NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21130, 12 March 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The mocking bird lias been adopted as the official bird of Texas. The verger of St. Paul's Cathedral has been there for over 50 years. The balance-wheel of a watch moves more than 3500 miles in a year. Tt has been decided to form a National .Academy of Arts in South Africa. Extensions to London's tube railways will call for the provision of 245 new .coaches. Tliere.are over 4500 lodges of British Freemasonry, of which more than 1000 arc in London. Salaries for British M.P.'s are not a recent idea. Such a payment was made from 1307 to 1661. Foreigners to the number of 2,891.000 live in Fiance, half a million of them being residents in Paris. In Johannesburg last year 6936 building plans were passed, the value of the work reaching a total of £3,600,000. It costs an inventor about £ls in fees to agents and to the Patent Office to safeguard his invention in Britain. Voluntary offerings from London hospitals palients were the highest on record \v,hen calculated recently. Photographs were recently taken at a depth of 900tt. below sea-level hv a research expedition working near Genoa. It is estimated that every day sufficient rain falls upon the earth to fill a reservoir 400 miles square to a depth of about 10ft. The sun is estimated lo have 50,000,000 tons of platinum in the form of a gas heated to a temperature of 11.000 degrees Fahrenheit. Lead poisoning in factories is being overcome. In 1930 only 20 cases were reported in England, as compared with 400 in 1920. Britain leads in marine speed, the average rate of travel of all British ships working out at 10.51 knots, against the foreign average of 9.59 knots. So that American shoppers may see what they are getting, a new type of paper bag for groceries has been provided with a window of transparent material. Roger Bacon, an English monk and scientist, invented gunpowder, in 1292. Some say that a similar explosive substance was used by the Hindus in 333 B.C. In old almanacs special days and holidays used to be printed in red ink to distinguish them from ordinary days. This explains the origin of the term red letter day. Although the Bible has been printed up to date in 872 languages, it is estimated that it will not be available in every one of the 2500 tongues of the world for another 200 years. Groups of human skeletons dating back to Norman times were uncovered during excavations at Portchester Castle, Hampshire, which is being restored as a national monument. In the number of wireless licences issued Britain is almost equal to Germany, both countries having about 4,000,000. Britons pay 10s a year, while the fee in Germany is 245. Two of the largest greenhouses in Ihe world have been erected for tomato growing at Beckford, near Evesham, England, where the unusual sight of a plough at work indoors has been witnessed. Sticks of grease-paint which were used by Roman women about 2200 years ago were found in a metal casket during some excavations in Germany. They contained some highly poisonous ingredients. The amount spent by Poor Law authorities in England and Wales on relief of the poor during the financial year of 1930 was £39,250,000, 81 per cent, of which was payable out of the rates. A boomerang is* so shaped that ihe air resists one part more than another. When it slows down this causes it to travel in a carved path, which brings it more or less to the point from which it started. More than 30 German spies were caught in Britain during the Great War. Of this number 12 were shot. Only three women spies were brought to trial, >nd no woman spy suffered the death penalty in Britain! Salt, until science discovered ways of producing it cheaply, was very valuable. It was employed in religious services. To spill it was equivalent to sacrilege against the gods, and it earned their displeasure. The secrets of making fire and of making utensils by chipping them out of stone were known to mankind in China over 1,000,000 years ago, according to estimates formed from some recent excavations.

The recent census shows that the population of many towns in Palestine has grown considerably in the past ten years. Jerusalem with 90,500 has increased by half. Hailfa, with 50,600, has more than doubled. There is a clock in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, in England, which lias never varied more than one-twentieth of a second in a day. There are equally accurate clocks in the observatories of Leyden, Berlin and Washington. Falling stars are really meteors." Most of them are supposed to be fragments of broken-up comets which come hurtling into the atmosphere of the earth. When they come in contact with the gases there they are set on fire by friction; A rare old grandfather clock —the work of Daniel Quare, a famous London clockmaker in the time of William lll—whose owner had not thought- it to be worth more than £3O, was recently sold for £425, a record price in London recently. The average number of wage-earners employed in and about British coal mines, in 1928 was 921,000. In 1929 the number was 939.000. The number of shifts, worked in 1928 was 225,500,000, and in 1929 the number was 241,000,000. Sculpture upon bricks is a novel form of art that has,, made its appearance in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Straftorcl-on-Avon. l'irst, extra large bricks were laid in the wall. Then Mr. Eric Kennington, noted sculptor, chisled figures from the projecting ends of the brick.

Musicians who play the corpet or violin may accompany themselves Ou the piano by using an invention of Mr. George Cook, of Utah, United .States. Mr. Cook has patented a piano-playing device which he pedals with his feet. As he works the pedals, arms come down and strike the keys of the piano. The shaven head and pigtail were a mark of servitude imposed upon Chinese in the 17th century by their Manchu conquerors. The custom assumed a ceremonial significance, and Chinamen took great, pride in their pigtails, hut since the revolution of 1911 they have been going out of fashion. ' Britain will have paid out about £1,000,000.000 in war pensions by March 31.- Although their numbers are decreasing through various causes death, re-marriage of widows, etc.--1312 new pensions were granted last year to widows arid motherless children of men who died as a result of their war disabilities. Seven boys arc needed to play a largo harmonica recently demonstrated Detroit, Naturally it is held to be the largest of its kind in the world, measures eight feet in length, giving sufficient space for each performer to play his part in music especially prepared foi ho big instrument. There are 770 notes in all on the scale of this g.gantic mouth organ. France does not yet gne a half holiday to its shop and office oikeis, the nine-liour day for six days in the week is the practice in the Princes-. But Paris has taken matteis into own hands, and some of thebig shops now close for a half-day. . These shop, decided to choose a morning foi theif holiday, and they do uot open on MO* . days until 1 o clock.