NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS,

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 78, 3 April 1926, Page 23

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS,

Mr. Thomas William Beard, butcher, of Gresley, South Derbyshire, feU down dead, whilst engaged in slaughtering. Although deaths from street accidents in London had Increased from 36S in 1921 to 606 In 1925. It was stated at the L.C.C. that it was hardly possible for the Council to do anything in the matter. Hounslow Gunpowder Mills, of Messrs. Curtis and Harvey, are closing down. It is believed that the first gunpowder in England was made In these mills for Edward 111., and used at the Battle of Oressy in 1346. An old man was stepping Into a prison van at Tottenham, when a woman who chanced to pass asked why he was going to prison. On being told that the man, who had been convivial, was unable to pay the 5/ penalty, she promptly supplied the money. 1,667,000 " HELLOS " A DAY. "Somewhere a Voice is Calling"—"Hello" '—in the London telephone area, about -0 times a second every working day. London subscribers make on the average 1,667,000 calls each working day, or about 478,600,000 a year, says a statement dealing with telephone progress in the London area during _92j. " I'VE LOST AUNTIE." "I've lost auntie," said a child to an attendant on the West Pier at Brighton. This led to the discovery of the body of Mrs. Marion McDonald, of Torrington Square, W.C.I. Mrs. McDonald had been seen walking on the pier with her small niece early in tho morning, and when the child announced her loss the attendant caused a search to be made. The body was floating in the sea among a number of piles near the pier head. GIRL'S HAIRBREADTH ESCAPE. The story of a 14-year-old girl who had what was very literally "a hairbreadth escape" was told at Linslade, Bucks, Children's Court, on Monday. When the girl pleaded to attempting to enter a moving train, it was said that she fell under the train. A porter, Frederick Linney, grabbed her by the hair, and held her close to the platform until the train had passed. Considering her terrifying experience, the magistrates dismissed the case. WORKMAN'S £500 A YEAR. A eteelworker who earned _500 a year was among 200 miners and steelworkers summoned at Newport for non-payment of income tax. It was said that the steelworker owed more than £40, and his solid'or offered to pay £1 a week. The collector stated that the man was xn habitual defaulter, and that last year listraint had to be levied for £170 tax. "I am not going to make any .excuse except to say that he has no money," said the solicitor. An order for payment was made. THE MOTHER OF TEN. The wife of a labourer told Judge Sir Thomas Granger at Southwark County Court that she had ten children, and her husband gave her £2 weekly to clothe ana maintain them. The Judge: In° view of what appears in the Press to-day regarding the birth-rate in England, people with ten children should be encouraged. An order for possession of rooms occupied by the woman and her family was suspended. Another woman against whom a similar order was sought stated she had eight children. No order in this case was made. CLERGYMEN IN A BRAWL. The Rev. Henry Dodgson Pawson (26), of Little Ponton, Grantham (Lincolnshire) was charged at Bow- Street Police Court, London, with assaulting John Thomas Phillips (27), fruiterer, of Macclesfield Street, City Road. There was a cross charge against Phillips of assaulting the clergyman. Mr. Pawson's left eye was badly discoloured, and there were several marks on his nose. Mr. Laurence Vine (for Phillips) said there was a scene in a flat in Chancery Lane on the previous Saturday night, and some blows were struck between the parties now before the court. The interval since Saturday night seemed to have had the effect of cooling their tempers, and both parties were now willing that the charges should be withdrawn. It was agreed that Phillips should pay the doctor's fee of £1 1/, which had been incurred. CHILDREN'S EVIDENCE IN MURDER CASE. Frederick Arthur Dean (34), a butcher's assistant, of Catford, was committed fortrial by the Greenwich magistrates on the charge of having murdered his wife, Edith Alice Dean (36). Mr. Wallace (for the Public Prosecutor) stated that on January 1 Dean sent his son, aged 14, for some cigarettes. A little girl remained in the house, and she would say that her father rained blows with a butcher's steel on her mother, and then fetched a tin from the scullery and poured something, believed to be paraffin, on Mrs. Dean, and set her clothes alight. When the boy returned with the. cigarettes- he saw prisoner putting paper on his wife, whose clothes were on fire. Mr. Wallace read a statement alleged to have been made by prisoner, in which he said he and his wife were fairly happy until last year, when he became unemployed. He remembered sending the boy for the cigarettes, and his wife said she would go Into vice and pushed past him. He said he did not remember anything after that. Doris Dean (6). daughter of the prisoner, while being questioned, cried bitterly, and prisoner rose to protest against the proceedings.

