NEWS IN BRIEF.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11763, 29 July 1916, Page 3

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The blood of a man weighs about] 201b. ! King George sees his physician every : day. French is the official language of the Channel Islands. Intrinsically Victoria Grosses are •worth only a few pence. Ona species of whito ant produces 86,400 eggs a day. There are ovor 200,G00 Boy Scouts in the British Empire. Police, licenses are issued to women cab drivers in Paris. Light takes Bmin ISaeo to travel from the sun to the earth. Kaiser Wilhelm once confessed that ha owned 18,000 neckties. There are 40 miles of shelves in the British Museum Library. Germans have been using shrapnel composed of glass instead of lead. ■ There are now about 1500 Esperanto societies and groups in the world. . There are four Smiths, six Joneses and no Browns in the House of Commons. England lost only one ship in the rout of the Spanish. Armada; Spain lost thirty-two. Belgian soldiers in a trench near Kieuport have a piano and a billiard table. It has. been estimated that a salmon can swim at the rate of 25 miles an . hour. There, are three million officials in Germany—one-twentieth of the total population. Over half the. newspapers published in the world are printed in the English language., ! At the beginning of the war Ger-j many possessed between 100 and 1500 | aeroplanes. j The ribbon of the Victoria Cross is ! crimson for the Army and blue for the Navy. So great is the vcelocity of electricity that it could travel round the world eight times a minute. To make night on earth as bright as day there would have to be over 800,000 moons in the sky. In the lajnproom of the Royal stables at Buckingham Palace there is a pair of lamps made of pure gold. Ab the beginning of the nineteenth century raoro than 200 offences were punishable with death in England. The three greatest beer-drinking countries are the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, in the order named. As far back as 1386 Portugal, which has been a republic since October 5, 1910, entered into its first treaty with Britain. Last year the British Board of Film Censors considered 6282 separate pictures, of which they took exception to 148. Corporals in the Life Guards used to be commissioned officers, ranking with the senior lieutenants of other regiments. Over 200,000 women and girls arc among the 1,900,000 Government workers in metal, chemical and ordnance factories. In Russia the standard as regards height for the military gfervice begins at oft for infantry and sft 3in for cavalry. " Great Britain; Russia and France are in the order named, the three countries with the greatest area of provinces and dependencies. It is estimated that the proposed war tas on amusements will yield the British Government not less than £50,000 from Blackpol alone. Underwriters at Lloyd's, for a premium of 2ogs per cent, undertake to pay a total loss should peace net be proclaimed by September 30, 1917. Military service in Portugal is compulsory. All men from the age of seventeen to forty-five are liable-to bs called out, but practically service only begins at the age of twenty. Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, has a population of about half a million. Its harbour is one of the finest in the world, and largo enough to hold all tho navies of Europe. Only two racehorses have ovor won over £55,000. These are Isinglass, with a total of £57,475 in three seasons, and Donovan, who won £55,153 for the 3>uke of Portland. . . * In consequence or the scarcity of labour, and as" a matter of "national paring/' Ealing bakers and confectioners decided not to supply hot cross buns last Good Friday. Forests sometimes take firo through tlie branches of trees being nibbed together by the violence of tho wind, and thus producing the friction necessary to ignite, them. In time of peace John Bull's'annual income is said to be £2.400,000,000. During the war boom it has been probably higher. His ordinary savings every year reach nearly £400,000,000. Tho .ten countries with the largest populations are, in the order named, China, India. Russia, the United Sates. Germany, -Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Austria,. The greatest earthquake on record occurred at Lisbon, when, in 1755, in less than ten minutes, the greater part of the city was made a heap of nuins, and from 30.000 to 40.000 persons killed. Oat of 800.000 children born annually, according to the Duchess of Marlborough. 100,000 die in the first year. T- is estimated that 70 per cent of these could he saved hv proper care. Portugal hrr> a population or closo upon 6.000,000, ar-d a peace army of TO,OOO men. When fully mobilised, hrjwever._ it should consist of a quarter of a million men of tho first and second line. War economies in England have so reduced the demand for eggs that they cro now cheaper in tho United States, whence a lario proportion of supplies was drawn, than has been the case for many years. Three-fifths of the people of Portugal arc engaged in agriculture. The chief exports are which Britain imports ahoub £1,000.C00 worth end France a similar quantity—cork, cattle, sardines, fruit and copper. Under the present treaty Britain is pledged to defend Portugal in case of au attack in return for certain coaling and harbour facilities. When war broke cut Portugal offered Britain an es--s>edj'iionary corps for Flanders. Women in Buda Pesth who da their dressmaking at horns, arc urged net to use either English, French or American fashion books. It. is suggested that sl.opkeepers selling goods of French or English design should be boycotted. Mr H. B. Irving, -who presided at the annual meting ol the Actors' Association at the Saroy said that there were more than 2000 actor - * fit \h e front, "It 13 doubtful/-' he added, " if any profession can snow a larger percentage." The proposed war tax on matches in England has brought .about a tremendous boom in the sale of llint-and-stcel tinder-lighters. the bulk of which aro 'uade for Britain by France, Upland, and were formerly imported also from Bel^i'ira.