NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1925, Page 19

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

With a population of 90,000, Northampton had only 32 convictions for drunkenness last year. Middlesbrough Chief Constable has reported that policewomen are of very little value for patrol purposes. A bald man, charged at North London with stealing a hair pad and a hair slide, i was remanded for a medical report. Women in Jersey were legally regarded as "chattels" till recently, when Jersey States passed a form of the English law , named Women's Property Act. | A letter from a London man in Vancouver, asking for assistance in securing a wife, has been received by the Mayor of Islington. For stealing spent bullets from the Ash Rifle Ranges, Albert William Jenings, Bert. Laws and Thomas Denham Rutter were each fined £5 at Aldershot. An axe-head, stated by experts to be | 15,000 years old, has been found in a I marl hole at Oldbury. It is to be placed j in the Birmingham Art Gallery. ; Since his wife died 10 months ago, Robert Hibbert (74), of Barking Road, , Plaistow, had expressed a wish every day I to be with her. He has been found dead, j Matthew Burton, a professional foot- | bailer, now with New Brighton and formerly with Stoke, was sentenced at Derby, to two months' imprisonment for bigamy. Without endangering the existence of the steamship services, freights cannot be further reduced, a report to the Liverpool Steamship Owners' Association maintained recently. POLICEMEN IN WHITE. Constables engaged in regulating the traffic at Dunstable cross roads appeared in long white waterproof coats and white gloves. Several constables have had narrow escapes from being run down at night, and the white coats have been adopted as a means of protection. REBUILDING ST. PAUL'S. Following the Great Fire, in which St. Paul's Cathedral was destroyed, various sources were tapped for the supply of , rebuilding funds. In Pepys' Parish of St. I Olave, Hart Street, a house-to-house collection was made, and there is still in the possession of the present rector " A Booke of the Names and Sums contributed to a Breife for the Building of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul." DIAMONDS IN A PIG. A diamond-studded bracelet which had been swallowed by a pig has been recovered by the wife of a -wealthy landowner, near Budapest, who lost it in the courtyard of an inn where the pig was being fattened. It was not known at first that the pig had swallowed the bracelet, but after a vain search it was decided to slaughter the animal and the bracelet was found in its stomach. MOTORIST'S EYE. Strain induced by fixing the eyes upon the- grey-white ruad surface had, Mr. Arthur Upson stated in an address to tne Institute of Opthalmic Opticians, been found to ibe responsible for a mass of minor eye troubles classified as "motorist's eye." By the mixing of some green colouring matter with the surfacing material, the harmful actinic rays would, he said, be absorbed instead of being reflected. A KISSING BURGLAR. Miss Violet Thompson, of Cromwell Road, Wimbledon, was aroused at two a.m. by an electric torch which a burglar was flashing over her dressing-table. She asked him what he was doing, and lie threatened to "brain" her If one screamed. The man took a relvet coat, money, and jewellery, and before he left klised Mies Thompson and wbiipered "Good night." The burglar went further up the road and, after ransacking the kitchen of Captain T. B. Stoakley, lie Tisited the house next door, entered the bedroom of Miss lEmlly Samuels, threatened her, and took £7. He attempted .to go into the room of Miss Samuel's sister, who was awake. She screamed and the man ran away. DOCTOR ACTIVE AT 90. Three small parishes in the Vale of Belvoir,. Leicestershire, viz., Barkestone, Plungar, and Long Clawson, have IJ. residents whoso united ages amount to 903 years. One of the most remarkable of these veterans Is Mr. George Cant, who recently attained his 101 st birthday. Although without school education, he taught himself shorthand, and became an efficient writer of the system. He still farms about 25 acres, and last autumn dug hU own potato crop. Dr. Swain, of Long Clawson, who Iβ in his 00th year, still interests himself in the welfare of the village, and Mr. R. Mann, aged 88, who Is a carpenter, made a 16-rung ladder in one day last month. A GERMAN RASPUTIN. Karl Grosskotenhaus, who is described as "the German Rasputin," has been arrested on a number of serious charges. He declared that he was the representative of Christ on earth, and he exercised such powers of fascination over the working people of Westphalia, that the sect which he founded has now 20,000 members. His followers call themselves "Resurrectionists," and have meeting-houses in a number of the towns of the mining and iron districts. Ho preached what he called "a new Christian philosophy of life," based on a monstrous interpretation of the Scriptural statement that to the pure all things are pure. Grosskotenhaus was once in prison for six years, and tt Iβ difficult to understand bow an Impostor of this sort managed to delude the hard-headed working people of Westphalia. MONEYLENDER'S EXTORTIONS. Speaking at a conference on " Moneylending and Borrowing," convened by the London Council of Social Service, Miss A. R. Caton (Liverpool Women Citizens* Association) Baid that, although evidence was difficult to obtain, moneylending was believed by many social workers to be on the increase. It was a terrible irony that the poorer the borrower the higher the rate of Interest extorted. The worst type of moneylending was in very poor streets, and was usually done by women of the same class as the borrower. Dealing with the system of renewing loans, Miss Caton mentioned a case in which £110 was ultimately repaid on a loan of £9. Moneylenders who exact interest at the rate of 1300 and 866 2-3 per cent per annum were mentioned. Mr. Schofleld Allan, promoter of the proposed Moneylenders' Bill, said the Bill fixed the rate of interest with security at 15 per cent, and without security at 60 per centj

