General News Items

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

General News Items

OPERATION OF 2000 YEARS AGO A skull on exhibition in the London Museum contaius evidence of an operation performed 2000 years ago. In the centre of the skull appears a neat round hole, drilled, according to the experts, to let out the evil one inside the patient, who was probably suffering from epilepsy. CHINA'S " MODERN " CITY While progressive merchants inconsistently name their stores " Ye Olde Tea Shoppe " and " Ye Olde Furniture Shoppe," an enterprising poultry dealer in Canton, China, has begun a boom by .soiling what he calls " modern liens." The appellation has so struck the public fancy that all of the city's vendors have appropriated the adjective, so that Canton now enjoys modern peanuts, modern rice and modern kerosene. GIPSIES AND INCOME TAX 6ipsies in Britain do not escape income tax. Every winter they gather in encampments, and then the assessors and collectors, who have not bothered about them while they were wandering about the country during the summer, get bjisy. Officials pay a visit to the encampment, and if they see a newly-painted caravan, with cheerful curtains and a generally prosperous appearance, they will not accept a return of income that they.think too low. The collectors see • that, whatever the final assessment is. payment is duly made. WORLD'S BIGGEST STATUE Moscow is planning to erect the world's biggest statue —a great chro-mium-platecl image of Lenin, ISOft. high. And it will stand much higher than that, for it is planned to be the crown of a giant " Palace of the Soviets," which will be nearly SOOft above the street before the statue bogins. The famous New York statue of Liberty, which is usually regarded as the world's largest, is only 151 ft., including the torch and the pedestal. Nelson's Column, in Trafalgar Square, London, is 145 ft., not including the statue, which is ISft. 'New York, however, will still be able to boast the world's tallest building—ihe Empire—which is 1248 ft. high. FINDING THE BEST BRICKS What are the best bricks for building purposes? is a question often asked. Experts differ—but there will soon be an end to arguments on this The Building Research Board in Britain has been carrying out a big exposure test in order to ficcl out. Samples of various makes of bricks have been partly buried in the ground, and conditions arranged so that they will hare to face the worst that can be done both by frost and by soluble salts in the soil. The report of the board shows that among the problems it has investigated recentlv were the acoustics of the new assembly hall of the League of Nations, and .the* effect of heat and sugar on white sand-lime bricks in a jam factory. In all, 1388 inquiries and special investigations were dealt with during last year. VAST DOMESDAY BOOK A vast Domesday Book of six-inch-to-the-niile maps, showing every footpath, bridci-path, stile, and steppingstone in England and Wales to which the ipublic has right of access, is in rou'rse of preparation. This book owes its • origin to the Rights of Way Act, 1932,; which became law on January 1. The Act makes provision for landlords to lodge with their rural district or county council a map of their own estate, showing the footpaths which thev concede to be public. . . Tfie'' new Rights of Way Acts marks the end of a twenty-five-years' struggle on the part of the Footpaths and Commons Preservation Society to get it placed on the Statute Book. Everv path that, finds its way into the new Domesday Book becomes part of the national heritage for all time. MAN WITH MANY CANARIES For the fiftieth time Herr Oppermaiin, of Alfeld in the Harz, in Germany.;; was lately on his way to America pursuing his occupation of travelling companion and personal escort of canaries. When he returns, having completed his 100 th crossing, he will be able to record the transporting of at least 100,000 of the songsters to the United States. He takes over birds bred round St. Andreasberg. the skiing resort, in the Northern Harz, for sale in America. This district is the chief/ breeding centre for the famous Harz roller canary. Herr Oppermann's calling is no sinecure. He has to be a combination of steward, valet, waiter and chambermaid to his small charges, attending to their food, temperature and cleanliness. Not more than 2500 canaries can be looked after by one person. ZOO'S SLEEPING BEAUTY Fellows of the Zoological Society are following with great interest the bulletins concerning Michael Galapagos, the London Zoo's 120-year-old tortoise. Falling to sleep in September, 1932, he had in December already broken one long-standing record, the previous best / for a tortoise being nine months. And now ho is well on the way to achieving another. This is the record fast, which at present stands to the credit of Serpello, an Indian python of bygone days, who went two years and four months without food. Meantime strange things have been happening under the slumbering tortoise's nose. A few delicacies placed there by Keeper Hare —what could be a more appropriate name tor a tortoisekeeper:' —to draw him front his dreams, attracted a pair of mice. These, finding the spot to their liking, straightway settled down to housekeeping, and have since reared a litter of six youngsters. STOCKTAKING AT LONDON'S ZOO The London Zoo likes to know what it is worth. On the last clay of the year the keepers are given report sheets on which to enter details of every animal under , their care. Subsequently, a committee of experts reviews these reports, places a figure against the name of each anirrial, and so arrives at a conservative estimate.of the present value of its stock, excluding the inmates of the Aquarium and Insect House. /The total value ot the zoo s animal population of 4000, counting the birds as animals, is calculated at about £35,000. Such factors as the animals expectation of life, rarity in the wild state, breeding powers in captivity, degree of docility, and physical bulk are all taken into consideration when ascertaining . the worth. The highestpriced animal in the collection is the rhinoceros,'""valued at £1000; the "cxt most expensive," two gorillas, which arrived iust. over a year ago, worth £BOO each. Snakes.are valued at £'•> a foot', and tortoises at £IOO a hundredweight. , Elephants, though they earn from £2OO to £3OO a year carrying children, never appear to rise in value above £4OO each. A young giraffe is worth £6OO, but as its neck grows l°"K£ r its price decreases, owing to the difficulty of transporting so unwieldy a creature. Lions now breed so freely in captivity that their value has fallen from £2OO to £3O since the war. I'roni £IOO a pair budgerigars (love birds) have fallen in value to a few shillings each.'