George Brooks (69), Forest Gate, after . a fall downstairs, lived for three months with a broken neck. At present New York has 14,000 policemen for a population of 7,000,000, compared with London's 22,000 for a population of 7,500,000. "The earth must be at least 500 million years, and more probably 600 or 700 million years old."—Dr. A. S. Russell at the Begent Street Polytechnic. SMOKING IN TUBE LIFT. "Xo Smoking" notices In the passenger lifts of the London Underground Railways are to go. "Most of the lifts are now worked by the attendants from outside," said an official at Electric House, "and it has been difficult to insist on the old rule being carried out. "Smoking was originally prohibited because of the inconvenience caused to other passengers," the official added. A LITTLE "TERROR." Described .is "a little terror," Ivy Woods, an auburn-haired London girl, aged 20, was sentenced at the Isle of Wight Police Court to three months' hard labour for breaking the window of a shop at Cowcs. When she was nrrested she bit the hand of the constable, and in Cowes' workhouse she violently attacked and bit another inmate. Woods said she was deaf, and she took no interest in the proceedings. PENNY A SWEAR WORD. A little Bath girl, Joyce Martin, has hit on a bright idea for promoting propriety in speech, and at the same time aiding Bath Hospital. , Her uncle, Mr. Ames, employs many men at his garage in the city, whose language is sometimes more vigorous than polite. So Joyce instituted an "Anti-Swearing Club" which all the men have joined at a penny entrance fee. The rules provide for a fine of one penny for every swearword, the penalty being doubled for expletives on Sundays. As a result a first donation of £4 10/ has been sent to the Bath Hospital. NON-SWIMMER SAVES DROWNING BOY. Heroism of .a man who, although he could not swim, plunged into the sea to rescue a drowning boy, was recognised when Charles Gardner was presented by the Mayor of Brighton, on behalf of the Carnegie Hero Fund, with a silver watch and £5. One night a boy was fishing from a groyne, railed off by barbed wire, because of danger. He fell, and Gardner, a man of SS, plunged after him. Though he was out of his depth, he managed to hold the boy up until both were rescued. WIRELESS COMEDY. How duels may in future be fought witwireless instruments was indicated in a dispute heard by the North London magistrate. A landlord complained that his lodger had threatened to kill him. Both men have wireless sets. The tenant complained that the landlord caused his wireless set to oscillate, making "a hideous howl" 'Which prevented him from enjoying the music. "1 did it to, get him to shut his door." said the landlord. "The whole place is full of music—lt is absolutely a ghastly noise. The magistrate said he was powerless to restore harmony. BOY'S DEATH MYSTERY. A box of toffee figured in an inquest at IBarry on a boy, Glyndwr David Hayne, who died from hemorrhage of the stomach. The boy bought some sweets from a confectioner, and in the night was taken 111 and became unconscious, dying a little later. The confectioner produced a newly opened box from which the toffee had been taken and assured the coroner that no one else had been supplied with any. Two doctors sampled the sweets in court and said there was no evidence of strychnine In them, but that they should be analysed. The inquest was adjourned till the analyst's (finding was returned. ■WOMAN PUSHES BURGLAR DOWNSTAIRS. Two men who broke Into houses occupied by women in North Fincaley and Netting Hill were quickly disillusioned on the subject of the weaker sex. Miss Stella Bromley, when playing cards in a house attached, to the High School for Girls, Netting Hill, saw a man's hand coming down the stonework outside the window. Rushing to the back door, she found a man leaving the house. She tackled him, and held him until the police arrived. Such was the story Miss Bromley told the West London magistrate when Frank Strong (19) was remanded on a charge of attempted) housebreaking. Miss Murrell, of Holden Road, North Finchley, met an intruder at the head of the staircase. She gave him a push, and he fell headlong to the bottom. He escaped with a purse containing a considerable sum. DEATH FROM AN EGG. At an Inquest at Stepney, E., on Sellna Vogt, 21, of Mile End, 'London, It was stated that she became ill after eating a duck's egg. Dr. Thomas, medical officer for Stepney, said there was no doubt that death was due to Infection from the bacillus Aextrycke, one of the Gaertner group usually 'associated with from eating meat. _t was relatively heat-resisting, so that the ordinary boiling or frying which the eggs underwent in cooking was not sufficient. So far as he could trace, there had been no record In the United Kingdom of any cases of food-poisoning from eggs, but m French literature there were some cases In which ducks' eggs were implicated. There was no doubt that bacteria could penerate the shell Into tbe egg, A verdict of death by misadventure was recorded. WOMAN DOCTOR'S TRAGIC DEATH. A verdict of "Death by misadventure" was recorded at a St. Pancras Inquest on Dr. Charlotte Iris Fox (35), a pathologist at the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's Inn Road, London, whose death followed the | poisoning of a finger during a post-mortem examination. Dr. Thurlow Fortescue -Fox. of Beaconsfield (Bucks), said Dr. Iris Fox was his sister, and was single. On the erening or December 24 she told him she had done a post-mortem examination rather rapldlv. Next day she had her linger In a bandage, and, in answer to his inquiry, said, "Oh T pricked my finger yesterday." The following day she was removed to hospital Mr. B. K. Garrett, secretary of the hospital, said the hospital authorities had the deepest feelings of sympathy ~. ith ' relatives, and felt the loss very _«-,,- ," deed "of a valued servo-f -Teatly Intically slven her t h 0 1?° \** *™' hospital and the public.- TIC6S ° f tha