The Queen's Dolls* House will not be ehown at Wembley this year, but is to be housed at Windsor Castle. "I think it is possible to devise apparatus to receive communications from the dead." This is a statement made by Thomas A. Edison. 1 "That is probably the origin of the expression 'in the soup," " said Judge Parfltt at Clerkenwell, on Tuesday when counsel spoke of a diner's pearl "jumping into the soup." j A valuable piece of old Communion plate, which bears the date IGIO, and which disappeared in the course of that century, has now been restored to the Parish Church of Duffus. When speaking at Folkestone, the Rer« Dr. John A. Hutton, successor to Dr< Jowett at the Westminster Road Church, said that he had a remedy for influenza* He advised them to suck oranges. i NO C 3 MARRIAGES. I In the Budapest National Assembly M. i Vas, the Minister of Social Welfare, I announced that he intended to introduce a Bill compelling engtlged couples to submit Ito medical examination before marriage. I :MR. BALDWIN'S CROSS-WORD. j "Mr, Baldwin has provided the latest ! cross-word puzzle," said Sir John Simon, * M.P., speaking at a Liberal meeting at Westerham recently. "What you are asked to discover Is a word of twelve letters which means Protection, and the answer is 'safeguarding.' '' ONE PUFF—IO/. A man who sat in the public seats at Woolwich County Court reecntly, struck a match, applied it to his pipe, and blew a cloud of smoke into the air. The Clerk : Stop that smoking. Judge Grainger: Bring him here. I really do not know what things are coming to. Pay ten shillings. - ._ DANCER SHOT DEAD. Annoyed because he was chaffed about) the revolver which he wore with his cowi boy suit at a Munich fancy dress ball,- ---' Herr Ploetz, son of a professor, drew the weapon and fired into the crowd of dancers. | He killed the wife of Herr Kinzinger, ant artist, and wounded another woman. He was arrested, but the ball continue* into the early hours of the morning.' THE SHORTEST NAME. The Chinese student, Mr. I, now studying in an American University, can probably boast the shortest name of any person in the United States, beating the New England family of Ek by a single letter. Paris a few years ago, however, could have furnished a rival in a popular restaurant keeper, whose name was Madame O. When her son was called up for the army and was neked to put a cross against certain ques- , tlons on a schedule, he mildly suggested , that it would be as easy to sign his name in full. £11,390 HIDDEN IN A WALL. i When Miss Bridget Murphy, an elderly . woman, and her brother appeared at the ; j Dublin Bankruptcy Court, after being i committed to prison for a fortnight for c refusing to give information as to the ' woman's assets, the man offered to reveal j where their money was hidden. i j Accompanied by an official, the man went J to a house, and, knocking two bricks out of a wall, revealed a casbbox containing £11,390 in notes. The money was brought to court and I handed to the Official Receiver, and both, . were then liberated from custody. [ I GIRL IN FLAMES IN STREET. 1 Seeing May Roslna Barnes, a shop 1 assistant, in flames in Bridge Road, Ham- > mersmlth, a man named Varney whipped i off his coat and wrapped it round her. The girl afterwards died from septic I poisoning, declined the attentions of a doctor - and walked off when the ambulance came, s : saying that she did not want to be taken i away, as she could not leave her shop. ; j At the Inquest, it was stated that the t flames from an oil stove had ignited the s girl's clothing. A verdict of "Accidental death" -was returned, and the coroner complimented Vnrney on his prompt action. BABY FALLS 6O FEET. An IS-months-old Edinburgh girl had * j remarkable escape when she fell from a top flat window to the' street, 60 feet below. 3 The little girl, Muriel Tongs, whose j [ parents reside at 7, Johnston Terrace, wae i having her face washed near the window* f She was left alone for a moment while heß r father had gone to get a towel, and on j returning he was horrified to find that the j j child bad disappeared. The baby had apparently crawled front a a' box to the window, and had fallen Into B the terrace below. t j ■ She was taken to the Royal Infirmary. j When examined it was found that the baby was suffering from concussion and bruising, but appeared likely to recover. a £330 INTEREST ON £485 LOAN. j When Reginald Osman Taylor (46), tax collector and relieving officer, West Ashford i-' Union, pleaded guilty at Kent Assizes to a embezzling £25S it was stated, in mitlga- ;- tion of his offence, that he had got into t financial difficulties owing to his wife's ■'■ ill-health. -"-j As a consequence of ihiß trouble, he a resorted to moneylenders, and it was to n this fact thnt his downfall was attributed.: He borrowed £48.1 nml hnd repaid not only * ' that sum, but also £rS3O in interest. Whea a he applied for a loan the moneylenders, II It was alleged, pursued him to Ashford c and pressed him to accept larger amounts i than he had asked for. r Taylor was sentenced to nine months* a imprisonment in the second division. f OUTCAST BABY AS HEIR. The Sllngshy baby en Re which was o* absorbing interest both in Britain and ' America, is recalled by the news which [ reached England of the death of Mrs. 5 Dorothy Warner SHngsby, wife of Com- ' . mander Charles 'Henry Reynard Slingsby, R.N., at Oak Bay, Victoria, British Colum- | Wn. j , Mr. Slingsby marriril an American I woman in 1900, and ten years later the . child was born which became the central '. figure in the great law suit. ', Members of the Slingsby family mnln- ! tamed that this child died, nnd that in his , place was adopted a disowned outcast who was put forward as the rightful heir to , vast estates in Yorkshire. The case first came before a grand jury in San Francisco, where the boy Teddy was certified as the true son aud heir ot i Commander Slingsby. Later the question of his legitimacy was raised in England, and the House of Lords , ! reversed this finding, and gave Judgment In favour of the members of the Slingsby. 1 family, rwho, In the absence of an helr» would become entitled to the estate*. oMj^ M