TO BE TAKEN AS READ Mr. T. Burrough, a barrister, who appeared at Bristol Assizes recently; tolcl Mr. Justice du Parcq that he could not pronounce the name of a place which figured in tbe case. The barrister handed the papers to the judge, who said he would be content to read the name. It was Cwm Nant-yr-Odyn, Pontllanfraith. TAXES THAT PEOPLE PAY National taxation in Britain works out at £l4 10s 6d a head for the current finances. Mr. L. Hore-Belisha, financial secretary to the Treasury, gave this figure in a written Parliamentary answer. The taxation per head in the United States was given as 18.47d01. (£3 12s scl at o.lOdol. to the £); in France as 1,105.81 francs (£l3 3s 3d at 84 francs to -1110 £); and in Germany as 105.99 reichsmarks (£7 14s 9d at 13.70 reiclismarks to the £). ' SHIRT MADE IN 60 SECONDS Those who refuse to believe that a shirt, with all its stitching, trimming, button-holing, and so forth, can be made in one minute, should go to a building in London, and see nineteen girls, seated at nineteen tables, separated into two blocks by a moving conveyer, performing this miracle of speed. Each girl performs one operation. One sews cuffs, another makes collars, another button-holes. All the time shirts in various stages of completion are moving with the conveyer from one table to another. At full pressure the minute can be reduced, it is said, to fifty-five seconds! WOLVES TRAPPED IN TRAIN Wolves are still a menace in Eastern Europe in winter. Recently an express train from Bucharest to Kischinev, the capital of Bessarabia, was snowbound near Zloty, and while awaiting help a pack of hungry wolves bore down upon it. The train staff had no firearms, so they emptied a luggage van and threw "into it raw meat from the restaurant car. The big van was instantly filled with snarling wolves, who fell to fighting one another for the meat. The heavy doors were promptly closed and barred, and later the train was relieved and proceeded, with the wolves, on its journey to Kischinev. On arrival eighteen wolves were found more or less alive, the rest having been torn to pieces. BRITAIN'S BIG FIRE BILL Fires in Great Britain and Ireland ra.ged at the rate of £22 8s 6d a mmute thoughout last The total estimated damage was £975,000, compared with £570,000 in October and £579,000 in November, 1932. The more serious fires of the month included: Southern Railway's sawmills, Eastleigh, £80,000; rope factory, Poplar, £40,000; cotton mill, Tottenham, £35,000; flannel mill and warehouse, Mosley, £30,000 engineering works, Bradford, furnishing stores, London, W., and wine and spirit stores London, N.W., 25,000 each; and glass bottle works, Queenborough, £20,000.. • The estimated direct losses for the eleven months of 1933 were £9,680,000, compared with £8,302,600 for the corresponding period of 1932, an increase of £1,377,400. MEN'S LIKING FOR CHOCOLATE Men eat more chocolate than women, according to a research conducted by a chocolate firm in England. Five thousand men aud women were selected at random in various spheres of life, in offices, factories, shops, colleges, and institutions, and were asked for their opinion on samples of the new chocolate made according to variations of the same recipe. The following conclusions were reached as a result of the investigations: —Ninety-five out of every 100 men eat cake or block chocolate, which is. only 2 per cent less than the figure for women. On an average each man eats soz. of chocolate a week, whereas a woman eats less than 4oz. a week. Men like milk chocolate because of its flavour, whereas women prefer it because of its sweetness and consistency. THE LONELIEST NEW YEAR Who will spend the loneliest New Year's Day in the world? was a question asked in England in December. A writer says:—" It may be some of the members of the surveying party of eight left by H.M.S. Challenger on the coast of Labrador last autumn. They are carrying out survey work along the icebound coast, living in snow houses and tents, and travelling by dog-sieigh and on snowshoes. "All the members of the party are volunteers. For six months yet they will be on their own in the wilds, unable to communicate with their friends, although they may receive messages bv wireless at their headquarters, an oid hospitaJ at the Hudson Bay Company's post at. Nain. It has been estimated that this Labrador survey will take half a centory to complete, but the work of the eight volunteers may help to speed things up a bit. ALL IN ONE MINUTE The human heart beats approximately 72 times a minute, 90 babies come into the world every minute, 76 people die every minute. Each minute one person is injured in a street or road accident in the British Isles. In the civilised world 20 couples marry and one couple is divorced every minute. Education costs Britain £65 per minute. The damage done by and the destruction of rats in Britain cost £99 every minute. Despite this, if all the rats in the country were to file past a given spot, at the rate of seven a minute, all would not have passed in a year. Coffee is consumed in Britain at the rate of 833.333 cups a minute. In the same period 375 tons of potatoes are eaten. Recentlv an aeroplane flew from Paris to West Africa at the rate of two and I a-quarter miles a minute. One oi Britain's coal ports alone loads no fewer than 1" tons of coal every minute to be shipped to all parts of the world. FROG FOR A FRIEND Can a man tame and make a friend of a frog? According to a story told by a correspondent to The Times he can. Here are passages from the story of "Jonathan" (the frog). "A display of emotion on the part of such a cold-blooded amphibian as a frog seems to be incredible, but experience makes it possible for me to vouch for the accuracy of what might otherwise appear improbable. My acquaintance with Jonathan began early this summer, when he was discovered sitting in a minute water garden which is. the frequent haunt of thirsty birds. After that he was fed twice a clay almost without intermission, and he showed himself to be highly appreciative both of the fare and of the society offered to him. " That a frog can possess no small intelligence is shown by the dexterity with which Jonathan would distinguish between friends and strangers. He would regard inquisitive aliens with indifference from the depth of his donißin, and no amount of coaxing could bring him to the surface. Consequently he was sometimes a most disappointing performer, and his usual audience was confined to two. In spite of this deficiency lie was a faithful and fascinating little pet, and now that autumn has caused him to retire for the winter, his loss, to one person at least, is a real ___ )> one.

