NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

THE WORLD AT A GLANCE The hen population of England and Wales is now 27,000,000. British shipyards are building over 40 per cent, of the world’s new vessels. Local councils in Great Britain control the spending of some £330,000,000 a year. Last year nearly 25,000,000 gallons of petrol were extracted from British coaL Newly distilled water that is absolutely pure has no taste. A row will eat-as much as 1001 b. of green food every day. The British Government receives about £64,000,000 a year from motorists. The world’s 1,900,000,000 inhabitants are estimated to speak some 3420 languages. A tailor in Washington can thread 15 needles at once. The oldest large building in the world is the “Step Pyramid,” in Egypt, which is estimated to be 6000 years old. Of the 40,000,000 persons living in South America to-day, at least 30,000,000 are Indians, negroes, or half-breeds. There is now 4,000,000.t0ns less of British shipping laid up than they had 12 months ago. « Extensions to cost £14,000 at the Cardiff Technical College include provision of an aeronautics department to train future air mechanics. ■

Bombs, shells and grenades to the number of 35 a month are still being abandoned in Paris and cleared up by the street scavengers. In San Francisco a man has a tree that bears 23 different kinds of fruit, including apricots, cherries and peaches. Patient grafting has developed the tree. Inaugurated by the B. and N. Line, the passenger service between the River Tyne and Norway has now become a well-established route. There .are signs that the traffic is steadily increasing.

Pithead baths described as “the best in South Wales” and costing £32,000 were opened by Sir John Benyon, chairman of directors, at the Waunllwyd Colliery, Ebbw Vale.

Etonian or other Public School man for proposed cocktail bar in Canary Islands; experience unnecessary; Spanish an advantage.—A recent advertisement in The ?Times.

A one-roomed house 30ft above ground has been built on a large tree by a man of Aiken, Colorado. It is heated and lit by electricity, and is reached by a rope ladder. The skeleton of a baby that was buried about 1600 years ago was found under the floor of a Roman house that is being excavated in Verulamium, near St Albans.

Japanese waltzing mice, which whirl on their hind legs 416 times without stopping, are said by Professor L. R. Dree to perform the feat because a defect in their inner ear affects their sense of balance.

Insurance against kidnapping is growing in the United States. But, paradoxically, no American company is allowed to write it. It is being taken out in England, a country that has seldom had a case of kidnapping for ransom. The driest spot in the world is a desert of 300,000 square miles in Chinese Turkestan. It is so devoid of both atmosphere and subterranean moisture that no human being, bird, beast or plant can subsist within its boundaries. A remarkable accident took place in a cricket match at Mysore (India), when a terrific delivery shattered the wicket A bail struck the wicket-keeper, a 17-year-old student named Nurayana, in the eye, and the metal shoe of a stump pierced-his heart, killing him.

A Bury, Lancashire, firm of papermakers’ engineers, have received a contract for -the manufacture of the largest news-print making machine in the world. The machine will produce from 200 to 225 tons of paper every 24 hours and is designed to run at a speed of 1400 ft a minute.

John Lysaght’s Normanby Park Steel Works (Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire), one night in October rolled 433 tons' of material, thereby breaking all previous records for, an 8-hour shift. During one week in the month they rolled 5121 tons of steel, also a record. Stated to have run 50,000 miles at a total fuel and lubricating cost of £166, the diesel-electric railbus built by Arm-strong-Whitworths has been put into regular service in the Newcastle area. It is the first railway vehicle of its kind in the world. ''

The oldest organised sports in history were the Tailtin Games, established in Ireland 3000 years ago, several centuries before the first Olympic Games of Greece. War destroyed their organisation about 1100, but they were revived in Dublin in 1924. ......

Burglars raided the famous temple of Dakshimeswar, near Calcutta, early one morning recently and stripped the idol of Kali, the Hindu Goddess of Destruction, of jewels worth nearly £BOOO, including a diamond-studded crown, a pearl necklace, a number of gold ornaments in. the shape of human heads, and a gold sacrificial knife. The goddess Kali is credited with peculiarly potent powers, and the numerous idols maintained in the temples erected in her name throughout the 1 country have been* considered, absolutely safe from vandalism for this reason.

Teapots die young as a rule. That is why manufacturers in the Burslem district of Staffordshire, dubbed the world’s teapot town, make ten millions of them every year. Of all crockery it is said that the teapot has the shortest life, owing to spout breakages, although firms are often asked to repair family-sized brown pots which have been in.use for a quarter of a century, and.'have got, according to their owners, thoroughly “seasoned.” One-cup io forty-cup size “pots” are turned out, and the reason why so many teapot factories are established in the town is- due to the suitability of the clay found locally.