of £IO,OOO from: the Treasury and a contribution from lire insuran. c .° companies of £35 for every £1,000,600 insured _ property in tho county. -