NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

THE WORLD AT A GL ANCE;

The average net selling price of coal at the pithead in Britain was 10s 2d a ton in 1913 and 13s 7d a ton in 1930.

Bread to the weight of about 14 tons is consumed by the average healthy human being who lives 70 years.

The poultry population of Canada is stated to 'be six times greater than the number of human inhabitants.

America’s Budget deficit, £161,800,000, is equal to the entire national expenditure, exclusive of -postal services,.before 1917.

Ice hodkey is one of the national sports in Canada, and last year well over 630,000 hockey sticks were manufactured.

A rhododendron, bearing small red flowers and less than one inch, in height, waS shown at a recent flower show in London.

Only people who are teetotallers, nonsmokers, and vegetarians will fee allowed to settle in a new tcftvn to be built near Prague, Czechoslovakia. There are approximately 4534 plainclothes policemen in Great Britain, of. whom 2892 are employed on detective work.

The number of children under the age of 12 months, who died in Scotland 7 during 1930 was 78'51, which, represents an infantile mortality rate of 83 per 1000.

Five years ago there were only 500 farmers using electricity in the whole of Great Britain. To-day there are 3500, and the number -is increasing rapidly. . . . ’

The total of deaths under one year of age registered in England and Wales during-1930 was 38,908, equivalent to an infant mortality rate of 60 ,per 'lOOO live births. " •

Of the five largest vessels built during 1930, three were built in Great Britain: The Empress of Britain, 42,000 tons; Warwick Castle, 21,000 tons; and Reina del Pacifico, 17,300 tons. So that it should not be crowded out . .by its -own seedlings, the creo&ote bush of America drops its seeds* and. then spreads a poison on them which slows . up genminE.cion. • . •

More than a hundred’ clubs and schools are now affiliated to the Wom- : en’s Cricket Association in England, and several “county” matches are already arranged for this season. Wireless transmitting and receiving sets will be installed in a chain of look-out towers being built in the forestry areas of Canada to guard against destructive fires.

The King and Queen sent a bouquet of flowers from the -Sandringham conservatory and a letter of congratulation to Mrs. Ann Ashton, of Castle Rising, Norfolk, who recently celebrated her 102nd birthday. ’ - * - /i’

Tennis rackets and . balls, fountainpens, gramophone ■ records, and wristwatches were part of the “ransom” demanded by Chinese bandits for the release of 1600 American women missionaries..

During last year there were 352 burglaries reported to the police in the 'London metropolitan area. Of these only 159 were cleared up to the point where arrest was possible' or proceedings were justified. At the end of January there were 526 automatic and 4293 manual telephone exchanges in the .United Kingdom.' The number of subscribers served by each: group of exchanges whs 298,000 and 948,000 respectively.. ■' . “Trousers” made of canvas must be

supplied to cows in Louisiana, unde® art official order, as a protection against an insect which attacks them. Elastic / ■braces and garters keep the garments in place. . . In 1880 the United Kingdom exported £197,000,000 worth of goods wholly or partly manufactured there. In 1913 the value' of these exports was £417,000,000. Last year they were worth £448,000,000. ' ' .

Advocating the development of the tourist traffic in Britain, the Lord Privy Seal stated in the House of Commons that foreign visitors to France spentbetween £100,000,000 and £120,000,000 in that country annually. ‘

The British Post Office has installed 2.600 stamp-selling machines throughout the country. There are also 34,350 public' telephone call offices, 10,040 of which' are-in public thoroughfares and. available at all hours of the day and night. 7 ■ 'A ' - '/■

Mr. John Galsworthy, who told an Oxford audience recently how authors • create their characters, writes all his ; own novels’in a deep armchair, with a* -' fountain pen in his hand and a pad .of paper on his knee. He never dictates and has never used a typewriter. ; A tablet to the million war dead of the British Empire erected by the Im- > perial War Graves Commission in the • Cathedral at Ypres, Belgium, was un- ■■ veiled. recently by General ‘Sir Charles Harington in the presence of the burgomaster. ’ . ■" . "

At the meeting of the National Committee of the Amalgamated Engineering Union at Blackpool (England), it was stated that nearly £700,000 of the union’s funds were paid out to unemployed members last year, bringing the total since 1920 to £10,000,000. During the year ended February 28, 1931, 207 persons were killed and 881were seriously injured by accidents at coal mines in South Wales. These figures represent 21 per cent, and 23.8 per cent, respectively of the corresponding totals for Great Britain. • The birth in the Berlin Zoo of an aurochs calf raises the total number of these animals in Europe to 51. The aurochs, or European bison, was almost exterminated during and immediately following the war, 'but a few were res-, •cued. The zoo’s calf, a heifer, has been given a hornless Swedish cow as fostermother. Twenty-five of the 26 distilleries in the Speyside whisky area have closed down a month ahead of the usual time, and the eeasop’s output will be reduced by 400,000 proof gallons. The cause is attributed partly to the effect of the ' heavy excise duty of 72s 6d per gallon and partly to the competition of cheap and highly alcoholic foreign wine®. The Canadian Pacific Railway, which, celebrated its jubilee recently, is claim-' ed to be the world’s greatest travel vyatem under one management. It controls and operates 21,000 miles of railway track, half a million tone of dripping, 130,000 miles of telegraph wires, .1 chain of hotels, and large land, mining and industrial interests. Its assets total syer £208,000,000.