NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 114, 15 May 1926, Page 23

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

"He was an astonishing man, walking about with double pneumonia."—Westminster coroner at inquest on Arthur Banks (65), taslman, of Walworth, London. TRAPPED IN BURNING CARAVAN. A burning tragedy, involving the death of a young child, occurred in the Dudley Hill district of Bradford. The child was Colin Hunter (aged two years and fire months), who lived wih his parents in a caravan in a yard in Cutler Heights Lane. About 8 p.m. the caravan was seen to be on fire, and in ten minutes was completely burned out. The child's body, terribly charred, was afterwards discovered by the firemen in the ruins. The caravan was heated by a small coal stove. BOBBED HAIR SUICIDE. Because her father reproved her for having had her bair ibobbed, Jane "Walker, aged IS, a shopgirl, of New Springs, Wigan, jumped into the canal. At the inquest the father said that he hit his daughter on the face with the back of his hand because she had had her hair bobbed, and he threatened to cut off the remainder of her hair. Alice Walker, the girl's sister, said that Jane, who was the idol of the family, had lovely hair, but she had repeatedly asked her father to allow her to have it bobbed. A verdict of suicide while of unsound mind was returned. PIPE IN BED KILLS 48. A Rio message from Manaos, Amazonas, states that the fire on the river steamer Paes de Carvalho. destroyed in the Upper Amazon basin, was the result of a passenger* smoking in t>ed. He set afire his mattress, and the flames spread to the kerosene cargo, to the ensineroom, and to a t>ox of gunpowder. which exploded and caused a panic, killing many. Others jumped* overboard. A river steamer rescued 7S of the crew and passengers. Dispatches say that the death roll Is computed at 48, including the captain, 11 of the crew and 36 passengers.

POLICE DOG'S CAPTURE. John Whitelock and ■William Corbett, sentenced to two months' and one month's imprisonment respectively at West Hartlepool for stealing coal belonging to the London and North-eastern Railway Company, were stated to have been going away from the sidings with a- bag of coal each when they were held up by a police dog named "Darkle" until the arrival of a policeman. There are three or four dogs of this type In the Hartlepools, kept for the purpose of running down petty pilferers In the docks and railway sidings. They are partly trained at Hull, and then sent to other parts of th&conutry. They are crossbred from retrievers, Airedales, and bloodhounds, and they are quite capable of knocking a man down. KNIGHT'S LEGACY FOB LOST SON. A legacy for a missing son Iβ contained In the will of Sir Thomas Pink, the wellknown jam maker and yachtsman. Sir Thomas, who was head of Messrs. E. and T. iPlnk, Ltd., left £276,038, and devised: "A life annuity of £730 for the benefit my son, Thomas Bernard 'Pink, to become payable only when my said son shall make actual application therefor, as I have lost all trace of him since 1914." Before the war this son, Sir Thomas' elder boy, lived In Canada, writing home but rarely. He was last heard of with tJie Canadians in Prance early In the war. Athough all efforts to learn his fate failed, his father never gave up hope that his son. would return; It was thought that he enlisted under an assumed name. GIRL'S LOVE TRAGEDY. At a Northfleet, Kent, inquest, on Ivy Willett, aged 19, of Hartfield Place, Northfleet, a domestic servant, who was found unconscious on her bed wearing her confirmation dress and suffering from poisoning, it was stated that ehe bad been walking out wtih a ship's steward, who, a short time ago, wrote saying that their association must cease. On the table In the bedroom where the girl was found was a letter addressed to her father and mother containing the following passage: "I have suffered this last fortnight as I never have before and can never again. I am pasionately fond of him, but I know he is not for mc. I cannot work properly, and only feel I want to cry all day and night" A verdict or suicide while of unsound mind was returned. CHICKS BRING DOWN AIR MAIL. "While Captain W. G. R. Hinchliffe, the famous Imperial Airways pilot, was recently piloting a big Napier D.H. express from London to Paris, one of his passengers, an engineer, heard a peculiar squeakIng noise in the cabin. Failing to locate the sound, and thinking it came from the engine, he handed a note through the communication hatch to the pilot. Captain Hinehliffe could not hear the noise, but the passenger was so sure, however, that a landing was made at an emergency alighting ground. Still failing to hear anything wrong with the engine, the pilot peeped into the cabin. After listening for a moment he felt under the back seat and drew out a box of day old chicks, all chirping cheerfully, which were being sent to a poultry fancier In Paris.

