NEWS TIT-BITS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 293, 10 December 1910, Page 16

NEWS TIT-BITS.

.' 'Secret experiments with a new explosive, enabling torpedoes to penetrate'th»guard nets, bf &,battleship; have' re&ntlj ■ 'been carried out -in the -Mersey. \f'.' Out of 130 persons in the Dover Woifc. ho.use who will be eligible for oldW: pensions from' Januaryl next,, have decided to apply for-tiiem. % i A copy of the first edition (1607) Jj--the original leather binding of Milton* "Paradise Lost" h&s been disposed of Ai 1 a London sale for £ 130..--. • '" of

An anonymous donor . piac»j £10,000 in the Bank pi England at-th« ; disposal of the secretaries of King Ed- ; ward's Hospital, Fund.. V ;

To avoid paying £.100 additional license duty imposed under the Finance Act, a Dover music ball las 'closed it* public bars

Jean Grandfaise, aged 83, has been married at Bourgival, -France," to Mali* - HusSaint, aged 73. ; They were sweet-' hearts in" their young' days, but subsg.' : quently lost sight of; each other. '

Threshing operations 'at Sandfbrd, Devon, revealed the fact that all {mfcr eight bushok Of com ;in a large'riclj had been eaten by; rats, 200 of which were killed. . ~ ;

M. Moisant fell a height Of 126 feet' oa a Bleriot monoplane; during a practice flight in Belmont-park, ;New" Yor£. r ;'/,His'•'■ machine was Wrecked,, but the amnaa' ■was uninjured: .",'. , : '" -.' '.-.. r . Heart disease, accelerated by shook,, caused by her pet cat being 'thrown from window into the street, wiu, at" a- Bethnai Green inquest, stated to have caused the death of a woman. :"'

Mrs Mary Greenfield has presented to the British Museum an Egyptian papyrus of greatinterest and lafg* and very fine copy of the Theban Book of the Dead.

"Now, Constable, I ask yorij as a gentleman and a'friend, to the .truth, 1 * said a prisoner at the Kingston Police Court, to a policeman who, Was about to give evidence against him. ' Joseph . Speakman, a- converted prisefighter, fell dead after preaching rat, a' service at the Railway Mission fiill, Burtonron-irent.-. ■ The,.; congregation, who were deeply moyed, sang. "For, Brer With tiie Lord", before dispersing.;

According to the report of a "Timtt of Ihdia" correspondent*' gdn-runriing: 'will soon become a lost trade;'.' He writes that rifle-making is a craftthatflourislwiin &uch remote places: as Darrah, in the Adam Khel country. _,; •;;;-'•; >

Wireles telegraphy is rioW being introduced among ■} yachts. ' ; .Apart from tM Rnyni yachts one of the.first;pleasure craft to be fitted With : h&' iMtallatipn'j| the .famous Valhallo, which formerly belonged to Lord Crawford. ; Forest fifes which '.occurred in; th* United. States during the summer 'have' destroyed, 2 per cent of the riationai'fotrest reservations. A million, and a-qti&f. ter.aci;es. of land have lieeh burnt ovef,, and timber worth £3,80(1,000 destroyed.'. ..',,"".. '". ; . ';.'"; '-.'. With an old potato sack .slujgHover .;■: bis ahoulder, :an" elderly .IJlsterTisrmer staggeredi into > t Belfast said he wanted to lodge some- lie' sack contained 1200 soverdgns.v-He ; siaid '.'-. ': that he had £500 more which he would ';■; ■lodge later. ~--. ."';'-. y'.'l -'-''.-'j,,' -\'''"'~]-. c- ': The stationmaster of . Kbepeiuck;' the Scene of the exploit of. the fajhotis ,'Cftp-.; tain,' suddenly ; Went, mad, and"- - rusjiud about the station shouting icraEy. ordatt . and abusing his Subordinates' for -'join-' \ ing the French strike.- - He -has tesir confined bf- a lunatic asylum. A .resolution recofflniehcling the construction of a new bridge .over the (Thames to St. Paul's at ti, coSt e\ t£ 1,646,983, and the recb'nsitrUctibn ot-' Southwark Bridge, to the width,. pf Queen-stre.et-place. at an estiniited cost of £261,000 has been paSsed by'the City Corporation. . .'_,./' ■','■ "... '■.. Some . interesting old, documents have been discovered 'While; clearing. ,_ but ,;ait office .'occupied by the .late derk -of, the . peace at.Folkstonev . -Two of them, which , •bear, the date. 1775) are authorities;-;,to % Andrew Smith to fit out;hi* ship «s;a privateer* "to attack shibs belorigihg;.l-6 the Colonies ■ then -in -Opposition to this coimtry." -•-'•- -•' ..:;•.;..■.."'. >; , At Tottenham Central Public Libfaiy j the jfeadihgfooin•'"for-"ladies ; ohly" his bceri closed, because the 'majority of tlie ';'■ , ladies preferred tb go to;the general Jead- '■■-. Ing room, arid ofder •tKfe-atterid4nt3 ta ' bring them the Women's pdpers. lying It__\ ... used in the. room spedally set apart fdr -:- thetn. "Of late/ said the librarian,-''ths I Women who used the room have turned it into a conversation i.00m.-"' ' • "'■" I

