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Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 306, 26 December 1924, Page 4

Cycling along the Northern wharf on Wednesday .a well-known member of the wharf staff of the Customs department felt an inclination to change his direction and accordingly swung over his handlebars, but his machine continued onward, and, before the brakes could be applied, the cycle mounted the fender and disappeared over the side. To a spectator the action appeared one of deliberate suicide, but the celerity with which the rider scrambled to safety belied the supposition. On regaining the wharf the official immediately indulged in a little line fishing, his patience being rewarded when he hooked his "bike" and hauled it from the water. City Council workmen are at present engaged rounding off the corner at the junction of Vincent Avenue and Remuera Road. This is a portion of what was the estate of the late Thomas Cotter, and was recently acquired by the City Council. At the corner of Rcmuera Road and Ladies' Mile a great improvement has been effected by rounding off the sharp corner of Crowther's Estate. A stone retaining wall has been erected, the corner rounded off, the footpath widened, kerbed and channelled. The new section taken into the curve of the road is now being hand-packed with boulders, prior to metalling and rolling. Both corners were becoming a little dangerous in the light of steadily increasing motor traffic. Corners are also being rounded off at one or two sections in Manukau Road, Parnell. It is unlikely that either the marriages for the year or those for December in Wellington will reach the 19 n n figures (says the "Dominion.") For this year there 'have been 180 certificates issued, while the total for last year was 1240. In December last year 137 couples made their arrangements with the registrar, but this December, there have only been 118, and the business for the year is practically concluded. The only increase reported is in marriages by the registrar. This year there 'have been 315 so far, as against 308 last year. A motor cyclist named David Grubb Whitmore, aged 45, a builder, in endeavouring to pass between two motor lorries on a new concrete road at Hamilton struck one and wae thrown from hj s machine, breaking his right arm and sustaining other injuries. He is now in hoerjitaU

The startling discovery that the trams, with their human burdens, have been continually plying backwards and forwards in the Avenue on rails supported only by a mere cruet of tar, was made on a. recent morning (states the "Wanganui Chronicle"). Immediately after a lorry laden with wool 'had. proceeded over the intersection of the Avenue and Maria Place, it was noticed that a eubflidence of the road had occurred. The authorities were acquainted with the fact, and steps were taken to bar the road, while a gang of workmen investigated the matter. They eventually removed the tar macadam, and a yawning hole, big enough to bury a motor car in. was revealed. This was filled in, and in the afternoon the tram service—which had been inter, fered with to the extent of the cars all being compelled to use a single trackwas restored as usuel. The subsidence is attributed to a leakage from an old drain, but residents of long standing state that a stream used to How in the vicinity in the early days, and proba-bly this had a lot to do with the caving of the road. Fortunately the danger was noticed as quickly aa it was, for the tar crust could not possibly have borne the weight of the heavy traffic in the Avenue for any length of time. The "Scientific American" baa announced that it will direct an attempt to convert quicksilver into gold during a 6cries of experiments already in progress under Professor H. H. Sheldon, Department of Physics, New York University, and the editor of the publication, Mr. E. E. Free, said: "We believe the effort will be successful. The experiments probably will take from two to four months.' . He explained that Professor Sheldon's efforts would be directed towards confirming by a different process results claimed to have been achieved by Professor Adolph Miethe during the past year at Charlottenburg Technical College, Berlin. In the meantime a duplicate of the apparatus used by Professor Miethe is being sent to New York for study. The appa-ratus now being set up at the New York University consists chiefly of a quartz lamp, which encloses various tubes and electric paraphernalia. The lamp will hold about a haJf ounce of quicksilver vapour. The theory is that a current of electricity of 170 volts and an amperage to determined, will "crack" the atoms of the quicksilver, "knock off" the 80th planetary electron which differentiates quicksilver from gold, and thus leave atoms with a planetary system of 79 electrons —pure gold. They do say in the Navy that that weighty volume "King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions" prescribes even the manner in which the pockethandkerchief shall be used. At any rate, the most insignificant details are duly prescribed for, and the result is that you would just as soon think of finding anything like personal idiosyncracy on a man-o'-war as you would of finding an orthodox clergyman in fancy robes of his own designing. The nearest approach to a merely civilian touch that a warship ever shows may be seen at Christmas, when each masthead and each yardarm boasts a bunch of greenery. It is the only instance in which the austere decorum of the Navy relaxes, and there is anything bordering on the civilian pleasure in "dressing up." The Dunedin and the other ships of the New Zealand Squadron all wore their bunches of greenery at the truck yesterday, in accordance with time-honoured custom. In the Old Country when a crew wants to put on "swank" it makes wreathes of its greenery, and they look very well when carried at each truck. In Auckland it is usual to use bunches of pohutukawa, with its wealth of scarlet blossoms. Control of tile pnysical form, temperament and sex of human beings by chemistry was forecast by Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, editor of "Science Service," Washington, at the Sigma XI. dinner in New Rork, and he supported his statements by citing such chemical achievements as causing a fish to grow one eye in the middle of the head by the addition of magnesium chloride to the water in which the fish lives. Dr. Slosson -said: "It is already apparent that the forme of all creatures from the microbe to man are determined by certain chemical compounds in extremely minute amount. This may put it in the power of the chemist to control the size and shape of plants or animals, to fix the number and location of their branches and leavee, or legs and eyes, to modify colour or complexion, and to determine or alter sex. The factors of heredity and the origin of species, when you get down to bedrock, are chemical problems." At the same gathering in New York, Dr. Francis Carter Wood, director of cancer research at the Crocker laboratoroy of Columbia University, New York, said: "Cancer is an independent life inside of another life. The problem of the ultimate cause of cancer will, therefore, be solved only with the completion of our knowledge concerning life itself." After the hundreds of Christmas shoppers, and all those other people who on Wednesday evening were lured to Auckland's street of streets, had deserted the town for their homes, Queen Street, to a large extent, was left in the hands of a number of "rowdy" youths, who filled the night with violent noises by kicking kerosene tins about the road. Those responsible, like the tins, were rather empty, as the dinning results of their efforts went to show. In one instance, even a guardian of the law, who, no doubt, made allowance for Christmas Eve, was forced to take a hand. He caught one of the "rowdies" just as the latter was about to administer another hefty kick to a wellbattered tin. A crowd collected, and, to the chagrin of the noisy one, the policeman insisted that, like a good boy he pick up the tin from the middle of the road, and carry it away with nun. The crowd grinned and passed «n in peace. Following is an extract from a letter received in Wellington from Mr W. Douglas, general manager of the Hugh J. Ward Theatres Proprietary Ltd • — One of the governing directors of the Hugh J. Ward Theatres Pty ltd Fuller*' Theatres, Ltd.. and J6hn Fuller and Sons—Mr. John Fuller—is due to leave Melbourne at the end of this month, when he proceeds to New Zealand to personally supervise the New Zealand productions of the new firm and to finalise arrangements in connection with the buildinjr o f a new theatre in Chnstchurch on the site of the old Coliseum. Mr. Fuller will then visit all four mam centres in connection with future visits of the Hugh J Ward attractions." At a well-attended and enthusiastic meeting of Liberals in the Eden electorate a local branch of the LiberalLabour Federation was recently formed at Point Chevalier. It » intended aJeo to form branches in Mount Albert and

