NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The recent drought in London was the worst known for 120 years.

Many well-known bulbs, including ths jonquil and narcissus, contain poison. Official rat-catchers in the City of London destroyed 24,748 rats last year.

Raspberry canes at Harrow, England bore a second crop in la to September. Of the arrests for drunkenness in Britain, 60 per cent, take place at the weekends. ' > "

For burying a dog alive a man has been fined only £2 at Hastings," England.

The Mansfield Corporation in England, is to build houses to be let at 6s 6d a> week.

New telephones arc installed in London by the post office at tho rate of 1100 a week

A free park for his customers' cars ia provided by a draper in Kingston, Surrey. A boat recently landed 220,000 herrings at Yarmouth, the largest catch of tha season. The largest vessel now ailoat is __the steamship Majestic, which measures 956fW over all. Altogether 250,000 acres of sugar beeb is being cultivated in England and Wales this year.

A driver was lately fined 5s at Bathi for allowing milk churns to rattle in $ motor-lorry.

From one pound of seed, 2231b of potatoes have been grown in a. Derbyshire garden. Artesian wells more than 450 ft, in depth go down to the enormous natural reservoir of water under London. Iceland did not live up to its name itf 1927, "and 1928, as its coasts became almost free from icc.

The old gardener of Downing Street, Mr. Harry Simpson, has retired after 40 years, service there. Motor-cyclists would have to wear brass helmets if" a suggestion made by the \\ eymouth coroner became law.

A covf sold at 'Tonbridge Market and taken ten miles from home returned the next morning to its old farm. The most popular modern author is still Charles Dickens. A total 25.000,000 copies of his books have been published. A driver at East Ham, London;, has been fined £1 for having a rattling lorry and £1 lor having a noisy engine.

England's soberest towns are Plymouth and Walsall, with Blackpool, Brighton and Hastings at the other end of the

Mr Charles Whiting, of Bath, lately married Miss Fish. Mr. Whiting's two aunts married Mr. Cockle and Mr.. Herring. To attend to the health of, insured workers in England and Wales calls for the services of more than 30,000 doctors a year. It is estimated that 70 per" cent, of industrial accidents in Britain could be j avoided if more care were taken i.n factories.

First-class wigs in Britain cost, abm.2 £25 apiece, many society women spending as much as £OO a year to be kept supplied with them. So complete is the medical supervision over London's docks, that last year not a single case of infectious disease got past the hairier. The likeleton of a man believed to have been buried more than 3000 years ago lias been discovered at LI art harry, Glamorganshire, Wales. The Derby Education Committee has decided to observe an International Peace Day in the schools instead of Empire 3 ! Day. One penny put on the rates- of Westminster brings in a return of £40,000, over £SOOO more than it would yield in the city of London. A tame jackdaw lately rode on the axla of a motor-car from Market Deeping, in i Lincolnshire, to Woodford, in Nortliants, about 35 miles. Women of Great Britain spend, lit is estimated, something like £65,000,000 a year o:n the care of their hair and other beauty preparations. Dwellings erected by the London County Council provide homes for over 189,000 person!!. There were 44,889 dwellings in use at the end of March. A tunny fish, lately landed at Scarborough, "measured about 9ft 9in. and weighed over 6001b. Another, 9ft. in length., weighed nearly 8001b. Ristog to a height of 15,805 ft. above sea level, the railway between Calla<> and Huancayo, in Peru, is the highest standard gauge line in the world. Sark, one of the Channel Islands, lias many curious local taxes, one being paid in fowls by each house, according to the number of" chimneys it possesses. The ex-Kaiser is still the richest man in the German Republic. The property which he and his family were alloved to keep is valued at £25,000,000. At the opening of the public baths at . Canning Town Dockland Settlement a man dived into the swimming bath and brought up the key from the bottom. Although the prospects are better in the big stores and in trades, 70 per cent., of girls leaving school in Britain want to go to offices, because the hours .are shorter* Mr. Rudyard Kipling lately, opened the Junior King's School, Canterbury, m Lord Milneif's old home at Sturry Court, given bv Lady Milner in memory of her husband. "It is to be called Milner Court* Among the semi-precious stones to ba found on the shores of the British Isles are carnelians, rock crystals, agates, ameI thyst matrix, jet, onyx and aquamarines. Joan Brnnton, a 12 year-old girl, has broken all previous records for the swimming course of 20 miles Dover and Ramsgate, by covering it in 6 hours 2 minutes.

Dried animals' blood is the " food - supplied to the famous vine at Hampton Court Palace. It is now 161 years old, and has a main stem eighty inches in circumference.

" Bungum" is the local nam© for the river mud at Tilbury, on the Thames where a new dock has just been opened which puts this place among the big porta of the world. Salt was used on some London hard tennis courts during a tournament m ordT to collect moisture from the air, as watering the courts was forbidden because of the shortage. Before the Great Firo of London, m 1666, most of London was built of timber more lasting materials being used only for tlio churches, the finer houses, and soma of the city companies halls. Indian girls under the ageofl6 who irp married total-up to 25,0C0,UUU. ui th'S number, 218.000 are under of five years. There are also 390,5 i*> widows of less than 15 years of age. Th" world's largest lock will shortly be opened for me on the ship e„,»l between Ymoito and Amsterdam It ;= I^l2ft lon<r by 164 ft. wide. , . larger than "the Panama Canal whfch are 1000 ft. in length and 110 ft. in width. _ Tudrin* bv statistics issued by tlio librarians ol Croydon, Snrrey uo.elsw. not the most popular reading. 1928. the Croydon Übrmwusue • works of fict'oa a n W woras other sections. Of the . la "® fc nopalaf< tory and travel were U» most P.qpwaß AUCKLAND n{ PUBLIC LIBKABjHI . iW