NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 23

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

FRANCE'S AMBULANCE FOR HORSES. France has its first ambulance for sick or Injured horses. It was presented to the city of Paris by an American, Michael Win-burn, in conjunction with a prize fund to be awarded quarterly to the policeman making the greatest number of arrests for cruelty to animals In the streets. IN A PIU-PIU MAT. Expressing as his dying wish that he De buried in the Maori dress, Guy Walker, tailor has died at Victoria, British Columbia, in his seventy-ninth year. Born in Englnnd, Walker later spent many years In New Zealand, serving through the Maori wars. His dying wish sprang from his esteem for the natives of New Zealand. His Victoria residence extended over 35 years. NEWSPAPERS FLOURISH. The United States leads tbe world in the number of newspapers published within its borders, 30,000, according to the newspaper "Germanla." France Is second with 10,000. The figures, however, tell a different story when the newspapers are compared to the number of inhabitants. On this basis Switzerland stands first with 270 newspapers for every million inhabitants, and the United States is second with 250. In England the proportion is ninetyeight papers to each million of people. MURDER IN A TRAIN. The body of M. Albert de Carnonville, former head of the Claims Office of the State Railways, and a resident of Paris, was found at the Gare Salnt-Lazare in a first-class compartment of a train from Versailles. He had been shot through the head with a revolver, and robbed of all he had. His nephew and brother-in-law told tbe magistrate that M. de Carnonville had been intending for some time to take certain property near Garches, and that he must have gone there to sign the lease. It is believed that he was carrying a sum of one thousand francs (i£10). —Reuter. "CHILD STEALING." Edwin Hudders, 24, a cotton operative, was remanded at Rochdale, Lancashire, charged with breaking into the Cottage Home and stealing a girl aged four. When charged, Hudders Is stated to have ■aid: "That's right. I took her." Superintendent Kenyon said the child was seen asleep in her cot at ten o'clock on Monday, but was missed at 7.30 next morning. He added that Hudders bad called at various places, begging, with the child. He was arrested at Todmorton, Yorkshire. Soiperinttendent Kenyon added that a similar case had never been brought before that Court, or ao far as he knew, any other court. A NUN EXHUMED. Sixty-seven years after her death the body of the Viscountess de Bournault d'Houet, a French nun who founded the Faithful Companions of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order of nuns, has been exhumed from ber grave in Upton Convent, Wlrral, Cheshire. A petition has been presented to the Pope for her canonisation. Before this could be done the body bad to be Identified. Two miracles, also, must have been worked by tbe late viscountess. ' The exhumation took place at daybreak recently In strict privacy, and In the presence of three doctors. The coffin was raised to the surface, and the remains, were identified by means of a copy of the late nun's vows, bearing her. name and description, which was enclosed In the coffin. LOST BRIDEGROOM'S TRAGIC FATE. The mysterious failure of a bridegroom to appear at St. Luke's Church, Maidenhead, for his wedding has been partly solved by a railway signalman's tragic find on the line. After Miss Robey, the bride, had waited in vain for the bridegroom, Mr. David Cecil Klmpton, tbe wedding party returned borne and a search was made for Mr. Klmpton, bnt in vain. Early next morning, however, a signalman found Mr. Klmpton's body at Wallham siding; a train had run over him. By his side was a new wedding ring, and in his pocket the receipt for the wedding cake. Wallham siding is about four miles from the church. YOUR WONDERFUL EYE. Few people realise the extreme minuteness of tbe received by the eye, according to Dr. Fraser Harris, In the "Optician and Scientific Instrument Maker.'" The eye is a camera, which has a double convex lens In front, a sensitive plate (the retina) behind, and is blackened Inside, and, r as In the plate of the photographer's camera, the Image In the retina Is upside down. The entire surface of the retina is only about one square Inch, a vry small portion of lt receiving the Image of the outer world. This portion where the Image Is received la a specialised, slightly hollowed Bpot about one-twelfth of an Inch in diameter—the macula lutea. The photographic camera is adjusted for light by stops; the eye camera by little muscles that dilate or contract the pupil. MAN'S TERRIBLE ORDEAL. Beaten by two murderous assailants, stabbed three times, and then thrown ten times into a canal, escaping death on each occasion like the proverbial cat, but with more than nine lives—this was part of the sensational story unfolded to tho Paris police by a man named Charetier, who now lies in hospital In a serious condition. The attempted murder occurred at Severn, near Paris, where Charetier had gone to seek employment. The men had overtaken him as be was on bis. way to the railway station. Enraged to see their victim escaping for the tenth time, the assailants pursued and overtook bim. They stabbed bim again, and left him for dead lying across the metals of the railway line. He recovered strength sufficient to drag himself from this dangerous position just In time, as a train was approaching. FIFTEEN CRICKET BALLS SENT THROUGH WINDOWS. Producing 15 cricket balls, which, he said, bad smashed through his windows, a man applied at Hampstead Police Court for a summons against the head of a neighbouring family, >For tbe past 18 months, be explained, balls had been continuously driven through the. windows of his bouse and greenhouse at West Hampstead. The Chairman: You seem to have done well In collecting balls. The Applicant: They only represent six months' collection. Dining the first year I returned all the balls that came tbrougn my window*. Advised to- na for the damages in the County Court, the man asked, "What am 1 to do with tbe balls?" Tbe Chairman: Keep them. They win form excellent evidence*