In the American newspaper comic section one of the popular features is that depicting the adventures of one Andy Gump, a strange individual who lacks a chin, and this type of American was alluded to by Dr. W. A. Giffen, president of the American Dental Association, at its annual convention held in Dallaß, Texas. "Pre-digestcd eatables eventually Will make a race of Andy Gumps out of the American people if a halt is not called soon. Unless the American man gives his teeth a good workout regularly over some rough and tumble morsel such as jerked beef, grits, or hard bread, within a few generations his chin will have faded into his Adam's apple." This was the beauty hint given by Dr. Giffen at the Dallas Convention, and he declared that "lazy eating" and soft foods cause imperfect teeth and under development of the lower jaw muscles. Such a condition leads in the long run to the fade-out of the forward-looking chin, Dr. Giffen indicated. Dr. Eugene Lyman Fislc, director of the Life Extension Institute of New , York, told members of the American Education Conference, assembled in New York, that the modern young woman's '"serene self-confidence in her , ability to defy convention and tradi- , tion as to the ethics of living may be . somewhat shaken by the knowledge , that she is giving way under the strain, and that she is not as good an animal ac her brother." The price exacted of , the flapper by what she considers her freedom, Dr. Fisk said, is a lessening of her years, an inability to get all that should be obtained from life, phy- ( sieally and spiritually, and a general depreciation of health. The growth of , the cigarette habit among young women had led directly to an increase . in the tuberculosis rate. Dr. Fisk main- , tamed. Faulty diet, late hours, added to the strain of commercial and industrial employment, and the unfavourable influence of sedentary business, also are factors in the returning prevalence of disease, he said. The hope of the ' modern young woman, he held, lies in , personal hygiene, and he maintained that the public education authorities should be the leaders in this important work. Sen-ices were held in most of the city churches on Christmas Day. At St. Matthew's Anglican Church, where the Bishop of Auckland was the preacher, there was a recital of Christmas music, including chornl and solo items. In the evening there was a large number of seamen in St. Matthew's Parish Hall, kindly lent for the occasion, when the sailors were entertained by Mr. Arthur C'owie. A short service was held, followed by an impromptu entertainment and refreshments. Midnight Mass was ( celebrated at St. Benedict's Church on Christmas morning by Bishop Liston, and ! in the evening the church choir gave a sacred concert, concluding with the , "Hallelujah Chorus."' , The American chirotonsor who has ' been using hie chair as a pulpit or a ' soap box from which to discourse a la ' Socrates on the philosophy of life, high ' prices, politics and everything else, ' henceforth will use it entirely as an ! adjunct to his profession. In other words, the barber, who has been talking his head off ever since he became an i institution, has decided to keep his mouth shut, to be seen but not heard, to cay nothing even when there is much ' to be said. Benjamin Weaver, national : secretary of the Associated Master ' Barbers of North America, emerged from a secret session of the organisation in Chicago and made the startling announcement to a long-suffering ' American public that beginning imme- : diately, the barber shops in the United States would be as quiet as the public ' library. From towns and hamlets throughout the United States, 3000 ' barbers from chair No. 1 had assembled ; in Chicago to draw up a professional code of ethics. The clause for speech- ! lessness was incorporated after a long and bitter argument, a great many of the delegates feeling that the public would Buffer if the barbers were compelled to wear a gag.