NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 218, 13 September 1924, Page 19

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

i Willesden complainant: Catching that man Is like looking for a needle in a bottle of beer. A sum of £16S, all in silver, which a labourer, of Great Wakerlng, Essex, had saved, has been stolen from the trunk in which he kept it. i Sis men who have been arrested at Montreal are said to be members of an international gang of confidence men who have netted a million dollars from tourists. I ! £3,000,000 ROAD PROJECT. '< An important development scheme which is under the consideration of the Ministry of Transport is the construction of a new road from the City to Victoria Docks, a project estimated to involve an expenditure of £3,000,000. j BOY IN A GIRLS' HOME A youth in the guise of a well-dressed young woman was admitted to the House of Help for Girls at Burnley after telling a story of being stranded and penniless. The matron's suspicions were aroused when It was discovered that the " girl " wore a wig. The stranger then admitted that he was a man. lie had masqueraded as a girl in London, Liverpool, Blackpool, and other places. He was handed over to the police, who sent him back to his home in Northampton. i . j FOUR DUKES IN ONE. ! The King's host nt Goodwood House had the very unusual distinction of being four times a duke, says the "Daily Chronicle." In 1876 the title of Duke of Gordon was revived ln favour of the then Duke ot Richmond and Lennox (father of the present holder), thus bringing the number of his British dukedoms up to three. In addition the head of the house of GordonLennox holds the title of Due d'Aubigny in France, which was bestowed on Louise de Querouaille by Louis XIV., with a view to pleasing his "good brother," the Merry Monarch. i ' I TOTAL SUN ECLIPSES. | About one tota: eclipse of the sun occurs in every two years, but the phase of totality Is so short —usually two or three ' minutes, and never as much as eight minutes—that the aggregate time it can be visible over the Email sections of the earth shadowed is only eight days in a century. The beautiful and Significant phenomena presented are studied at a greater cost In effort and money than anything else so fleeting. Professor S. A. Mitchell mentions that he has travelled more than 40,000 miles to witness four of these I eclipses, and the total time for scientific ' observations was less than eleven minutes. I j THE PESTIFEROUS RAT. Rats will eat almost anything. They will cat any kind of food that human I beings eat; they will eat raw, uncooked products that no human being would touch; they will cat rotted and decomposed food, ! says "Science Sittings." If they gain access to dozens of bags or boxcj in warehouses, they will break open each one. They kill and cat chickens and small pigs. Country farms and city hotels are equally , unsafe from their depredations. j It has been estimated that England's rat population is 40,000,000 ! They annually destroy _ir>,ooo,ooo in foodstuffs, besides doing other damage. GAS FOR POLITICIANS. At the National Capitol in Washington, a room has been fitted up as a temporary station under the auspices of the Chemical , Welfare Service for the treatment of Senators afflicted with colds. The appara tvs for the treatment consists of a chlorine gas generator. The time required for treatment is one hour. One treatment suffice ln many cases for a cure; three, at intervals of a couple of days, will ordinarily cure a very severe cold or an acute bronchitis, says "Science Sittings." To take a treatment all that is required Is that the sufferer shall sit in a room where the chlorine generator is placed, and breathe. Chlorine gas turned loose iv rooms kills the germs. £50,000 A YEAR INSUFFICIENT. In ISSG Sir Humphrey de Trafford succeeded to nn income of between £40,000 and £30,000 a year; but, according to the official receiver at Leicester Bankruptcy Court, he had never lived within his income. He had been three times bankrupt, but each time his debts were fully paid. He has now granted a discharge in bank- ! ruptcy on agreeing to pny his debts in full, j Sir Humphrey de Trafford, who was born in 1562, nnd succeeded his father, the second baronet, in ISSG, lives at Hill Crest, I Market Harborough, and Portland Place, London W. Lord Leverhulme has never got away from his Lancashire supper custom. This takes the form of a large Welsh rarebit washed down with copious cups of tea or coffee. BOY DESIGNS A CATHEDRAL. "Everybody is talking about the new Liverpool Cathedral. "This monumental piece of art and of religious faith was designed by a youth of twenty-one. Mr. Giles Gilbert Scott. R.A., was no older than that when ln a London architect's office he conceived the ambitious idea of entering the competition, ln 1001, for a design for the new Liverpool Cathedral. It was a prize the nation's cleverest architects were after. "The firm who employed him were competitors. Young Scott, saying nothing to anybody, worked out his designs in his spare time. He rose early in the morning and, absorbed in his task, was perhaps on occasion late at the offlce. And he was successful. The judges, who were the late Mr. G. F. Bodley, R.A., and Mr. Norman Shaw, R.A., declared that Mr. Scott's plans were original and monumental in conception, informed with close acquaintance of detail, and feasible of execution. "This young- man will have had the honour of creating the greatest modern Gothic building in tho world."

