NEWS IN BRIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22250, 26 October 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF

The roof of the main Leipzig railway station is to be an aerodrome. Telephone conversation is now possible between England and Iceland. In Britain office workers are stated to be the tallest class of tho community. It was announced recently that there are now 914,200 telephones in the London area. British banks employ nearly 15,000 women, many of them under twenty years of age. Nearly 100,000 boys and girls become available for work every year in Greater Britain. Tliere are still more than 40,000 horses in use in London. Ten years ago there wero about double that number. Burgundy, wine-red, aubergine and berry blue are among the new shades for women's wear in England this autumn. The Dutch First Chamber recently passed a Bill whereby the Government will allow shipping companies loans free of interest: The Boy Scout movement, which is world-wide, has now 2,500,000 members, while there are about 1,500,000 Girl Guides. Luxury trades, including millinery, jewellery and clothing, in Greater London now find employment for 58,000 persons. Ten elephants could stand on tho wings and body of a modern airliner without causing it to collapse. Tests have shown that. Capable of transmitting 200 different conversations at one time, a new type of telephone cable is to be laid between London and Birmingham. July and August are said to be the most popular months for marriage in Britain, probably because these are the principal holiday months. According to official returns the number of unemployed in Germany sank by 48,000 during August to 1,706,000, against 2,397,600 last year. ' . Thirty is a bad age for women workers. In London alone tliere are 53,000 unemployed, of whom the great majority are over that age. Safety-razor blades, for which the makers claim that they will take a finer edge than steel, are to be turned out by a Continental glass factory. Wasps have been scarcer this summer in England. This will probably result in an increase of " leather jackets," which do so much harm to grass lawns. London now leads in the dress world, both in style and price. "A model which can be bought for £3O would cost more than double in Paris," says one expert. Ostriches, with little native boys as jockeys, provide an unusual sportipg attraction in South Africa. They are specially trained to race against one another. "Frugality" post office (Pennsylvania) has been closed, as the town has declined in importance, but a post office has been opened at "New Deal," Montana. A man of 126 at Guilan, a Caspian district of Iran, has a son over 1.00 years old, a daughter of 95, and 300 grandchildren. He has been married three times. Nurses in the hospitals under the London County Council are to have a 54-hour week, while women orderlies will be employed to do cleaning, bedmaking, etc. A plague of flying ants stopped a cricket match for half an hour at Outwood, Surrey. Armed with stumps, the players drove them off and the game was resumed. Tenders from British shipping yards for the building of the new 35,000-ton steamer of the Holland-Amerioa Lite were 30 per cent below the tender from the Dutch yards. Britain's coalmining industry last year produced 213,760,556 tons of saleable coal, provided employment for 737,960 persons, and showed a net profit of over £4,000,000. A church, a skating-rink, a fullyequipped stage, a broadcastiug studio, two swimming-baths and three cinemas are to be included in the Queen Mary, Britain's largest liner. Polish officials travelling abroad are forbidden to give interviews or make statements in public before obtaining approval of Polish representatives in the countries they visit. With a dial 30ft. in diameter, a new clock recently built in England for a South African airport is the largest horizontal clock in the world. The minute hand is 17ft. long. Maude Fealy, acclaimed on the stages of England and Broadway 20 years ago, is on the relief rolls (dole) at LO3 Angeles with many other stage players, producers and directors of bygone days. Sir Malcolm Campbell has been 25 years in motor-racing, and has seen the speed record rise from 39 miles per hour—in 1898. His-first record attempt was in 1925, when he did 150 miles an hour. Among driving "faults," excessive speed is stated to be responsible, for more fatal accidents in Britain than any other individual cause. This led to 113 of the 1500 accidents recently analysed. Most optical glass of the best quality was made on the Continent before the war. To-day 80 per cent of the films made in England and America are taken with ienses manufactured in Leicester. In 1874 Hugh MulKris bet two men five shillings that one day there would bo a town on tho sito of his claim. As the town of Broken Hill was erected thereon ho won. Its first name was Mullinsville. Tho largest fishing vessel in the world, the Arctic Queen, has just been sold by a Hull firm to the Russian Government. She carries a crew of 400, and a fleet of -10 small motor-boats, from which the actual fishing is done. One of the longest camera sliot3 on record was made by an Army photographer from an aeroplane at an altitude of 23,000 ft. near Salinas, California. The camera lens caught the peak of Mount Shasta, 331 miles away. The railway reformers in England are now tackling noise in earnest. Rubber tyres are being used for platform barrows. Engine-drivers are cautioned about blowing off steam unnecessarily. Banging and bawling at night are forbidden. Tho origin of tea is mainly traditional. It was certainly used in China by the 6th century A.D. Its use in England began in tfie middle of the 17th century. Pepys wrote on September 25, 1660, that he had just had a cup of it. A clock which requires no winding has been patented-at Prague, Czechoslovakia. Known as a radio clock, which can be operated ffom a distance of 500 miles, it has as "works" a small receiving set to control the progress of the hands.