News from All Quarters

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 293, 8 December 1923, Page 19

News from All Quarters

"Seven daughters are enough for most men."—Rev. W. Tt. Wilkinson (Primitive Methodist Book Steward), at Mansfield. _" horse on which William Harding, of Torpolnt, near Plymouth, was riding, got out of control. Bolting, it carried Harding against a clothes-line. He was unhorsed and killed. A landlord at Wood Green said that his son came to visit him, and as part of the house was cub-let, there were no vacant bedrooms, and he had to sleep in a disused attic. During the ni.ht the roof fell on _fm. One of the most ancient fairs in the country is the Houghton (Durham) Feast. It dates from the fifteenth century, when Bernard Gilpin, known for his piety as "The Apostle of tly: North,"' was rector of Houghton. SOMETHING LIKE A WHALE. When a sperm whale, caught off Natal, was opened at the Durban whaling station. the workers found nearly half a ton of ambergris in the intestines. It is estimated that the catch is worth £240,000. A BUSINESS ARRANGEMENT. The following advertisement appeared In a New York paper : "A gentleman who has lost his right leg is desirous of making the acquaintance of someone who has lost his left leg, in order to become associated with him in the purchase of boots and shoes, size 8." SHARK MOTHER-LOVE. Passengers in the steamship Toloa, which arrived in New York from southern ports, told a story of a man-eating shark seen off Port Limon that protected her three yonng ones by swallowing them after she had taken a hook thrown out by the ship's butcher. The shark was landed, and when she was cut open the three young sharks were found in her stomach still alive. DOCTOR IGNORES CALL. For neglecting to obey a call to a pane) patient at 11 p.m., a doctor was fined £10 by the Middlesex Insurance Committee. He wob also ordered to pay £7 8/6, the amount of the billot the doctor who attended the patient. The doctor pleaded that he learned that the patient had been feeling ill since 5.30 p.m., and that the demand at 11 p.m. for an I immediate visit was unreasonable.

100.000 MARK NOTES FOR 3d. s London men sell mark notes in the « streets. Several of these enterprising per- * sons were seen selling 100,000 mark notes *> In various parts of the city. The mark in - pre-war days was worth about If, making < the original value of tbe note £5.000. The ' present value of the note is about one- - sixteenth of a penny, and hawkers selling J iat 3d each make near 1/111 on every two > shillings' worth of notes sold. SHOT BY DOG. Mr. Evan Jones, J.P., of Trimsaran, near ' Llanelly, the Welsh coal magnate and ship- ' owner, while out shooting on his estate with two dogs, went for shelter under a tree, placing his guv against a hedge. | Suddenly the gun was discharged and Mr. Jones was wounded In one shoulder. The dogs were playing at the time, and it is believed one of them must have touched the trigger of the gun. 1,100,000 MOTORS IN BRITAIN. Statistics issued by the Ministry of Transport show that the number of motor vehicles in Great Britain on August 31 was approximately 1,105,000. Thiß number includes 384,000 cars taxed on horse power, 430,000 cycles, and 173,000 commercial vehicles. The total sum paid in licenses between December 1. 1002, anil August 81, 1023, was £12,602,023, but this figure is subject to some adjustment for refunds. ASHAMED TO SING. Sir Hugh Allen, Director of the Royal College of Music and Professor of Music at Oxford University, speaking on church music to a gathering of clergy, organists, and choirmasters at Carlisle, said : "People in the congregation are ashamed to sing. They excuse themselves by saying they have not got voices, or do not know the" tnne or the words. The same people will take up any rotten song in the street with infallible correctness."

REFUSER TO SAY ' I WILL. A wedding service nt St. Luke's Church, j Derby, ended prematurely owing to the i bride's refusal to say "I will." The bridegroom thereupon seized his hat and left the church. The girl bad twice previously declined to proceed with the marrisse, but yielded to her lover's persuasion. She remained to see ber brother married, a double ceremony having originally been arranged. RORRERS AT GETHSEMANE. A recent example of pillage involving sacrilege has aroused the Palestine Government to drastic measures against robbers who invaded a shrine of the Virgin near Gethsemane. This bold depredation took place in the Church of the Holy Virgin, which was robbed of some most precious and sacred lamps, icons, diamonds and jewels.

