NEWS IN BRIEF.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11805, 16 September 1916, Page 3

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A queen bee produces 100,000 eggs ii a season. Vanilla comes from an orchid grown in Mexico. If salt is used for sweeping carpets, it will keep out moths. Priests in the Greelf Church have iheir heads shaved quite bald. Pomegranate skins are used for making " morocco leather." Oelory is a Rood euro for rheumatism and neuralgia. Storks will feed upon locusts until they are too full to flyIn Ukraine. Russia, it is the maiden who makes the marriage proposal. Gun-deafness is one oi tho distressing troubles of war. Ifc is impoesiblo to run at an altitude of 17,000 feet above the sea. Otters are used by the natives in .some parts of India to catch fish. Burials in church were commonly discontinued in France about 1777. It is not absolutely necessary for a man to sign his will. Ho may make a cross. Every Swedish girl not born to wealth is taught a trade of some kind. A Roman legion was ten cohorts of 000 men each, with a wing of 300 horse. Soldiers in the Russian army are i!> carry compasses fitted with luminous needles. Ants hare brains larger in proportion to the size of their bodies than any other living creature. The largest statue in existence is that of Peter the Great in Petrojcnul. It weighs one thousand tons. It in stated that a morsel of sugar dipped in vinegar, and placed in he mouth, stops hiccough immediately. French law requires that a body shall be buried within forty-eight hours after death, unless it is embalmed.

From Russia wo learn that an electrical process is being tried for the manufacture of gold leaf, heretofore made only by hand. A rifle bullet travels at its greatest speed not as it leave* the barrel, but at about ten feet away from tho r.miazio.

All men of genius are said to have eves clear, slow-moving, and bright. This is the eye which indicates mental ,'ibility of dome kind, it does not matter what.

The greatest distanc'o the human voiw has been heard is said to be < k;li teen miles, this record being held by tho grand canyon of tho Yellow- .• i.o.H- Park, America. Tho Siraplon tunnel, connecting Switzerland and Italy, is the longest railway tunnel in the world, being twelve miles four hundred and fifty(■ifiht vards in length. The tide of the Bay of Fundy is the r.iost remarkable in the world. It rises at tho rate of a foot every five minutes, the water sometimes attaining the height of seventy-live feet. Many of the woods in Mexico and South America are so heavy even when perfectly dry that they will sink in tvator, notably lignum vitae, which is tie wood oommonly used for bowling Kill-.

The secret marks on Bank of England note.-? by which forgeries are so rapidly detected are constantly being changed, 'i lKf microscope, will reveal many such peculiarities to an observant eye. Date palm is the latest material used in tho manufacture of furniture. Chairs, tables, bedsteads, cupboards, and the like are now made from palra branches, from which the leaves have been stripped. These articles are said to bo as firm, if not firmer, than bam»oo, and are more artistic in appear-

The making of counterfeit coins is permitted by l»'v in China. They are «»nly intended to put in the coffins of the dead, as a superstition prevails that tJify iiit'ko the dead happy. The coins :>re supposed to be used to pay ferriage for carrying lie deceased across the stream* that lie between earth and the realms of the blessed.

lYlrtny years ago soap-boilers used to hav*, great difficulty in getting rid of a thick evil-,smelling liquid which was the chief by-product of ther industry. They ran i-fc. into streams and sewers. Presently someone began collecting it and refining it. The result was glycerine as it is known to-day. No longer is it necessary for owner 4 or the conventional phonographs to crank the mechanism in order to ptay the records, for there has recently ?jeon introduced a small electric motor that can b:> instantly applied to- any disc type phonograph. The mo?or weighs about 3it>, fand is made to operate on ■itlicj) - direct or alternating current. It i'j provided with a ruber disc which makes a friction contact with the

England's national game is threatened by the war. Bomb-throwing is spoilin;,. some of the best cricketers. i- Wo haven't a. decent bowler left," writes a young soldier. "They have all been bombing, with the result that they appear to think tliey are still throwing hnrif; grenades when they are on the cricket pitch, and we get nothing but ' donkey drops' of the worst kind." In hamb-throiving the arm stops above the hoad, and there i» no' ''follow ihrough." Jutland is one of the few countries where political change has been avoided Denmark lias looked alter the Jutes for over a thousand years without challenge. But the sea has refused to let Jutland alone. Like Holland, it needs the protection of dykes, and but lop these there would be considerably iesu Jutland. Even on the east coast, with its higher elevation, the sea- l'ans .into many inlets. One of the longest of these, the Lymiiord, was in 1825 broken into from the west by the waters of the North Sea, and tho northern corner of Jutland has ever since remained an island.

Lord Rosebery ascribed the ViceRoyalty of Ireland as 3 useless and costly sinecure. The Lord Lieutenant receives a salary of £20,000 a year. In addition he draws £4500 a vear for the expenses of his household. This consists of a considerable number of offiwhom the most important arc tho State Steward arid Chamberlain, the Comptroller, Ulster King of Arms, find the Master of the Horse. The. Chapel Royal, which is served by a dean, a sub-dean and a largo number ui honorary chaplains, is also a part ;>f tho vice-regal establishment. A furthci sum of £SOOO is paid every y< ,ir bv tho Hoard of Works for tho' maintenance of the vice-regal lodge and grounds, and of tho vice-regal apartments at Dublin f'.i-r!--. The total cost of tho Irish vice-royalty to the taxpayer is certainly noi ihaii £30,000 a vear.

The story of how i\ corporal tho Loyal North Lancashire Regiment gave h'H life for his enemy is told in a letter of a comrade from the Vimy Ridge, iTceived at Preston. The writer says: —One of our chaps was to upset by the cries of a wounded German that he crawled out on his hands and knees to help the lad to coma in. He got to him, and the two started back to the crater. The machine-gun fire increased. ancl bothwere hit. Later v,-e found both dead, holding each other's trma. The act made a great impression upon out Hun prisoners, and severilof them asked to bo present when tho dead Lancashire Ind and the German ho had died for wer<* >-'-d iu tho seme grant*"