NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

THE WORLD AT A GLANCE

Soap in sheet form is being produced in packets like cigarette papers.

The growth of chicks can be increased by adding yeast to a ration containing 75 per cent, of cereal products. -Musk-rats destroyed in England have cost £1 a head, and in Scotland £4 a head.

In the past eight months one British aircraft company has sold fifty-two twinengined air-liners, worth nearly £150,000.

English seed-potatoes sell well all over the world, as growers know they are.the healthiest and the safest in the world.

More than 21.000 people are employed directly and wholly in England in the construction of aircraft and air engines.

Great Britain has about 1300 brickbaking plants; they employ over 70,000 people, and produce over 4,500,000,000 bricks a year. Roller-skating has become a craze in . San Francisco, U.S.A., where this means "'

of transport has been declared a vehicle liable to all traffic laws.

“Ha, ha,” is now the pass-word between Nazis in Austria. It is a substitute for “Heil! Hitler/’ a greeting which has been banned by the Austrian Government.

Last year 10,251 wrecked or worn-out motor cars were abandoned by their owners in the streets of New York City, an average of one every fifty-one minutes.

Stockley, a village in Wiltshire (Eng.), has no church,, post office, school, or public-house for its population of sixtynine, of whom more than one-third are drawing the old-age pension.

The Berlin fire brigade was recently summoned to a tea party to remove a swarm of bees from the plentiful white beard of an elderly man, who had fallen asleep on a shady bench. After whales in the Arctic regions have breathed fresh air for about twelve minutes, their blood is so aerated that they are able to go to sleep under the ice for several hours without • breathing. When two pieces of optical glass, are ground perfectly smooth and placed together, . their molecular, attraction is so strong that they cannot be separated by human force.

Portugal once had a great Colonial Empire, and it was Prince Henry, son 'of the reigning King of Portugal, who sent out the first expedition of Europeans to West Africa.

The ashes of Mr. William Albert Warren (64), a master wheelwright, were scattered over the floor of his forge near Camberwell Road, London, S.E., in fulfilment of his last wish.

Within the next four years, it is .estimated that there will be a drop of 350,000 in the number of British schoolchildren: this. decrease will become 1,000,000 in 1948. The police had to be called in to restore order when the Padua football team stopped at Mortara on their, .way back from a match. Standing in a row in front of the municipal band, which was playing in the main square, the footballers ostentatiously sucked lemons. 614,320 births and 484,083 .'deaths were registered in England, and Wales during 1932!. Population, therefore, increased by 130,237,0 compared with an average over five years of 162,891. The number of persons married during the year was 612,264.: . \ .

Earth taken from beneath the high •altar bf the" Church of the Holy. Cross, Jerusalem, has, been, placed under the foundation "stone of the Church of the Holy ■ -Cross:, Hornchurch,-; Essex. " The earth", was placed in an-olive-wood box. It was a gift to the Rev. xarles Steer, u" former Vicar of Hornchurch, when he was a chaplain at Jerusalem.

Platinum', wire used: in’ a; new 1/160 ampere fuse designed to'protect delicate electrical equipment is thirty times finer than the average-human hair; 13,000 could be laid side by side on a one-inch space. A pound of platinum will yield 25,100,000 feet of this wire—a piece 4750 miles longer than the earth’s radius. It would cost, approximately £2,256,000. - A peasant from the Bosnian village of Srebrnitsa has found an original way: of curing his wife of a scolding tongue. When all other threats and publishments / had failed he cut- off the. tip of -her tongue with a pair of scissors. In court , the woman stated cheerfully- that, the operation had been completely successful. ... . ■ . - •

A new race of real “sky pilots” is fast growing in Scotland. Air travel facilities are encouraging young ministers to volunteer for remote parishes in Orkney and Shetland; The problem of a few years ago caused by lack of ministers ho longer exists;. The-strength of the ministry has been greatly increased, and aeroplanes have "become‘a valuable factor in the island mission field.

.Tourists on the Eichber,..near Gloggnitz, Lower Austria, came upon a wildlooking man in a cave. At first he fled from, them, but eventually spoke to them and proved to be an educated man, born in Vienna. Long unemployment had caused him to flee the haunts of men. He lives on berries and mushrooms, and says he has no -wish to return to .civilisation. '

Capable of descending vertically,. landing without a jolt, crash-proof, stallproof, and fool-proof—these are the claims made by a Brechin (Eng.) man for an aeroplane invention on which he is working. He finds a difficulty in marketing his inventioji, and" has induced the local town council to. visit the workshop in which he is experimenting. The inventor is working on theories and ideas of Professor Langley, one of the pioneers of flying. Tests are likely to be carried out after a visit of inspection by the council members.