NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21159, 16 April 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Londoa. now contains more than 30,000 factories and 26,000 workshops. Women drivers are involved in only two per cent, of the fatal motor accidents in England. Nine-tenths of the coffee exported from Columbia in 1930, was shipped to tho United States.

Firemen's clothes were frozen stiff afc a fire which destroyed offices at Stonehaven, England. An Emperor penguin weighing up to 801b., can jump from water on to an ice ledge 3ft. high.

Every year some 20,000 depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank in Britain lose their bankbooks.

Machines used for cleaning milk bottles in the big depots in Britain, can deal with nearly 40.000 bottles an hour.

British motorists pay on an average, £3O in taxation every year—four times as much as the American motorist pays.

A woman has been elected for the first time to the United States Senate. She is Mrs. Hattie W. Cartway, of Arkansas.

A life-size marble statue of an Emperor of Rome, either Hadrian or Antoninus Pius, has been found at Baia, in Italy. Tho quantity of wet fish landed in Great Britain in 1931, was 19,789,480cwt , as compared with 21,877,361cwt. in 1930. A one-way street .existed in Pompeii, the Italian city which was destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

People remember 'best the things they learn between the ages of ten and eighteen, according to the headmaster of Eton.

Sahara, the great desert in Northern Africa, was once a populous country, according to discoveries made by archaeologists.

Telegraph wires in East Africa have to be carried on exceptionally high poles owing to the liability of giraffes breaking the cable.

Having nothing to fear from anything on the land or ice, Antarctic seals are the laziest, sleepiest, and most indifferent of animals.

The Royal Albert Hall, London, contains its own printing works, painters' and carpenters' shops, and its own blacksmiths' forge. Among the deep-sea fish landed in Britain from trawlers, the greatest catch is that of cod, followed by haddock, hake and plaice in lhat order. Hollywood's strangest " profession " is surely that of a woman who is especially engaged when some extra terrible shrieking is required in a film.

In 1929 the number of deaths from tuberculosis in England and Wales was 37,990. In 1915 the number of deaths from this cause was 54,295.

In addition to the pictures exhibited in the National Gallery, London, there are 500 more masterpieces, varying in value, stored in the basement. Of all those Britons who served in the Great War, 40 per cent., or 2,414,000 in all, were either killed or injured sufficiently to receive State compensation. In just over 24' hours—a record time even for America—Miss Peggy Carroll, the film actress, secured a divorce from Mr. Arnold Morand, in Los Angeles. In Greater Berlin there are 2700 streets, out of the total of 9000, which have duplicated names. Bismarck occurs 30 times and Wilhelmstrasse (William Street) 26 times..

Men repairing a road 100 miles from Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, have unexpectedly struck a gold reef, while an important diamond discovery has been reported in Tanganyika. Eighteen months ago, Mr. C. W. Connolly, of Rothwell, Northants, while flying owr the town, had his glasses' blown off. They were recently picked up unbroken in his own garden.

Families are growing smaller in London. According to last year s census, although there was a decrease of 87,702 in the population of London, the number of families had increased by 61,842. Last year's birth-rate in Lngland and Wales was the lowest ever.recorded; the figure was 15.8 per 1000 of the population. It is estimated that a Tate of 19.5 is required to maintain the population. A meeting of English journalists at Brooklands aerodrome, decided to form a Press Aero Club, which will be open to journalists and others connected-with the press who are interested in aviation. Southgate Council, England, will obtain expert advice to preserve the famous Minchenden oak in Arnos grove, which was mentioned in Domesday Book, and is thought to be more ths© 1000 years old.

The flippers of penguins were one® wings, but their changing environment has brought about the evolution of & member which is at once valuable for swimming and defence. They can strike a powerful blow. The list of one prominent film companv in Hollywood, which contains the names of 2460 girls, show that blondes are most popular, there being 1022 enrolled. At the other end of the scale come 20 red-haired belles.

The General Motors Corporation in the United States is the holder of the first £100,000.000 insurance policy ever taken out. Under the agreement 150,000 of i s dealers and employees will become eligi e for life insurance benefits. "MY. Charles Holden, tne architect, lately returned to London after a thiea months' preparative work in the country to complete the plans for the new £3,000,000 University of London buildings to be erected in Bloomsbury.

Britain stands fifth among the Great Powers with regard to fir s t-1 i'io i r ">. r The first four are France, with 1320 fight. in>T air machines; Italy, with 1100; the Uni'ed States with 1050; and Russia, with 1000. Britain has 790 only.

The amounts collected in rates by local authorities in England and Wales during 1929 and 1930, were £165,961,000 ana £135.500,000 respectively. Government grants to local authorities in the sama years were £90.090,000 and £105,000,000.

Claimed to be the shortest railway in the world, the line, one mile and threequarters long, between Ihe docks and warehouses on Governor's Island. NewYork, is to be scrapped. It is the remains of an eight-mile system built for war uso. A pair of sixteenth century Gothic tapestries belonging to Captain DenzilCope of Bramshill Park. Hampshire, realised £6OOO at Sotheby's, London, while a Chippendale mahogany suit© brought £2BOO, and a set of armchairs of the same period £IOBO.

Since the armistice approximately 11.000 houses have been demolished under improvement and reconstruction schenicSi in England and Wales. Some 224 local authorities propose to demolish approximately 60.000 houses, under improvement schemes during the next five years.

During the last year 27.000 people were reported "missing" in Paris, and mora » than 25,000 in New York. Britain's annual figure of women and girls for t •« whole country is about 15.000, of which number less than one-tenth remain undiscovered for more than two \\ ceks.

A young French scientist declares that the tongue reveals these secrets of the character of the owner:—A long tonguefrankness. A broad tongue—e.xpansiv*ness. A narrow tongue—concentration* A long and wide tongue—gossip. A narrow and short tongue, he says, mean» cunning and capacity for lying.