RECIPE FOB OLD AGE. Robert Woolfenden, Rochdale, celebrated his hundred and first birthday recently. Hie birth was never registered and he was not christened, but the date is fixed by contemporary events. Mr. Woolfenden attributes his long life to hard work, much walking, and "sensible living," including tobacco and beer. RAT ATTACKS A BOY. A Worklngton boy was attacked recently by an immense rat. He was playing in a woodyard with some friends when he saw a small animal moving in the wood. He thought it was a kitten, raptured it, and fondled it. The animal, however, turned out to be a large rnt. It sprang at the boy's throat, and a thrilling ten minutes' struggle followed before it was thrown off. Severe scratches were sustained by the boy. SOBER LONDON. Mr. Hudson Maxim, the inventor. Just returned to America from England, deClares that London Is "a city of the most respectable sobriety." In the first throe days after Ma arrival home he saw four Americans whose condition testified to their breaking of the prohibition law. During his stay in London he saw three intoxicated persons In three months. FIRE ESCAPE BY A ROPE OF SHEETS. Knotting together their bedclothes, and so making ropes, a number of people In night attire escaped by the windows from burning houses at Soham. Cambs., during a furniture warehouse fire. The fire was intensified by a strong gale and by a series of gas explosions. The warehouse nnd Its contents, together with adjoining property, was completely burnt out, several families being rendered homeless. ALL NIGHT IN A DITCH. On his way from Leicestershire to Aldershot to Join his battalion, Sergeant Knight, of the Grenadier Guards, who was motor cycling, swerved Into a ditch and broke his leg in two places. He was unable to get out, and for a long time sounded his horn to attract help. None was forthcoming, so he got into the sidecar of the machine and slept the night. Help came in the morning and he was taken to Lousrhborough, Leicestershire, Hospital. MURDERER'S FAREWELL, Lock At Tarn, the Chinese, who was executed at Walton gaol, Liverpool, for the murder of his wife and two daughters by shooting them after his birthday celebrations at Blrkenhead, said to Mr. Percy Toud, of the Ellesmere Port Conservative Club, -which organised the petition for his reprieve: "Tell all the members and the outside public who signed the petition that I am extremely grateful to them, I am ready to meet my fate. lam content and happy. I am aware I have done wrong, but I sliall shortly join my loved ones, and they will understand." MAN WEDGED IN A CHIMNEY. A workman from Catterick Camp was cut out of a chimney at the onthouse of the Three Tuns Inn, Scotch Corner, on the Great North Road. He was wedged in the middle of the chimney, only his hands being visible, and was unconscious when released. He could not have lived much longer. The discovery -was made by chance by the landlord's son, Mr. Harry Mansfield. Police constable Hodgetts and Mr. Len Hodgson, a farmer, arrived, and the former decided to cut the masonry of the chimney. The man was released and revived by the constable, and later lodged in the cells at Scorton Police Station. He gave his name as Daniel Jeffers, and said he was a workman on Catterick Camp. A RECORD IN SUICIDES. Edouard Japin, aged OS, who killed himself by jumping from a top-storey window in Brussels, came near to achieving a record among old-age suicides, though it was reported some years ago that a Hungarian farmer had ended his life, following on a family quarrel, at the age of 102. Quite the most remarkable case of the kind, however, was that of Janos Meryessl, of Budapest, who threw himself In the Danube because old age prevented him maintaining his parents. He was rescued and his story investigated. Janos was 84. and his father and mother 110 and 115 respectively. Langton House, Berwickshire, a palatial building erected GO yeara ago by the then Marquis of Breadalbane, is being demolished. The fabric, stripped of fittings, was sold for 15. FIVE KNOCKED DOWN BY CAR THAT DROVE OH. A verdict of "Manslaughter" wns returned by a Durham roroncr's Jury at the Inquest on Tom Lofthouse (20), of Langley Moor, one of five people knocked down by a motor car alleged to have been driven by Robert Lonjrstaff, a motor engineer, who attended the inquiry in the custody of warders. Lofthouse died two days after the smash, and his sweetheart, one of the people injured, was still in hospital. The party were walking to Durham station when the car ran Into them Thomas Molyneux, whose head was injured said there was a great glare of light, and then the car knocked them down. One witness said that after the people had been hit the car's lights were extinguished, and It drove away at high speed A Newcastle girl said that Longstaff invited her into the car after midnight and, while driving to Newcastle, told her not to be surprised if she heard that he had bumped " someone near Durham. WOMAN GAGGED AND MURDERED. The discovery of the dead body of Sarah Louisa Itawles, an unmarried woman of 36. In a field at Palland, near Bristol, was followed in the early hours next moniin? by tne arrest of Wilfred Honry Gould, a man of 21, who used to attend the same ChapeL The woman's body, with terrible head wounds, was found on the estate of LieutenanNColonel George Gihbs. M.P. for West Bristol, and Comptroller of the Royal Household, by ono of his gamekeepers. She lived with her parents near Ly, her father being superintendent of the local TVesleyas Band of Uope, in which she was his chief assistant. Gould was en?a?eri to a yoim? woman of the neighbourhood. Before his arrest fl° railed on the parents of the -dead woman and expressed his sympathies wift them. Miss Rawlfs. who was a land girl daring the war. and of powerful build, had evidently made a fight for life. Judging by the appearance of the field where her body was found. She had been sagged with a fur stole which she was wearing an<l stabbed in the face and throat. She carried on a laundry business, and W as the mainstay of her family.