j To safeguard pttblic hfealth the 9yn<hj | of. Borne has isshed an.;"ordinanai" that bread and .pastry displayed fat \ sale';in.. ishop Windows must be 1 endosWin iiaes; ■: leases,' that no eatable handed to aptd- . spective customer 1 , to test the freshfles* . by'toudh shall be for sale, md ; | that all bread -in' restaurants and- bttffqtt must be wrapped"in paper and i-l&cCa w;-_.-\ th« table in the'riecoSsary'quantity. It is stated by .A Welsh cblliefy ; fi__tß4-' gef. that the men in his;.e_npl6y'; : ;'iii!« , Using their, increased. leisure fr.ofii.; la* i operation of the Eight Hours Act in coiflpefciiig with tradesmen ahdout&4 e men. To support.his statement.he pf**, ' a, list .of-putsuits draWn.ffomhisowa.ob.Befvatioh, which ranges .from thlbf-P' butcher and grocer,, to political regflstr*-' tion ag?nt,and dancing teachdiS,- '..;,! Glasgow Corporation is recommended to apply for - Parliamentary .poWetd .to . jctttry out an amalgamation, sehcttw which provides for the? addition tetM. • city' Of 22,000 acres in,;which there !*'» population of'SfS.OOO, andrinotka vaia« tiott of Some however s are opposing the: scH4Me Whfcn./ if carried, will again ifiake .Glasgow|_W? second- city in the Empire-"-!*.position; ■ held by Birmingham since its ariia w«' enlarged last year. : .'

In a discussion ofl the use of '.difoto* sives In derial warfare" Majdi 1 MuW Powell said a simple" sjhrt«n of defeat* ■by'having explosives on the' grolihd am ~. exploding one of them when ail' ■ a s lo ' plane Was passing OVer might b'i-.ii-dßpted. The rush of air might result ih'ttysettins the machine.. Hi. &F_ Cody thoilght otherwise, and'said, if the. GoVcfSifleiit would lay a cial-gi 6f [jtMtfdMi ltd #» prepared to fly" oVer it wlleil it. u'Ss, <s*' ploded. He did not, think, the SMoplitt* was going to do great tlitilgS in W* .. fare. . '.-.."_ Simson, the man convicted for shooting a gentleman named Frost in the trim between Baker-Street and St. John*-' Wood, appealed against his sentence ,<il the Court of Criminal Appeal. The_l>_>« Chief Justice warned him that the Quit had power to increase tho 6snto-_.ee, h« the prisoner persisted in the appealj and the sentence was ultimately increase* from twelve to fifteen years' pen&l sW"|: | tude, on the ground that the original; term was not sufficiently severe, con- j sidcring the nature of the crime and J»- i premeditation shown by the pnsoneiv .. J •J_S