TAXES ON LONDON BUSES It was stated a few weeks ago that at the present rates the ordinary type of omnibus used in London paid about £-400 a year in taxation. The sum works out approximately at twenty-two shillings a clay, so that the first penny fares taken each day go to the Treasury. It is only after , this that there is anything available for wages and other expenses, or for profit. LANDLORD LOSES A HOUSE The landlord of an eight-roomed wooden house at Kielco, in south-east Poland, was not on good terms with his tenants. One day the tenants dismantled the house, transported it, plank by plank, some 50 miles away, and re-erected it in a forest. When the landlord went to collect the rent he was amazed to find that his house had vanished. He searched for it for two months before he found it. The tenants were charged with having stolen the house. LONGER OCEAN LINERS Speed is so important a factor in modern ocean travel that some liners which have been in service for a number of years are now being lengthened in order to make them faster. This is happening in the case of four German liners, which have been taken off the Atlantic rout-e temporarily to have about 40ft. added to their bows. The additions, which weigh about 600 tons each, will enable the vessel's engine power to be increased, which, other things being equal, will mean a gain in speed. Naturally, an operation of this sort has to be carried out very carefully, but shipbuilders have now perfected its technique, and it is becoming increasingly common. FOUNDED ON FOURPENCE A rocking elephant made by an unemployed man was the pride of an exhibition of toys opened by the Lord Mayor of Leeds at the Woodsley Occupational Centre, which was originally started with a capital of fourpence! The workshops were made by unemployed men out of dirty and decrepit rooms, where they were coached by an unemployed joiner; the results were found in many a happy child's stocking at Christmas, for the toys made range from elaborate working models to skittles, dolls' houses, and the culminating and aforementioned rocking elephant. The exhibition represented a delightful piece of communal work which might be widely copied.

