News from All Quarters

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 290, 4 December 1920, Page 19

News from All Quarters

A French Court has just decided that a physician may not sue for fees for attendance at a duel, for since a duel Is an Illegal act it cannot be the enbject of a legal action.

The largest motor boat afloat is, according to the "Scientific American," the Africa, 4—ft long, 60ft beam, 14,000 tons carrying capacity. She Is driven by Diesel engines of 4500 honse-power.

WORM)'S UGLIEST WOMAN. .Three strange passengers landed at Southampton from the Red Star liner Lapland, from New -York. One was Ann Bevan, whose home is at Deptford. the winner of the recent competition at Madison Square Gardens for the ugliest woman in the world. The others were Les Goudlns, the tiniest husband and wife in the world. The man Is 37 inches high, and is 43 years old, and his wife stands three inches taller. They are Brazilians, but speak, fluent English. HELD 40,000 INQUESTS IN 40 YEA— S. By the death of Mr. Wynne Edwin Baxter, at the age of 76, London loses its oldest coroner. For over 35 years he was coroner for East London, and before that he held a slmihii office in Sussex, where he conducted the Inquest on Mr. Gold who was murdered by Lefroy in the 'eighties. Among the 35,000 or more inquests which Mr. Baxter held in East London were most of the Jack-the-Rlpper murders, and many other well-known crimes. He also held Inquests on all the spies who were shot In the Tower of London during the war. He had held 40,000 inquests In 40 years. REGISTER ______ "PEDIGREES. The International Alliance of Physicians and Surgeons, the National Association or Progressive Medicine, and two other affiliated bodies in annual convention at Atlantic City recently, advocated a plan to have perfect human beings registered and pedigreed, the same as high-class thoroughbreds of the lower animals.

Dr. Charles F. Conrad, chairman of the convention, said that a woman or a man, if they have their own and the world's interest at heart, "would prefer to select a life mate in whom they have some degree of assurance " is at least as near perfect as a pet dog." which they would not buy, he added, unless the dog had a pedigree of some kind. AN EXTRAORDINARY WOUND. An extraordinary 11lustration of how hard to kill are some men is given in the "Lancet" hy Dr. H. J. B. Fry. A British soldier was hit -by a German bullet on the left side of the abdomen. The bullet gouged the surface of the external iliac artery, penetrated the internal iliac- vein, | passed up this to the heart, passed ! through the heart, and lodged i n ' the left I branch of the pulmonary artery. An Xray photograph did not show lt : there was no pain near the heart, but the left leg became gangrenous from its circulation being cut off and wass amputated ten days after the wound was received. Finally the patient went into shock and died- He had snrvived this extraordinary wound a whole month. SUICIDE BECAUSE OF A STRIKE. " We have too many strikes at the present time upsetting the whole country," said Dr. M. H. Taylor, the coroner at Mortlake, in (returning a verdict of suicide during Insanity on a ta.\.i-cab driver, whose body had been recovered from the Thames at Barnes. It was shown that the driver, usually a cheerful man. was worried over the strike of taxi-drivers. He turned up at his usual i time ou Wednesday morning, but said the men rouud his way were worrying him, and would be likely to blackguard him. He took the cab out, and returned In the evening. Later, his overcoat was found on the river bank at Putney. The coroner remarked that the case showed what strikes could do with a conscientious man. who did not know where be was between the employer and the union. MYSTEBY DISEASE. inquests were held at Lambeth recently on two victims of tie mysterious di—ase status lymphaticus, which cannot be diagnosed during life (says the "Glasgow Herald"). In one case, William Trowbridge Harding, a railway porter at Waterloo Junction, complained of having knocked, himself with the handle of hid barrow. Two hours later he was found dead jn the porters' room. Medical evidence was to the effect that •Harding was suffering from status lymphaticus, a gland, which should* iiave disappeared when be was four, being, persistent. A man in this condition wan liable to death from any slight shock. Death by mi—dvenlure was the verdict, and also in the case of an eight-months-old child, who aiso had the disease and died in St. Thomas' Hospital during an operation. HIS MAJESTY HOAXED. A faked message to Balmoral Castle, ostensibly from Scotland Yard, is being traced by the authorites, who suspect that Sinn Fein or their sympathisers played a practical joke on the Royal Family. The message was sent in the police code to King George, and warned him to keep within the four walls of the castle on September 23, and advising that further instructions would follow. King George obeyed the terms of the message and broke a number of engagements, including the annual inspection of tha .South Highland Volunteers, of which regiment the Duke of York is colonel. When the promised further instructions did not come, Scotland Yard was communicated with, and the discovery made that the first message had not come from the police at all. Strict Inquiry has been made without result, but It is suspected that some one in the employ of the Castle has access to the secret code. KING'S PROCTOR BUSY. The King's ——tor Is Intervening in twenty nine cases to prevent decrees nisi being made absolute. There is a record number for one day, says the "Weekly Record."

Sir John Paget Mellor, the King's Proctor, is the head of what virtually amounts to a vast detective organisation. He has agents In all parts of the country, as well as a large staff in London. As a matter of fact, the work of the department has become so heavy during the Last few years that larger premises had to be taken recently and the staff increased. An indication of the increase in the number of divorce cases in which colli—ion or perjury or both is suspected is provided by the fact that in the year 1917 the King-'s Proctor intervened iv twenty-nine cases, precisely the same number in which be appeared the other day. In 1918 there were thirty-one ca_c_; In 1919, forty —ie cases, and for the first four months of the present year be intervened in seventy cases.

ELOPEMENTS IN FASHION.

The high cost of weddings i. causing elopements and registry office marriages tsays the "Weekly Scotsman").

