NEWS IN BRIEF

Patea Mail, Volume XLVI, 29 August 1923, Page 3

NEWS IN BRIEF

There arc 1087 varieties of pears. The Irish. Sea is nowhere more than 710 ft deep. There are more women than men voters in Sweden. The sun gives 8,000,000 times more light than the moon. Horses know' at once when they have a nervous rider. Nearly one-eighth of the surface of Sweden is covered by lakes. Vultures are said to fly at times at a rate of more than 100 miles an hour. An earthquake travels at the rate of between 470 ft and 580 ft per second. Eats which live in the London ‘'tubes” are said to avoid the Jive wire by instinct. Elementary education in England, it is estimated, will cost £33,069,100 during this year. Natives of the interior of Africa hoard cattle as their wealth. They never kill or sell an ox. In twelve hours 35,000 vehicles pass the Mansion House, London, and 30,000 pass Ludgate Circus. Cigars 18in long, weighing half a pound, and priced at 35/-, were recently exhibited in London. Only nine deaths occurred out of a total of 784 street accidents in the City of London in 1921. The average size of family in the County of Kent, England, has decreased from 4.24 in 1911 to 4.09 in 1921. In Russia' there arc 1299 women to every 1000 men. Germany comes next with 1100, and Austria 1069. There are altogether about 400 street telephone kiosks in England, practically all of them in the provinces.

The latest circular saw is a disc of paper, which, driven at high speed, cuts through a plank of wood as easily as a steel blade. Coal dust powder, specially prepared, is the latest aid to beauty. It is placed round the eyes to enhance the whiteness of the orbs. Juvenile crime in England i? decreasing. In 1913 there were 37,520 eases; in 1917 the worst war year, 51,323; and in 1920, 30,253. When does a. boy become a man? A committee of the Camberwell Borough have decided That the change takes place at. the age of 18. The population of Dumfries eat, on an average, about two tons of chocolates and other sweets every week. In the last 22 years over a million and a quarter rats have been killed by the London Port Sanitary Authorities. 633,600 tons of pig iron were produced in Great Britain in March. This is the largest output since 1921,

The Eussian Soviet has fixed Monday as the weekly holiday, instead of Sunday. A reward of twopence for every queen wasp brought to them is offered by a Twickenham jam-making firm. The White Star liner Cedric, on a recent trip to New fork, carried five hundred canaries among the cargo. In an attempt to hold up business in the American Senate, one of the Senators made a speech which lasted for 10J hours. Middlesex Education Committee hope to make it possible for children in the school to employ themselves in making wireless sets.

An oil expert lias estimated that at tlic present rate of consumption the oil supplies of the world will give out in 20 years. •••.!«

Over a thousand men have spent eight weeks “ spring-cleaning' * the Aquitauia. The vessel has a new rudder weighing 85 tons. “Give the feminine of hero” was a question put to pupils in a South London secondary school. One bright scholar answered, “Shero.”

While a briar root, was being cut to make pipe bowls, a stone of fair size was discovered; geologists say that the stone inust have been imprisoned by the root for 1000 years. Pot the use of the London Metropolitan Police Porce, a new edition of the “Instruction Book* 7 has been issued. It contains 650 closely-printed pages, and weighs nearly three pounds.

Most of the churches in Naples have three or four cats attached to them. They are kept for the purpose of catching mice, which infest all ancient buildings. The animals may often be seen walking about among the congregation or stretched before the altars.