News From All Quarters

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 180, 29 July 1916, Page 15

News From All Quarters

CHANNEL XUNNEL PBOSPECT. Tbe Channel Tunnel scheme was referred to by Sir Lionel Earle, secretary of tbe Office of Works, giving evidence before the committee -which is considering the SouthEastern Railways Bill for altering Charing Cross bridge. Sir Lionel advised the committee to contemplate the removal o£ Charing Cross Station to the south side of the Thames, and added:—After the war there will be an enormous increase in traffic on this railway, with the probability in the near future of a Channel Tunnel. DAYLIGHT SAVING IN CANADA. The City Council of St. John, New Bronswick. has enacted a by-law putting tUe Daylight Saving Scheme in operation in that city from midnight on April 30 until the same hour on September 30. St. John is thus the first city in maritime Canada to adopt daylight saving, as it was the first to adopt the commission form of civic government and the town planning system. The Provincial Legislature will be asked to pass an Act making the daylight saving movement effective throughout the province, and. thus remove a possible source o£ confusion. The city of Winnipeg has also adopted tbe scheme. BABONET ACTS AS PORTER. Owing to a strike of railwaymen at the Londonderry terminus of the Lough Swilly Railway, Sir John McFarland, Bart., managing director of the line, and his entire staff, including the manager and the traffic superintendent, are acting as porters. Each day they may be seen in their shirtsleeves wheeling trucks, loading wagons, and opening and closing carriage doors. The strikers have been refused an advance on their wages, which are 16/ weekly. WHY THE KETTLE TAKES LONGER TO BOIL. Because gas is now furnishing in greater quantities valuable chemicals like benzol and toluol, used in making high explosives, its heating power has been diminished. Many housewives have noticed recently that the kettle on the gas stove takes longer to boil. Gas bills have at the same time risen as more gas has had to be used. The loss of heating power in the gas ii admitted, and the editor of the "Gas World" states that, after everything possible has been extracted, the beating value of the gas is reduced by about 7} per cent. FRIGHTENING WOMEN WORKERS: At Leeds, James Smith, a labourer, was sentenced to two months' hard labour for spreading a false report likely to interfere with the efforts made in the manufacture of munitions. The evidence showed that the defendant entered a railway carriage in which were thirteen women going to work un night shift at a munition factory. In conversation he asked them if they had heard,.pf, an explosion, at the factory, and mentioned that a girl had her eyes blown out and another a leg blown off. The girls were alarmed. The accused, who was employed at the factory, also lectured them about their going to work on munitions. A SOLDIER'S DRUNKEN WIFE. A soldier informed the magistrate at the West London Police Court that he had his wife's ting and papers, and wanted to know if he went to a post office whether he could draw the separation allowance. His wife was in prison for drunkenness, and he wanted the money, as there were four children to support. Sir. Fordham said the applicant would not be able to draw the money, aud the only thing was to let the children be cared for in the worihouse. Applicant: So I am to be a soldier for King and country while my children go into the workhouse! Mr Fordham: That is so, because you have the misfortune to have a drunken wife. I am sorry for you, but I cannot advise anything else. SOLDIER IN FEMALE ATTIRE. At Highgate, Frederick Wight (22), a valet, and a private in the Royal Fusiliers, was charged with being in'iemale attire and a deserter from the Royal Fusiliers. Prisoner appeared in the dock in femiuiue attire, his face heavily veiled. When first challenged prisoner gave the name of Kathleen Woodhouse, and when asked his occupation said, "My husband keeps mc." When told by the officer that he believed him to be a man the prisoner retorted, "Nonsense; you can ask my husband if you like." Subsequently prisoner said, "I wish I had been a woman, as I love wearing beautiful dresses. All my tastes are feminine." AN EXPENSIVE OFFICE. There is much sympathy in Ireland, the Dublin correspondent of the ''Times" says, with Lord Rosebery's description of the Viceroyalty as a useless and costly sinecure. The Lord-Lieutenant receives a salary of £20,000 a year. In addition he draws £4000 a year for the expenses of his household. This consists of a considerable number of officials, of whom the most important are the State Steward and Chamberlain, the Comptroller, Ulster King of Arms, and the Master of the Horse. The Chapel Royal, whiuh is served by a Dean, a Sub-Dean, and a large number of honorary chaplains, is also a part of the Viceregal establishmeut. A further sum of £5000 is paid every year by the Board of Works for the maintenance of the Viceregal Lodge and grounds and of the Viceregal apartments at Dublin Castle. The total cost of the Irish Viceroyalty to the taxpayer is certainly not less than £30,000 a year. CHRISTIAN "SLACKERS." Headed by a processional cross and a white banner bearing the words "To witness for God in time of war," a "procession of prayer" recently marched from St. Martin's. Trafalgar Square, to Hyde Park, where an intercessory address was delivered by the Bishop of Stepney. The procession was organised by the Church League for Woman Suffrage: it included many surpliced clergy, choristers, a church band, and girls of the Church Nursing and Ambulance Brigade. Speaking in the park, the Bishop of Stepney said, in consequence Christians, those outside the faith "could not see much in it." While Christians talked much of the other world, they appeared to keep "a very tight clutch on things of this world." He had recently confirmed many deaf and dumb people, and had been very much struck with their true religions fervour, which he attributed largely to the fact that they were not able to hear the rubbish that was talked in tbe name oX religion.