Owing to lack of trade some six hundred miners employed at Eramweligate Moor (County Durham) Colliery have received notice to terminate their engagement. The "Daily Mail" says that a gift of £30,000 is reported to have been made by an anonymous donor towards the fund for the restoration of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. This it is said makes possible the complete restoration of the building. DEATH AT 104. Mrs. Mary Barden, the oldest inhabitant of Chatham, has died at the age of 10* years. The old lady always attributed her long life toward work and good food. She was married at 20 years of age an<l had 20 children, only four of whom are allre. WAR WRITER'S WIDOW. Mrs. Bertha Bennett Burleigh, aged 52, of Castleton Road, West Kensington, an artist and widow of the famous war correspondent, was bound over in £5 for three years at Marlborough Street Police Court on a charge of gathering alms at Piccadilly. MAN "WITH A PAST. Within a few yards of the main Andover Road at Winchester, and only two feet below the surface, the complete skeleton of a man has been unearthed. The skeleton Is thought to be very ancient, and probably that of a man who died on the gallows. It was found on Gallows Hill, where the hangman's tree once stood. 117J_ MILES AN HOUR. Racing at Brooklands P. Thomas, in his motor car, covered the eight mlleß and a-half of the lightning long handicap at the amazing speed of 117* miles an hour. This is the highest pace at which a race has ever been won at Brooklands. Thomas had to give -Tsec. Btart to Count Zborowski's car, but caught him up near the finish and just won the race. EASIER DIVORCE FOR POOR. Sir Henry Duke, President of th_ Divorce Division, has made a provisional rule reducing the deposit required in poor persons' nullity suits from £15 to £5. This has been made possible by the medical examiners agreeing not to charge any fee for examination or for giving evidence. Their fee usually amounted to about 17 guineas. ATE POISON PILLS FOR SWEETS A five-year-old boy, playing in the cellar of a Salford (Manchester) doctor, took away a bottle of poisonous pills. He divided them amongst three playmates, William Cullen, aged 8, Charles Charleston, 10, and James Chapman, 11. Thinking they were sweets, the lads ate the pills, and all three died. The doctor has stated that the pills were not part of his stock, but were very 01-, and must have been left in the basement by his predecessor many years ago. ROAD OF REMEMBRANCE. Tens of thousands of British soldiers passed along a road in Folkestone on their way to and from the battlefields. This road has been named the Ttoad of Remembrance, and a pile of granite stones has been built up there overlooking the harbour. A bronze plate was placed on the pile. It bears the lines of Tennyson:— "Not once ln our rough island story The path of duty was the way to glory.** Along the seaward side of the steep hill rosemary has been planted. SAW BROTHER DROWN. Marcus Frederick Wright, a Northampton. Grammar School boy, was drowned before his brother's eyes whilst bathing In the River Nene. His cousin, who accompanied the party, dived repeatedly, but was eventually exhausted. Meanwhile the dead boy's brother, a nonswimmer, was ouly prevented by force from entering the water. •Wright's parents were picnicking whea informed of the tragedy, and his mother, who v recovering from illness, relapsed, and is in a serious condition. SCHOOL IN A COWSHED. Tho first Loudon elementary school was opened over a century ago in a cowshed In the Borough Road. There was much criticism of the school at the time, because It "taught nothing useful." How far Britain has progressed from these days may be judged from the fact that the number of persons attending "school" in London, including children and adults, is greater than the population ot New Zealand. To educate these million scholars 30,000 officials are employed at a j cost of £12,600,000 a year. j Last year the youngest child at school was scarcely two years old—a baby ln a nursery school; and the oldest 78—a grandmother and a keen student at a women's institute. 3000 BRICKS A DAY. Sir William Joynson-Hicks tried his hand at bricklaying. Considering that he is an amateur at the trade, his record of six bricks laid ia a minute was good. At this rate he could lay 360 bricks an hour, or 2SSO in an eight-hours' day—if he could keep it np. SL- William made the experiment on a visit to Tonbridge, where he Inspected Mr. Drowt.low's new method of building honses by unskilled labour and a time-saving device. Having watched unskilled bricklayers laying bricks at the average speed of 3000 bricks a day. Sir William took np trowel and personally tested the system. "I am completely satisfied with the utility of the invention," ho declared afterwards. PEERS DAUGHTER KILLED. The Hon. Violet Madeline Baring, aged 2S, Lord Ashburton's youngest daughter, has died as the result of a riding accident near her home at The Grange, Alresrord. near Winchester. She was thrown from ber cob during an early morning ride, and died from concussion and other injuries. At an inquest a verdict of accidental death was re tamed. Evidence showed that \Uss Baring went for a ride on a cob reputed to be quiet. At no great distance from home she wanted to go one way and the cob another The cob began to trot, and Miss Baring, who was riding astride, slipped off on to a metalled road. The cob swerved jnst before she fell, but nobody saw what caused this. The cob was found feeding by the roadside just afterwards. 'Miss Baring wa3 conveyed home by so__t motorists.