NEWS IN BRIEF.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12089, 18 August 1917, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

. Paper coffins are a French invention, cheapness and lightness being" their j chief advantages. j To teach rifle shooting a Japanese has invented a crossbow ■with rifle stock, trigger and sights. Both the, fruit, which resembles grapei, and the flowers of a tree in Brazil grow directly from the hark. For painting or oiling floors a New York inventor has patented a fountain I 'brush mounted on small wheels. As fire hose is drawn from a recently patented wall cabinet it opens a valve that- turns ou the water. In the Franco-German war of IS7O-1, j the French army onlv numbered abouij j 300.000 against 1,100,000 Germany, j The largest wooden statue in existence is that of a woman. It is in To- I Wo, and is dedicated to Hachonman, the Goddess of WarKitchener's Navy is what Tommy calls the hospital barges which are used in Fiance to convey the wounded from clearing hospitals to the base. Two million soldiers consume about 0000 head of cattle, and drink an average of 200,000 gallons of water, every day. The term :i capital punishment ' refers to the obsolete punishment oi beheading, which affected the head, or •' caput," of a person. Before s. foreigner can become a naturalised British .subject, he must have resided in Britain for not less_ than fire years. Sistv per cent of English words are. of Teutonic origin, 30 per cent ar« Greek and Latin, and 10 per cent como from other sources. The Court of Exchequer is so named from a chequered cloth which anciently covered, the table where the judges and chief officers Used to sit The combined populations, of Germany and Austria are only half ithe total of the combined populations or Great Britain, France, BelgMm ana Russia. Rossetti buried a. number or .jua poems -in his wife's &rave : believing that her death was due to the tact tna-.. he had neglected her for l»s work. Subsequently., he had tnero disinterred. 'The'Dukes of Atholl hare the privilege of keening a private army. Ft is a kilted reriment about 300 strong, well-armed and drilled. The late Queen Victoria, presented colours to it Iho regiment u called the Atholl Highlanders and acts as bodyguard to the Duke. Onions are excellent to eat. Th purify the blood and keen away illness. , But there is this to remember-they absorb poisons very quickly, and must therefore not be left about peeled and ; uncovered. Sliced onions m a room where there is a diphtheria patient) would take up the poison, for instance. \ Turkish proverb says, commiserate inclv "An Englishman will burn a , bed to catch a tea.'' The courage o ■ the Turk in facine iho flea and e*en ■■ worse danW *" ith stoi ? B d ,T K ?i i S pain i humorously explained by the ' author "in the language of a schoolboy . -The Turk's courage i> du ■ olhe fact that a man with more than • 0 ™ wife is more willing to face death • than if he had only Q"c- -