NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20490, 15 February 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There are 204 lifeboats stationed round Britain's coasts.

More than 5000 factories have been built in and around London since 1920.

The telephone system of Spain is said to bo the most perfect in the world.

Nearly 2,000.000 gallons of petrol are consumed daily in Great Britain. Making gramophones and records is one of London's most thriving industries. On the Swedish coast there ia one regular woman member of a lifeboat crew. An international oratorical contest is to be held at Washington in October.

There are 115 windows at the Terraco front alone of the British Houses of Parliament.

London created a new tonnage record last rear bv registering something like 60.000,000 tons.

Most animals and bircjs are so covered with fur or feathers that no direct sunshine reaches the skin.

In England more than 2600 swimming certificates were awarded to Tottenham school children in a year. In the thfee months ended September 30 last. 340 persons were killed and 16,260 injured in the streets of London.

Snowdon, the highest peak in Engjand, and Wales, reaches a height of 3,571 ft. Its name means " The Hill of Snow." More than 350 lives have been saved by Cromer lifeboats, the centenary of which station was recently celebrated. A yearly average of 12.000 murders are committed" in the United States—so times the number recorded in Great Britain.

The pay of the joldiers and sailors of the United States of America is higher than in any other country in the. world. Shoals of fish at a depth of 200 fathoms have been located by means of a scientific instrument known as an " echo sounder."

Science has not yet explained satisfactorily why American Indians are redskinned or why the Chinese are yellow. Policemen need much knowledge in Britain. There are, for instance, 2SB headings under which summonses may be taken out. .

London's loneliest job is., perhaps, that of the keeper of the Golden Gallery of St. Paul's Cathedral, 500 ft. above the street level.

Sirs. Thomas Ballingal, of Dominion city, Manitoba, Canada, celebrated her 102 nd birthday by taking her first aeroplane flight.

A homing pigeon belonging to a Frenchman, which was released a year previously, arrived recently in an exhausted condition at Windsor, Ontario.

The ideal size for show cattle in Britain is now about 12cwt. In 179S a first-prize bullock weighed nearly 300 stane. (372 cwts.) and stood 6ft. Tin. ir. height. Coxswain Henry Blogg, of Cromer, has twice won the"V.C." of the Royal National Lifeboat Institntion—the gold medal. He is the only man who has won it twice. The Midnight Ravue, organised by Lady Alexandra Metcalfe and Lady CunliffeOwen, at the London Pavilion, realised j £4200 net. for the Save the Children Fund.

The first of the cattle shows run by the Smithfield Club -was held in 1799, when the prizes totalled 50 guineas. At the latest show, £5,400 was offered in prizes.

The staff of the British" War Office now numbers 17.655, in addition to 750 C at the various ordnance factories. The total annual pay-roll is something like £3,500,000. London's new business palace, the offices of the Underground railways, is built over St. James' Park Station, and stands on a layer of felt to avoid any risk of vibration. Most of the men who man the British lifeboats are volunteers: they Ae paid every time they go out, on a scale which varies from 12s 6d to 55s 6d, according to circumstances. At Sandhurst the famous military college, there are 490 cadets, who are waited upon by 181 servants and grooms. The total average annual cost for each student works out at £453.

Hard tennis courts are made of many > substances, including flagstones, sand, fibre . matting, cork, wood and even linoleum. There is no official standard as. there is in the case of balls and nets.

Grey lounge suits, a looking-glass, corn-

foftable slippers, their own safety razors, and a strip of carpet on the cell floor are some of the " luxuries " now allowed ta the inmates of British prisons.. Concrete is being increasingly "used on the British railways; signal and telegraph posts, station platforms, level-crossing gates, signal cabins and even platform seats are now being turned out in this material.

Forecasts tor the near futuro include universal language by radio, world peace amoug nations, factory farming, 800 miles an hour travelling speed, more time - research, and a chance to sea and hear anything anywhere on the globe at the touch of a button.

The largest " family" in the world is to bo found in Dr. Barnardo's Homes, where 18.063 children and young persons were dealt with last year, 1673 being permanently admitted. There are always 80CO children in these homes, and on an averago five are admitted daily. The metropolitan district of London will soon be dotted with S.O.S. police boxes, where members of thq public, as well as policemen, can quickly summon help by lifting a receiver off a hook. By this system a citizen can quickly set a score of officers racing for a giveu spot in highspeed police cars. There were 300 jewel robberies at shops and private nouses iu London during 11 months of IS2B, and the value ot stolen gems was estimated at more than £1.000,000. A few arrests were made, but nine-tenths of the robberies remained on the police books, neither the thieves nor the stolen property being discovered. Two years ago a gardener in Georgia, United States, found in the woods a white blackberry bush. He took a cutting from it, and has succeeded in cultivating white blackberries, (lie latest freak of horticulture. The new fruit >has a fine blackberry flavour, but J&- white, and it has not yet been discovered whether the bushes will prove fertile. The European nations have twenty-seven different tariff systems; twenty-six different money systems; twenty-seven different sets of postage stamps; and twentyseven different immigration regulations. Iu driving a motor-car from one country into another, it is necessary to ascertain whether the rule of the road is to keep to the left or to the right. A remarkable aluminium street car constructed along new and luxurious Anieil , can lines, appeared on the streets o i s burg recently. It has large, squate dows. like those in Pullman, diners, and soft, subdued light*. A life-sinJ ¥>££&£&*££ accompanied trsra J t(J 1„ Barcelona, m J adoml e x |,ib lt .on German, French and Spanish.