Various exc-ii—s are given for hurried ceremonies.

Parents often collaborate secretly in an ■ elopement plan. More than one bride has saved her parents hundred- of pounds by running away with the bridegroom and wiring to her friends after a registry office ceremony. LABOURER ACTS AS GHOST. A labourer named Frederick White was fined £3 at Dumfries for having conducted himself in a disorderly manner by suddenly appearinc, dre—ed i n a white sheet, on the road, crawling along the *ide of the highway, and emitting -groans and wailing sounds a short distance "from "three domestic- servants who were then walking along the road. The latter were greatly alarmed and terrifled. "White apparently clambered o**er a wall as the %irls drew near, and tn*— to behave as much like a ghost 08 possible. He told the Court he did It for a lark. ZEPPELIN'S NEW HOME. The German ZeppeUn Arm intends to transfer its works from Germany to tbe United States, it has been learned in Paris through a wireless message sent out from Germany. Under the treaty, the manufacture of aircraft of a kinds is so restricted that the ZeppeUn factory has been at a standstill. The plan Is now to transfer the whole manufacturing plant to the United States and there perfect and build airships capable of making regular journeys across the Atlantic. It is understood financial interests in America are concerned in the undertaking, but no details are forthcoming. GIRL'S TRAGIC TATE. A verdict of wilful murder against Agnes Bourke was returned at Woolwich at the inquest on her daughter, Margaret May, aged 9, who was found with her throat cnt in a house at Belford Grove.

A police inspector said that when he told the woman that the child was dead, she —.id, "I am slad, because I want her to be an angel." The father of the child, who is an assistant foreman in Woolwich Arsenal, said his wife had been an invalid since November, 1918. On the night before the tragedy she seemed muddled, and „id she did not know what she was doing. HUSBAND'S POWER MENACED. The husband's authority in the home is threatened in liberty-loving France. A bill has been introduced in the Senate repealing a clause of the civil code which asserted that the wife owes obedience to her husband. Senator Louis Martin, who wanted this clause wiped otr the statute books, said the time had come when the husband should no longer be an " absolute monarch," but the household should become a " constitutional monarchy." ' Senator Collin opposed the repeal on the . ground that unless there is a well-defined ' head of the house the door would be open to ibolshevUm in the borne. Action on the bill bat been postponed. LARGEST LINER BURNED. Another German liner, which under The terms of the Peace Treaty was to be surrendered To <t_e Allies, has been destroyed by fire. The total is now nine, and The latest addition Is the world's largest liner laid down and launched by Germany since tbe war. A telegram from Berlin reports that a fire in the yard of Messrs. Blohm and Voss. Hamburg, destroyed the gigantic liner Bismarck (56.000 tons). Under the terms of the Peace Treaty she was to be surrendered to the Allies. She was launched in June, 1914. and in June last s_e was still unfinished. Wben finished she was to be handed over to tbe Allies, and given PTobably to the White -Star Line. She was 912 ft long, lOOft In beam, eight turbines of 6">,o— h.p., four propellers, and a speed or 25 knots. METZ CATHEDRAL TO BANISH DANIEL. The Biblical Daniel may have been a first-rate lion tamer, but the people of 'Metz are threatening to remove his effigy from the doorway of the Cathedral, where a cynical Germanopbile architect endowed •his conception of the prophet with the facial characteristics of the Kaiser. During the German occupation of Metz. the resemblance of Daniel and the Kaiser was frequently mentioned, but never in public, Ibut as soon as the Allies restored the city to its rightful parent, the incongruity of having the world's arch criminal at the doorway of a cathedral 'was criticised. The pseudo Daniel will proba'bljfind its way to the city's rubbish heap. The perpetrator of the nrchitechir.il monstrosity, to quote one French writer, is now living a few miles from Metz. where he is said to -be designing a plan for the reconstruction of Rheims Cathedral. "WIFE'S LETTER TO HER RIVAL. Some extraordinary letters written hy a ma.rried woman to another woman, with whom hef_usband was living, were read at Chatham, when Herbert narris (****), a siafCsergeant in the Royal Enjrineers. was charged with bigamy, and Millie Abraham. the second " wife," was charged with aiding and abetting. Mr. Bruce Hern, defending, read the following letter from the defendant's lawful wife to Millie Abraham; — " I have just seen my husband. TVn both love him well, and we must both think only of his happiness. As be is happy with you. then you shail keep him. Unfortunately for you there will be a baby. Be good to my boy, and God bless you both." "It was as a result of this letter," said Mr. Hern, who defended, "that Miss Abraham agreed tn the marriage ceremony," Both prisoners were committed for trial. STRANGLED AT PRAYERS. Mrs. Mary Gremivowiez. aged 02. "' South. Aniboy. New .lors.cy. n-. stranr-lert by someone unknown. while -prating on the grave of her soldier son. whose body hart been brought from Fran™ for interment in the Ersteon Cemetery. Mrs. Grembowlcz. heartbroken over the death of her son. never rested until the body was brought tn America, and buried in the family grave In the little country cemetery. Always sin<- e Then she had insisted that she should be allowed to go alone to hii grave. For many years it had been common gossip that she carried large sums of money sewed in ber clothing. The murderer had evidently heard the story, and, knowing or the aged woman's habit of visiting her son's grave, lay in wait for her. It is believed tbe murderer waited until she was at the graveside, and then sprang upon her from behind, and, after felling her to the ground with a violent blow, strangled her. Then ho eagerly tore awny her clothing in an effort to find the money he believed she carried. This done, he dragged the -body to a clump of trees near the cemetery, whssre it was found by Michael and George, sons of U— nmrd—ed woman, who were actf—ipanied by a posse of ex-Bervtce men.