" PROGRESS " IN VENICE The Venetians are asking themselves whether their beloved city will be modernised and made like other places. Gondoliers are asking whether as a race they will soon be extinct. People do not seem to want them any more and prefer the noisy little motor-boats which dash through the canals and get passengers anywhere in a few minutes. The picturesque little shipyard which used to delight the eye as one strolled from the palace of the Doges to the public gardens lias disappeared. Why? Instead of cauldrons of boiling tar and growing hulls of boats there will soon be a new promenade in modern style. It will give a view across to the Lido, where garish hotels stand shoulder to shoulder. But the little yard was the delight of artists, who will come no more. There are two parties in Venice —the Conservatives, who loved the city as it was, and the Progressives, who are putting modern buildings among the old, marble-studded palaces with their air of repose and mystery. The Conservatives complain that before long the city will leave nothing to the imagination. But the others only laugh. SECRETS OF THE HONEYCOMB There is a shop in a quiet old London square which is redolent with the atmosphere of bygone days. Pot-pourri, perfumes and herbs culled from sunmellowed gardens arc for sale, with pure golden honey from the Narbonne district of France, where the bees feed solely on rosemary and lavender. Pure honey is stated to be a greater restorative than alcohol in cases of heart disease. Honey is practically imperishable and can be kept for thousands of years. The best honey, however, is difficult to get, as the market is overstocked with man-made imitations and bee-keeping is a skilled craft, as the bees will not be kept by everyone and will only respond to certain people. The most prized honey is made by bees that live on one sort of flower. Orange blossom, rosemary, lime, heather and thyme hone%-s are all valuable and light in colour, while the delicious holly honey is so dark as to be almost black. In this delightful shop one, also learns the secret values of simple herbs and flowers which are grown in almost every garden; the blue border lobelia can be used to cure whooping cough and lily of the valley to relieve troubles of the heart. The culinary herbs have great health-giving properties as well. Every housewife, says the Weekly Scotsman, ought to know the uses of celery seeds, mignonette pepper, tarragon, marjoram and nasturtium seeds.