CONVICT IN A WIRE TRAP. The story of an early morning chase by a special constable of a convict, who eventually was recaptured by becoming caught in barbed wire entanglements, was tola at Newport (Mod.). The special constable , saw the convict, Walter Lee, coming from a dairy farm, where he had helped himself to eggs, milk, tomatoes, and a razor. When the convict saw the special constable he doubled into a thickset hedge. The "special" chased him down a road, and found him trapped in barbed wire entanglements, from which he was vainly struggling to liberate himself. Lee was remanded in custody while the police made inquiries about him. A FATHER'S CRIME. At Lowestoft a shipwright namel Charles Arthur Clarke (27) was remanded for a week charged with the murder of his two children the previous evening. It was stated that one, a girl of ten months, was strangled with a piece of string, and the other, a boy of two, was found with his throat cut. Accused's wife had gone ou,*. for a walk with two elder children, and on her return found her husband out She went upstairs, and was horrified to see the dead bodies of the two children lying on the bed. It was further stated that the accused went to the police station and told au oflicer what he had done. TRAGEDY AT A WEDDING. At Cardiganshire Assizes, Evan John Jones was charged with manslaughter. The circnmstances of the case were extraordinary. On the morning of May 13 Miss Julia Harris, of Cwmporthman, while acting as bridesmaid at her brother's wedding, was killed by a shot fired from a gun held by the accused. It appears that local rejoicings, in accordance with custom, included the firing of guns and the placing of, ropes across the roads. The judge said it was impossible to think loaded guns should be a necessary mode of expressing good wishes and congratulations. The bridegroom, giving evidence, said the affair was an accident. The accused was found not guilty and discharged. I "" A GERMAN'S TREASURES. . Fortf-one pounds in gold and nineteen £5 Bant of England notes were found on the person of a German named Gnstave Otto/ Laueknew, who died suddenly in a tramway car at Clapton while on his way to his home. At an inquest it was-also shown that Laueknew. had in his possession., a number of cuttings from newspapers relating to the war. One of these was a saying of the Eaiser to the Mowing effect: "The sword of the Lord has descended upon mc because I am the Emperor of the Germans. I am the instrument of the Most High. I am His sword and His right hand." g A TRAVELLER'S TALES. Sir Auiel Stein has reached London after a two and a half year's journey through Eastern Turkestan, West China, the ■Pamirs, Russian Turkestan, and the Persian-Afghan border, a journey wliica involved over 11,000 miles of marching. Iα the Taklamakan desert. In Chinese Turkestan, there still stands a large orchard •which was abandoned over 1700 years ago. He traced the route through the Lop desert by which the ancient Chinese carried their silk to Central Asia and the far-off Mediterranean. In one part of the desert he found hundreds of copper coins strewing the salt-encrusted ground. These were probably dropped from a load during a night march about 1500 years ago. " QUEEN OF THE KITCHEN.' , S "You get out of my kitchen; I'm cook here; I'm the queen of the kitchen." This remark was alleged to have been made by Mary Lisle, aged 50, cook at a publichouse in Shoe Lane, London, to the manageress when the latter went to the kitchen to find out why the customers' lunches* were delayed. Then, the manageress alleged, the cook stabbed at her witU.a,carTing_kuj£9 she was waving about. When a complaint was made ab,out the cooking, of some greens Lisle was said to have snatched a saucepan of boiling greens off the stove and dashed them at the manageress, with the result that the boiling water, splashed over the latter - s arm, aud she was so-badly scalded that she had to be taken to tile hospitall The cook was bound over. KLEPTOMANIACS PUNISHED.; At Taunton Edith Mary Parker and nee daughter Ethel Parker, living at Valllscote Road, Weston-super-Mare, .were'sent to prison for three months and six weeks respectively for stealing a gold chain handbag, an old chain purse, diamond horseshoe tie-pin, gold snake ring, leather note case, and gold., pencil case, together of the value of £64, and also seven £1, Treasury notes and 7/ in silver, the property of Mrs. Dora Violet Venables Hope Kelson, wife o£ Captain Hope Kelson, of Felhum House, Ivybridge, Devon. " The bag aud purse containing the articles and. money were taken by the defendants from a Taunton shop where Mrs. Hope Xelsou was tryiug on a hat. In other three charges of fhoplifting fines and costs amounting to over £47 were imposed. Mrs. Parker was stated to have an income of £500 a year. A SWELL RAILWAY THIEF. '. ■ ?:' "He has lived in a ten-roomed house at Streatham at the rate of £500 to £1000 a year, entirely on the proceeds of railway robberies." This was the story told at the Old Bailey the other day, when George Hanlon, alias Thompson, pleaded guilty to several charges of stealing dressing cases and their contents from King's Cross, St. Pancras, and Euston. Hanlon, ■when seen acting suspiciously at King's Ctoss, was wearing a fur-lined overcoat. and much jewellery. He was seen to pick up a dressing case and walk away, and was arrested. He declined to have iiia finger-prints taken, and posed as an independent gentleman, saying a mistake bad •been made. Detective-Inspector Xoll said that in the man's possession was the key of a safe, in which he had deposited valuable jewellery, with the Westminster Safe Deposit Company. No fewer than twentyfour cases of robberies bad beeu brought years, the property stolen representing from £10,000 to £12,000. Hanlon's iriminal j-ecord dates back to the year ISS4. He has undergone two terms of six years , penal servitude and three years In Taris, all for railway thefts. The Recorder postponed sentence to enable the police to complete their investigations, and ordered \Haulo*«S pay the costs of the prosecution.