FOOTBALL ORANGES. ■ A Constantinople dispatch states that orange-growers in the Near East have begun a co-operative movement to investigate ways and means of growing a new species of Brobdingnagian orange. Some degree of success has been obtained by scattered growers, who, by accident, have raised seedless oranges almost as large as footballs. RUSSIA'S PRICELESS BIBLE. The famed Codex Sinaiticus Bible, which was reported some while ago to be missing, is intact as a national possession In Petrograd. This Greek manuscript, the oldest specimen of the Bible in existence (Sth century) has behind lt one of the most romantic stories in the history of literary "finds," its rescue being due to the late Dr. Tischendorf and a former Czar. Its estimated value is at leeast £250,000, and in the U.S.A. probably much more. SFTJCKEN VERBOTEN. Herr Sehalk, the director of the famoua Vienna Opera House, was conducting " The Bartered Bride," when a singer spat furiously at the contract confirming the sale of the bride, after receiving it from tha hand of another singer. The house roared with laughter, which continued till tha curtain fell on that scene. Then Herr Sehalk went behind the curtain and Issued an order that spitting, or mimicry of lt, was forbidden for ever upon the stage. The singer was merely making comedy of the recent incident in which two lovely ladies of the opera engaged in a spitting contest at each other, jealousy being the cause. DEADLY BAMBOO FIBRES. A mysterious affair recently occupied the attention of the authorities in Singapore. An Englishman, resident in the island, vied after a long and painful illnesß from no known or ascertainable disease. The subsequent post-mortem, however, revealed tne cause of the mysterious malady and death, and both were traced to his Indian cook or housekeeper, -who for some reason or other had determined to kill her master. She did so with fiendish cunning. She mixed with his food poisoned bamboo fibre ground to a fine powder. The microscopic portion of this deadly powder, being sharp and hard as glass, and quite Insoluble, gradually destroyed the coating of the stomach and and so caused a death of great agony, after months of excruciating torture. COW'S 27 TONS OF MILK. In the race for honours at the milk pall tho prolific British Friesian cows are not having it all their own way, and a pedigree Shorthorn has now come along with a wonderful record, both of milk and calves. Sybil 27th, owned by Mr. James Alnacough, of Falrhurst Hall, Parbold, Lancashire, In a milking career of six years and three months, has produced 10 calves, all living, and 61,5491b of milk (6154 gallons approximately). In terms of weight, her 61-years* dairy career has resulted In roughly 27 tons of milk, and in terms of the milkman's measure, pints of milk for nearly half a million breakfasts. Sybil 1b approaching 10 years of. age. —— ", > 1 -s A NUDE LUNATIC. Escaping from the Essex County Mental Hospital, an Inmate stripped himself of his clothing, and dashed along the Essex arterial road, near Codham Hall. He showed an utter indifference t» traffic, but Tils antics were very troublesome to motorists, who bad difficulty in avoiding bim. Twice be narrowly escaped being ran and several cars were stopped la the nick of time. In the chase to capture Mm motorists took part. The man escaped his pursuers by taking to the fields, where he waa eooa lost. Later be returned to the road, and two motorists tackled bim. After a strnggje he was overpowered, and covered with a coat. The .police arrived, and the man waa taken back to the hospital In a motor car.. MURDER BY MOTOR. A chauffeur, named Hernandez, Is stated to have confessed to participation In one of the most cruel murders known In Cuba for years. The victim was a girl. Hernandez told the police that Rafael Leon, a married man, hired him to drive him and a girl to Barocoa (Beach, where the two Imbibed freely. On the return Journey toward Havana, Leon hit the girl on the head with. a rum bottle, rendering her unconscious. At the muzzle of a pistol Hernandez waa forced to stop the car and assist in taking out the girl, who was propped up against a tree. Then Leon compelled the chauffeur to point the car in the direction of the tree, accelerate it whilst standing on tha running board, and steer it Into tbe girl against the tree. The police when they found the girl's body were of the opinion that • her death. was due to an accident. Leon and Hernandez will be tried for murder. * SPIOERS THE FRIEND OF MAN. The predacious habits of spiders, says "Science Sittings," make them most useful to man. Our selfish interests should preserve and protect them, except where they annoy the housewife by building dustcatching and unsightly webs Indoors. Even tnen they might be given a place. All forms are diligent producers of their kind, and were it not for their numerous enemies there would- be enough spiders to alter considerably the overprouuctlon of noxious insects. | In comparison to the insects there are few spiders, both of species and of indlviuuals. Considering the number of eggs spiders lay, and the protective care they give their eggs, this seems surprising. But when we observe the ceaseless activity of blrdß, shrews, toads, snakes, lizards, robberflies, certain parasitic Insects, and, most particularly, mud dauber and digger wasps, lt is more surprls.ng that spiders exist at oIL BANK THIEF AT 75. A homelesß man of 75, named James Howard, was sentenced to six months* imprisonment by the Marlborough Street magistrate for snatching £160 In Treasury notes from the counter of an Oxford Street Bank. He declared he had picked up the notes to restore them to a woman cashier; "but, being covetous, like all Englishmen, I suppose I put them in my pocket" Miss. Lilian Kiddell, cashier to " Bond Street shoe company. saf ° in the bank she beard «"J_% ££ quietly, "Is that ££_ bel open a hand grabbed the £100 !"»» attache case. Jnnn going out She *« rned „ and „i a w ,» chased and cap. of tho door. Howard was tnred by a «*? , *jtf e »«d «P the notes, *brown away by anothe, which wer» oward)> - i 9 passing th* man •■ ~* ' but—