ROMANCE IN A CAFE Inn cafe They first met — Romeo and Juliette. He was broke — Flat—deep in debt— So Romeowed what Juliette. THE PARROT'S FAILING " This parrot," said the assistant, will learn very quickly anything you teach it." But the man who bought it returned after a week and demanded his money back. " What's wrong with the bird, sir?" asked the assistant. " The d-d-d-darned th-thing s-t-stut-tcrs," said the purchaser. SHE " EGGED " HIM ON A celebrity was placed next to a talkative and inquisitive maiden lady, who bored him excessively with her questions. " Tell me. won't you, what was your greatest amoition as a child, and have you attained it?" she asked. The celebrity looked at her sadly and said: "Madam, I regret to say I have never attained my boyhood ambition." " And what was it?" " Madam, my great ambition was to throw an egg into an electric fan." STRICTLY BUSINESS A young woman went into a bank and asked for a cheque to be cashed. The cashier shook his head. " I'm sorry," he said politely, " but you'll have to get someone to introduce you before I can pay out the money on this cheque.'' She stared disdainfully at him. " I'll have you understand, sir," she said haughtily, " that I am here strictly on business. 1 am not paying a social call and, furthermore, I do not want to know you." A SMALL PART The defendant in a damages case called on his solicitor the day after he had won his claim in Court. The solicitor handed him a cheque. "But what does this mean?" exclaimed the client angrily. "This is only one-fifth of the money; you've detained four-fifths for yourself." " Well, what about it?" said the solicitor coolly. " I furnished the skill, the eloquence, and the necessary legal learning which won the case." " Yes," said the client hollowly; " but didn't I furnish the case?" " Oh, bosh!" said the other. "Anybody could break his leg."

DREAM AND THE HOLIDAY In the winter I'd visions of Venice or Tunis; In spring it was Florence or Rome, A little bit later 'twas Margate or Brighton, Now—l'm spending my fortnight at home. A BARGAIN After much argument a Scotsman bought a second-hand car for a moderate sum. When the deal had been concluded he said to the garage proprietor: " Well, now what about a drink out of the profits?" ""What!" said the dealer, aghast. "Good heavens, no, man. It couldn't be done. But I'll chuck in another car if you like."

THE HANDY MAN A man got a job polishing motor-car bodies. During the first week he was taught to polish with the right hand only. The second week he was mado to use the left hand only. Next week he had to use both hands simultaneously. At the end of the third week the foreman said to him: " Easy, isn't it?" " Yes," said the new employee with a tired grin, " and if you'll just fix a brOom to my pants, I'll sweep the floor at the same time."

LESSONS SHE 'LIKED " Miss Reddle is learning to ride a bicycle." said Tom, with a wry smile. " Really?" said his companion. " But she rode one last year. Why is she learning again?" " Well, last year her brother taught her," explained Tom, " but this year her. brother's friend is doing it." QUITE CORRECT The schoolteacher asked her pupils to name some of the most dangerous jungle animals. " A tiger," said one little boy. " A lion," put in another. " A bear," suggested a third. " Now tell me something with horns that it is dangerous to go near," she asked. " Motor-cars, miss," put in Jimmy Smith. WHERE THE COLONEL WAS The editor was furious. " Are you the chump v.'ho wrote up the county ball ? " he said to the quaking reporter. " Oh, you are? Well, look here. " Among the pretty girls in the room was Colonel Oldnut? Nice rubbish that is. The colonel is a man, 1 suppose, isn't he? " " He may be," said the reporter, brazenly, " but that is where he was." IT PAID BEST The schoolteacher was giving her class a talk on the sayings of the wise. " Now, here is a very good example of what I mean," she said. " 'lt is more blessed to give than to receive.' " " Teacher," piped up little Bertie, " my father says ho always sticks to that motto in his business." "How noble of him!" said teacher. " I'm sure he must be a very fine man. By the way, Bertie, what is your father's profession?" " Oh, he's a boxer," replied the boy proudly. TIT FOR TAT The bus conductor had not noticed the hole in the threepenny-bit until he had gone well down the bus. After he had finished collecting he returned to the culprit. " Here, cuv'nor," he said, thrusting the coin Wore the man, " what's this?" " What's what?" asked the fare calmly. " This 'ere threepenny-bit," said the conductor. " Look, it's got a 'ole in it." " Well, what about it?" said the other. " So has the ticket you gave me."