Highwaymen have violated the hallowed ground about the hill of Hebron and stripped travellers on the roads of the Purah district of their valuables. The looted church is situated on a site reputed < to be that of the tomb of the Madonna. FAT COMELY COWS. To help people to memorise the foods which should be used to make dietaries safe, Dr. Harold Scurficld devised the acrostic. "Pat Comely Cows," in a Health lecture at the Borough Hall, Deptford, recently. Dr. Scnrfield, who was formerly medical officer of Sheffield, said the letters of "Pat Comely Cows" formed the initials of the useful and valuable foods as follows: — Potatoes, Apples, Tomatoes, Cabbages. Offal (liver, etc.) Milk (butter, cheese!. Eggs, Lettuce, Yeast, Cod liver oil. Oranges, Watercress, Suet. Dr. Scurfield odviscd mothers to teach their children to cat fruit in preference to sweets. FASTIDIOUS MITRDERER. Percy Lefroy, who murdered a rich old merchant, named Gold, on the Brighton train, was probably the vainest murderer who ever appeared in dock. When the police superintendent asked h.m if be required anything specially for h_ trial he answered: "I wish you'd let mc have the pawn ticket for my dress clothes, as 1 would like to redeem them aud wear them in court.' Denied this, he devoted himself to the sole remaining proof of his -entillty, a silk hat. and throughout the trial he took particular care of it. and when thf Attorney-General was pressing the facts which were to hang him the murderer scarcely paid any attention, giving all his time to the safety and well-being of his hat!

"He threw some vases at my sister, smashing them to atoms, and stopped the clock with the noise."—Woman witness at Mansfield. Testing a new artificial leg and a homemade contrivance for pedalling with one foot, Reginald Baker, a discharged soldier, cycled from Rochester to Leeds, 226 miles. in 42 hours. A fine specimen of a Manx shear-water, one of the rarest bird visitors to England, fell to the ground gassed, while passing over Wigan Coal and Iron Company's coke ovens. Dr. Edmund Knowles Muspratt, of Seaforth Hall, Liverpool, one of the founders of the Liverpool University, who gave £17,000 to eqnip the physics and electrochemistry laboratory there, died recently, aged nearly 90. A glove lamp for the use of men on street point duty at night, which will 6bow a red or a green light at the will of the wearer, has been Invented by a Plymouth police-constable named Martin. PRISON FOR EX-CURATE. A former curate of All Souls' Church, Hastings, was sentenced there to four months' hard labour on a serious charge, to which he pleaded guilty. He was carried from the dock in a state of collapse. STRANGE FISH. A fish measuring 4_ft round tbe head and 12ft been caught .»y a Milford Haven (Pembrokeshire) trawler off the north-west coast of Ireland. The mouth is bottle-shaped and toothless, but the body resembles that of a shark. LAST VESTEYS WILL. Sarah Baronfess Vestcy, of Dnlwich. wife of Lord Vestey, managing director of the Union Cold Storage Co., left _925&. Amongher bequests were: £500 to tbe Salvation Army, for women's social work: Hats, stockings, woollen combinations, and four dresses to her maid, Alice Godfrey; and ■ — Annuities of £104 each to her maid, Alice Godfrey, and her coachman, George Lowe, if still ill her service.

NATIVE-BORN PREMIERS. With one exception, all the Premiers who took part in the Imperial Conference are natives of the Dominions which they'represented. Mr. Baldwin's parents were English, Mr. Cosgrave's Irish, while General Smuts is a natire of the Cape Colony". Mr. William Warren was born in Newfoundland, Mr. Mackenzie King hails from Kitchener. Ontario—a town which was formerly called Berlin—and Mr. Stanley Brace comes from Melbourne. The one exception .Is. Mr. Massey, Premier of New Zealand, who was born at Limavady, in County Derry.

MARRIAGE FOR 7d. "There is a certain church in the locality where the woman could get married for sevenpence." This statement was made at Sroutbwark County Court by Mr. Arthur S. Green, of 43, Hackney Road, E., who sought an ejectment order against a widow occupying three rooms in Chatham Street, Walworth. He stated that there were arrears of rent, and he objected to a yonng man visiting the woman. He had advised her to marry the man.. V GERMAN ACTOR'S WAGES. Berlin theatre managers have had much difficulty in arriving at a stable figure for actor's salaries, and it finally has been agreed that wsjges shall be fixed at the price of a certain number ot stall seats. One manager had an argument -with a leading actor, whose nightly wage was the price of five stall seats, and decided to line him, but the entire company protested. Tbe manager thereupon reduced the price of the stall seats for one night, thus imposing the fine on all members of the company iv such a manner-that they could not claim a breach of contract.

LONDON'S PUGILIST MAGISTRATE.

Basil Bernard Watson, X.C, recently appointed a metropolitan police magistrate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Magistrate Syxamons, probably is London's first boxing magistrate. He is a member of the National Club, organises! the Guards Division boxing matches during the war, and has been a boxer himself. Hs is fond of . open-a'.-sport, and is interested in racing as well as boxing. Altbqugb nearly 40 when the war broke ont he joined the Guards and spent three years in) tbe trenches. LAME BEGGAR RUNS. Frederick Alfred Smith, 69. was accused at Marylebone of begging at Kentish Town, with his left hand drawn up his sleeve and bandaged, and walking as if he were a cripple. He bad bfeen very insulting to two women, and iwhen a constable came upon the scene and was talking to two men from whom he had begged, tbe prisoner's lameness suddenly disappeared, his band became well, and he ran off as hard as he could. On learning that the prisoner had 6 7, the magistrate fined him 6/ and ordered rhe 7(1 to be returned to bim.