NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

THE WORLD AT A. GLANCE First-class lawn-tennis balls will be about sixpence a dozen eheape.' in 1932 than they were in 1931. Soldiers are learning to save money; there are now 227 branches of the Savings Association in the British Army.

There are about 3,500,000 dogs m Britain, canine pets or watchdogs being kept in two homes out of every five. “The modern girl is not so bad as she is painted—except when she is painted,” said a famous London schoolmistress recently. Ten thousand pounds’ worth of radium was stolen from a Barcelona hospital recently, and it is feared that the thief will try to sell it abroad.

British 'babies born last year have an average expectation of life of 58 years; in India the figure is between 20 and 25 years. /

Engagements are so scarce that more than 12,000 musicians of all grades are unemployed in Great Britain; there are 3000 in, London alone. ;,■■■ Watches which hold a lipstick are a fashion fad in Paris; when the lipstick is turned up for use the movement winds, up the watch. Juveniles drawing unemployment benefit in Edmonton (England) have to attend special evening classes so many times a week pr they lose their benefit.

Synthetic scent, which costs less than one-tenth the price of the perfumes distilled from flowers, is helping to destroy the famous perfume industry in the South of France.

Women in Burma have equal rights with men where property is concerned; husband and wife live on terms of greater equality than in any other country in the world. Mr. James Newby, of School Farm, Blackpool (England), who is 100 years old, has never been in a theatre or cinema, and has never heard wireless or a gramophone.

“The United States is the most criminal country in the world,” said aA American judge recently. “■lts laws are the most poorly enforced, and its justice the most weakly administered.” Among the fashionable colours for feminine attire are to be linnet’s egg, moonstone, valley mist, and snow shadow in the evening, and soldier red, thistle, and rusty red in the day-time. Figures given by Sir Kingsley Wood, Postmaster-General in Great Britain, show that since the inauguration of the Cash-on-Delivery system in 1926 the number of postings in a year 1 has increased from 767,000 to 2,375,000.

Chasing birds in an aeroplane, an American airman found that geese travelled at from 52 to 56 miles an hour, wild ducks at 46 miles (top figure), and teal at nearly 75 miles an hour when alarmed. 1 '

A new metal, whidh has been invented by a British firm, is, lighter than aluminium, as strong as cast-iron, cheaper than brass, impervious to seawater, and can be bent while cold. It is already in use by the Admiralty.

Miss Jane Addams, also an American, is 71, and lives in Chicago. She has written many books on sociological subjects and has been president of the Women’s International League of Peace for 15 years. At present she is lying ill in a hospital in Baltimore. The Nobel Peace Prize amounts this year to nearly £lO,OOO, the highest ever awarded.

When there is a wet day at Sandringham the Queen often asks one of her guests, to read aloud to her while she sews or knits. She likes to hear what is being written in the big reviews, to listen to book reviews and articles on psychology. Fiction does not interest her much. • King George, however, has simple tastes. He enjoys good jazz on the gramophone, and reads the best of detective novels.

Mr. John. Fothergill, who keeps the Spreadeagle Inn at Thame, in Oxfordshire, may claim to be regarded as England’s most original hotelkeeper. He has just written a book, “An Innkeeper’s Diary,’’ and one passage in it deserves quotation: “'Last Sunday we had 39 folk to tea, and I noticed they ..were almost all ill-shaped, ugly, or ill-dressed. I came into the office and complained at having to work for such people at Is 6d a head. I told Phyllis to charge sixpence extra face money for the worst cases.” .

An interesting bit of information about Mr. Temple Thurston, the novelist, has 'just been revealed by himself. When writing his first successful novel, “Sally Bishop,” he was so poor that he was sometimes without money for a meal. Many a time he could not afford a fire. Yet‘it was self-imposed poverty, for his wife had just written a bestseller, “John Chilcote, MJ?.,” and was earning £lO,OOO a year. But Temple Thurston would have none of her fnoney. He was determined t- succeed by his own unaided efforts or die in the at-, tempt. His wife, incidentally, before she had done with “John Chilcote, M.P.,” made £lOO,OOO out of it, including the play and film rights., Another expedition in search of the £12,000,000 treasure reputed to be buried at Cocos Island, 500 miles off Panama, is being'-, planned by Sir Malcolm Campbell and . Mr. K. Lee Guinness (the two racing motorists), Mr. John de Forest (son of Baron de Forest), and Mr. “Boy” Schoftel (the amateur golfer). It is proposed to carry an aeroplane in the yacht in which the expedi-. tion will be made. Sir Malcolm Campbell and Mr. Guinness made a similar attempt several years ago, but met with no success. “Actually no date has been fixed for the expedition tb start, but my husband still believes there is treasure on Cocos Island, and he intends to make another ‘shot’ at it,” said Lady Campbell.