NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20762, 3 January 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The great terminal railway. stations of London cover about 200 acres.

fares on British railways last, year were £2,000,000 lower than the year before.

The British coal industry has reduced its costs by more than a quarter in the last three years.

An English library has been opened in the National Library of Vienna; it begins with about 500 books.

Electric radiators are required to keep he engine room of the new British motor iner Britannic warm in winter."

While only 500.000 foreign visitors went to Great Britain last year, France received nearly 2,000,000 foreigners.

Waves travel faster than tho wind. That is why a" heavy swell breaking on a beach is often noticed before a storm.

Work is shortly to be started on the first underground, roadway in Paris. It is to be nearly 303 yards long and 15 yards wide. About 100 business organiations in tho United States now use the 13-month calendar, some having adopted it more than 30 years ago.

For every six marriages in America there are six divorces. The marriage rate is decreasing, while the divorce rata is on tho upgrade. The sense of hearing of tortoises is not very strong, but they are frightened by noise, and can distinguish the sounds of their tiny, piping voices. s The Duke of Pistoia, an Italian scientist, has recently taken photographs with a special camera at a depth of 13,000 ft. — or about two and a-half miles.

At Garden, on the Moselle, lightning struck an apple tree under which were sheltering a farmer, his son, and the son's fiancee. All three were killed.

University professors are not highly paid men. Even though they may have a world-wide reputatioh, they seldom receive as much as £ISOO a year. The phrase, Kentish fire, originated from the prolonged cheering at Protestant meetings in Kent, held in 1828, to protest against the Catholic Relief Bill. The salvaging of waste metals in the United States has grown into a £200,000,000 industry; half that amount in scrap iron and steel is reclaimed annually.

The British National Union of llailwaymen had £1,202,098 to its credit on December 31 last. ,while its total income last year was £544,354, compared with £608>441 for, 1928.

Mr. Leslie Ames, the Kent cricketer, was best man at tho wedding at Folkestone of his grandfather, Mr. Harold Ames, aged 77, to Miss Kate JMaycoek, aged 57.

Judged by their computed area of square miles, the following islands' are larger than Great Britain; Papua or New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Greenland, and Madagascar.

Wigan claims to possess the oldest cat in England. It is a Manx specimen, aged 27i years, owned by Miss G. Keen, and it is still willing to fight any dog that comes along. Ladybirds, so useful for destroying greenfly and other pests in the garden, are " farmed " in England and the United States. In the latter country they are sold by the pound. Constancy, loyalty, truthfulness, honesty, intelligence, humour, and ambition are the finest qualities in a man, according to recent ballot taken in a famous American women's college. Paris is eating less bread, the decrease being nearly 5.000.000 loaves a year for tho last five years. French farmers are blaming the slimming craze among women for this serious state of affairs.

Skulls of all ages and every nation, to the total number of 3000, are to be seen at the Hunter Museum of the , Royal College of Surgeons. This is the finest museum of its kind in the world. Some of the finest native colleges in Africa are to be found in the Gold Coast territory, while Acera, one of the Crown Colony's most important towns, has the best equipped native hospital in the world.

It is generally supposed that " ninepence " in the phrase, " As right as ninepence," should be "ninepins." At that game, in fairness to both players, the pins must always be sot with great accuracy.

As every foot of cinematograph film contains 16 separate pictures, each littla bigger than a postage stamp, something like 232,000 pictures are flashed on the screen during the average cinema performance.

In the census recently taken in the United States one of the questions to be answered was How many weeks is it since you worked at your piesent job?" The census proclamation was issued in 23 languages. Girls are said to be training as motordrivers in Birmingham, so that they may apply for taxicab-drivers' licences, although the city authorities have made no definite decision as to whether they will be eligible. Passengers on trains from Havre to Paris can now listen to wireless Broadcasting. Music and talks from the Eiffel Tower, Radio Paris, and SXX are tuned in at. regular intervals. Passengers can hiro headphones. i An oil-engine locomotive, built by German engineers for the Russian Government, can run 1000 miles without taking in fresh supplies of fuel. This is four times as far as a steam train can run without refuelling. More than 529,000.000 herrings, worth nearly £900,000, were caught by Yarmouth fishermen between August and December, 1929, as compared with 521,600,000, valued at £770,800, in the previous year's season.

A " fly yourself " hire service will be among the facilities offered at the new London Air Park at Hanworth, Middlesex, 12 miles from Hyde Park Corner, which was opened for public use recently by the Duchess of Bedford. Sleeping compartments, fitted v/ilh propei bedsteads, running hob and cold water, steam radiators, folding trousevhangers, and a temperature regulator, are now running on one night express between London and Aberdeen.

A new type of glass used in railway cars crossing the great American Desert adds much to the comfort of summer travellers, as it is said to cut off 80 per cent, of the direct rays of the sun while transmitting 65 per cent, of its light.

Two of the convicts in the central gaol at Pretoria, Transvaal, which was raided by police and detectives, were found to have laid bets in recent horse-races with odds up to £IOO, and many other convict 3 had backed .Blenheim, the winner of the Derby.

Londoners are moving farther out, judging from season-ticket statistics. years ago Reading had 6291 season holders; now that figure is more than doubled. Slough's increase is from 4775 to nearly 10,000, and Ealing's from 15,960 to 42,500.

While the general standard of food purity in London is improving, out of 67,350 samples of milk tested in a recent 12 months no fewer than 5542, or 8.2 per cent., were adulterated or not up to standard. The figuro for the previous year was 6.9 per cent. By means of an identification .system evolved by a Los Angeles police official, it is said to bo possible to state the mak.9 ( , and size of a motor tyre, which wheel of a car it is on, and the approximate - :% speed, load, and type of car, from the tyre prints on the road.