NEWS IN BRIEF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 192, 15 August 1931, Page 14 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF

Britain imports £24,000,000 worth of fruit every year. Tho wine crop in France last year was the smallest since 1920. At an auction sale in Sweden three ploughs have been sold for sixpence each. One machine now being used on Canadian farms can cut and thrash the grain on forty acres a day with only two men to operate it. The male heir-apparent to the British throne is born Duke of Cornwall. He docs not become Prince of Wales until the title is conferred upon him. Among the “accessories” at a recent American wedding were half a mile of sausages, two orchestras, sauerkraut by the barrel, and 1000 violets for decoration, in honour of the bride, whose name was Violet. The famous clock,. Big Ben, in the British Houses of Parliament tower, haa been checked 228 times in a recent year. On one hundred occasions it was half a second out, and about one second out on twenty-one Occasions. The first baby born on American soil of British parents was Virginia Dare. In commemoration of this event, which occurred on August 18, 1587, a memorial gateway has been unveiled on Roanoke Island by the American Government. The total stock of gold in the world at the end of ]930 was estimated at about £2,500,000,000. Of this amount the United States of America held £912,500,000, while France held about one-sixth of the world total. Thus over half the available gold in the world was held by these two countries.

Lancashire and Yorkshire have more motor vehicles than any other counties in Groat Britain. They even beat Middlesex. Tho county with the fewest motor vehicles is the Scottish county of Nairn. It is found that it is in small English towns of 1000 to 5000 people ' that the largest number of cars is owned in proportion to the population. The percentage is least in towns of 50,000 to 100,000.