NEWS TIT-BITS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 249, 17 October 1908, Page 14

NEWS TIT-BITS.

!'■. An aeroplane built with the intentii of flying across the English Channel hS been ordered by a Continental Prince. The list of fatalities this season on ti Swiss and French Alps approaches ,L ready 200. An order for 15,000 tons of steel ralk has 'been booked by the North-EasteC Steel Company, Middlesbrough, for West em Australian railways. The Welsh authoress, Allen Raine wfo died last June, left estate valued f* probate at £8573 gross, of which £6278 is ;iet personalty. At an inquest at St. Paneras, London it was shown that after paying resit and insurance, a family of three lived on s/3 a week. ' .Some smart burglars hare broken into an English prison, and stolen away eilver billiard trophy which belonged to £he warders. War seems now to be general against all kinds of privilege. A Billingsgate fish porter has been summoned to the Thames Police Court on a charge ot using bad language. The Californian State Attorney has decided that children born in the State of Mongol parents are not Americans and, therefore, not entitled to attend the public schools. Dorando, the Marathon hero, is »ij to have accepted an engagement Offered him by an American manager to go on tour for six months through the United States. The master of the Mailing (Kent)' Workhouse reported to the guardians that one of the casuals, when asked Us occupation, replied, "A Channel swimmer out of work." The oyster season in England opened on September 1, and 75,000 oysters were received at Billingsgate. Prices ranged from 1/6 to 2/6 a dozen, and were higher than those prevailing last season. The Municipality of Dieppe has decided in favour of an annual tax of £12 per head on barmaids. In many establishments collections are being made among the customers to pay the tax. Failure of the gold deposits of the once flourishing Klomdyke town, Copper Cen« ter, has caused a general exodus of the inhabitants, not a single building, of which there were 2000, being occupied. "It would puzzle mc to reckon them up," said a rather at a Shoreditoh inquest, when asked how many children •he had. ''I -think it is 14, but you lo» count if you are not an educated man* A Paris dentist discovered that pat of his patients had stolen valuable speck ■mene from his collection of coins. Hβ revenged himself by pulling three teeth from the jaw of the thief while tie police were being sent for. Only about one-third of the cash supposed to be necessary to adequately welcome the United States athletes home from the Olympic Games was subscribed, and the ceremonies had to be consider* aibly curtailed. At the reception of the United States athletes at New York from the Olympic games, hawkers were selling flags bearing a picture of Uncle Sam swinging the British Lion through the air by the tail. That is an easy job—-on a picture. Three thousand years ago no less than IOO* varieties- ofrthe -shark tribe were swimming about in the oceans, and ready to gulp down any sailor thatfiell overboard. To-day there are only about OQ varieties known. According to a Local Government Board return, the total number of paupers in England and Wales m July wis 776,452, which gives a ratio of 21.7 per thousand of the estimated population. Jβ July, 1907, the total number was 747,491 —nearly 20,000 less—and the ratio 21.4. There was one charge only at the Jtii' lesden Court, London, one day recently, and the accused failed to appear. Waiting for him were: One magistrate, tire clerks, two police sergeants, one gaoler, one warrant officer, one assistant warrant officer, three police-constables, thret reporters, and one Press mesaenger. Thirty-five per cent of the population of New York are either foreign born ol bom in New York of foreign parents. ! Fifty per cent of the population epeak in 1 English. The Police Commiseioher ia agitating for the establishment of i secret service branch with special linga--1 istic attainments. The Nottingham Corporation resolved the other day to appoint a town clerk at a salary of £1250 per annum. Sir Samuel Johnson, who, through recent indisposition, retires from office, ie to tie retained as consulting solicitor end Clerk of the Peace at a remuneration of £10M a year. The great vine at Hampton Court P»I----ace is now bearing a crop of about 230 bunches of grapes, the bunches varying from lib. to 31b. in weight. They will soon be cut and sent for the use of the King. The fruit has never been better in colour, size, or quality. The vine is 140 years old, and measures siin. round j the stem a foot above the ground. ' It was stated early in September thil King Peter of Servia would probably pay a visit to England next summer. His Majesty is so convinced of the security of his position that he has *****&* a "tour of various capitals, including Bt, Petersburg and Paris. Possibly recent events have damped Peter's enthusiasm. Camel meat is to be the fashionable delicacy this autumn, as a result, »V parently. of the opening up of Morocco. A large wholesale butcher in Paris M* signed contracts for the supply in * month's time of a large consignment oi humps and heads. Camel, it seenu," 'like prime beef, only tastier. Cam" w" is much more fancied by gourmets tnu veal. A solicitor, who is an inmate of the Somerset Lunatic Asylum at Cotfora, has written to the Taunton Guardians asking them to release another rom»K. who, he declares, is sane. In r efer ™f the matter to the medical officer, t» chairman of the guardians said it w» the first time he had ever heard ol » lunatic applying for another's release. One hundred and forty Notts widow* and spinsters will receive pensions iw life providing they do not marry, V the provisions of the will of the law Mr Wilkinson Smith, a wealthy flo* tingham lace manufacturer, who 1«> nearly £250.000 for the purpose. l» solicitors have been besieged with apP" cants, over 1700 sending in claims. A "roaring business" has again bw» done this season at the blftcksmltß* shop at Gretna Green. Over 2000 peopM have signed the visitors' book, while considerably over that number have visJWj the "museum." Inscriptions have w been painted on the various relics in w house, while additional sign-posts na« been erected directing visitors to u» place. Amongst the visitors who tlgow the book .arc names from New ze *'*~J South Africa, and other colonies, m «"j as many from Germany, BW»! •*• Hraaaa. '