NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 23

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

When Montagu Daniels, a young Burton footballer, entered his home with his collar bone broken his mother was so shocked that she collapsed aud died. A Manchester motor engineer was run over and killed by his car through starting it with the handle when it was in gear. His wife seized the wheel and turned it into a wall. SPIRIT OF VASTY DEEP ! A SS-gallon cask* of whisky, picked up by trawlers in the North Sea, was landed at Aberdeen. ECCLESIASTICAL ECONOMY. A Rome message states that the Pope has authorised Cardinals. Archbishops. Bishops, Canons, and Prelates to wear artificial silk stockings instead of natural silk, as a measure of economy. Also imitation fur trimmings may be worn instead of the real article, which has become too 4 BROTHERS 339 YEARS. The total age of four brothers uaniej Mundy. all widowers and living in the same street in the village of Abbotsbury, Dorset, is 839 years. Messrs. K. C. and J. K. Mundy, who are 00 and SS respectively, served in the Crimean war. .Samuel Mundy is S"» and Gabriel Mundy 7G. They are nil active. 25 CARTRIDGES AT A TIME. A German engineer, Ilerr Hermann Pliethe, of Berlin, has constructed a silent automatic rifle worked by super-compressed air, which fires bursts of 25 cartridges at a time. The rifle, which has been experimented with by the Reichswehr, pierces through a metal plate an eighth of an inch thick at a range of 2000 yards. TWINS OF 1844. Twin bachelor brothers, Joseph and John Bainbridge, of Chesterle Street, Durham, celebrated their S2nd birthday. Both went to work in the coal mines when only 12 years of age. Both retired at 70, but they have kept in good health, and it is difficult to tell one from the other. Joseph cannot remember having had either toothache or headache. GIANT LIZARDS. Skins of what may have been four giant lizards, which arrived in London from the Dutch East Indies, puzzled City merchants. Two of the skins are complete with heads and tails, and measure 7ft 10in by 2ft 9in and 7ft 3in by 2ft Gin. They arrived with a consignment of crocodile skins and small lizard skins. A note stated that the animals had been shot in outlying districts by Chinese. ORDEAL FOR BRIDE. An unusual incident befell a bride on her way to the Wembley Parish Church. The motor car in which she and her father, who was to give her away, were being conveyed to the church broke down when a short distance from the house. Another car was obtained, but this also broke down after proceeding a short distance. Some delay was experienced before a third car could be requisitioned, but this completed the journey without mishap, and the service was completed a few moments before three o'clock. " FARMYARD " OF PETS IN A HOUSE. An elderly man of Independent means named Henry Clarke Smith, living in Hij»hfield Crescent, Southampton, was lined £~> at Southampton for omitting to provide birds and animals with proper care and attention. He waa said to have on the premises 8 canaries, 91 pigeons, 50 pullets, 31 fowls, 7 doge, 4 ducks, 3 kittens and 9 bantams. Food was provided, but some of the fowls had no water. When questioned by an R.S.P.C.A. inspector, Smith said: "Mc cruel? I think more of these animals than I do of my wife and family." He was also ordered by the magistrates to get rid of his livestock. MILLIONAIRE'S GIFT. Mr. Robert Dollar, the San Francisco shipping magnate and millionaire, presented the citizens of Falkirk, his native town, with a set of bell chimes recently installed In the belfry of the parish church. At the dedication of the Dollar chimes at the morning service, when Mr. Dollar formally handed over his gift, there was a crowded congregation. The chimes comprise 13 bells, 'the heaviest of which weighs 30001b. This Is only one of the many benefactions Mr. Dollar has given to Falkirk during the past few years. He founded and stocked the first public library in the burg*, while quite recently he purchased what is now the Dollar Public Park, Falkirk, and gifted it to the citizens. MUSICAL CLOCK OF MOSCOW. In one of the towers of the Kremlin in Moscow is a musical clock with a curious history. It was made by one l'eter Antonius Solarius, of Milan, in the year 1491, when it probably played Milanese airs. In 162S its musical mechanism was altered by a native of the Low Countries — Clarius Fremus —to play the folk songs of his own country. Peter the Great then became possessed of the clock for Russia, when it still played Netherlands "Volksliedor.' . In the eighteenth century a German altered this state of affair*, and the clock was made to play a well-known German air. In the reign of the Cza# Nicholas I. it was changed to that of a Russian military march, though Alexander 11. preferred something more hymn-like and spiritual. During the revolution the clock was silenced. Only recently has it been put in order again, to play the popular air of the Soviet Government. One would be glad to know if this is to be the last air in the repertory of the ancient clock.

AN 18-SEATER PERAMBULATOR Willesden Hospital has been given a donkey, but having no use for it, has lent It to the Board of Guardians to pull their IS-seater perambulator. BENGALEE FINDS "RAPHAEL." Acting on the advice of friends, a wealthy Bengalee, having picked up an old painting for a trlfie in a Calcutta bazaar, sent it to Italian experts to be elMned. A communication lias been received from Italy to the effect that the experts pronounce tha painting to be a picture of the Virgin and Child by nai-haol. ATTACK WITH A HAMMER. Albert John Malpass, age.l 37, a boat repairer, of Albert Street, Islington, waa sent to prison for one m>.nth by the ClerkenweJl Bench for maliciously wounding George Jones, a newsvendor. It waa alleged that a fend between tho couple culminated when Malpass struck Jones ou the head with a hammer. BEES STOP HARVEST. Harvesting operations were stopped by a swarm of beoe in a Held on the farm of Mudhall, Dyke, near Forres. Men and horses were severely stung. The animals reared and plunged, aud great "difficulty was experienced in releasing them from tha shafts. The condition of the horses became so serious that a veterinary surgeon had to be summoned. " NICE.LOOKING » BEGGAR. Under the pretence of playing a melodeoa a boy of 14 collected £2 0/2* in two houra from what he termed the "shabby, eEingy Aberdonians." The procurator-fiscal made this statement at Aberdeen when a general dealer, who, during the summer months Is a pearl fisher, was charged, with his wife, with allowing their 14-yeax-old son to be in the streets for the purpose of receiving alms. Sheriff Laing. said that he would bo sorry to see such a nice-looking boy brought up to make a living by playing in the streets. COCAINE CHARGE. William Marriott, a well-spoken youth o» no fixed abode, was remanded at Portsmouth on a charge of offering to supply cocaine without being authorised to do so. Detective-Inspector Williams said that Iα consequence of certain information he caused a trap to be laid for Marriott, aud a detective, who was in evening dress, mc: him in Clarence. Parade. Marriott said, "I have about an ounce of genuine cocaine. You can have it for ten guineas.' . The detective handed him the money, and received a bag containing white powder. He was thereupon arrested. At the police station Marriott was alleged to hnve said that the powder was not cocaine. SODA LAKE. The British Empire possesses another curious and valuable lake beside the pitch lake of Trinidad (says the "Dally Chronicle"). This is the vast natural deposit of soda situated at Magadi, in Kenya Colony, east of Lake Victoria Nyanza. This lake has an area of at least 50 square miles, and an unknown depth. It is so concentrated as to contain crystals as well as their "mother liquor," and it looks in consequence as if it were frozen. No sooner has excavation taken place than more soda is deposited from saturated water from many springs. Thus ttio sup pi v sooiii"S ible, and a railway has been built especially to serve it, refineries hnve been established, and something approaching 200.m>.i |nns of soda are produced there. X-RAYS AND CANCER. The local medical service at Batavia hag granted Dr. Lumentut, the cancer specialist, three months' furlough in order to enable him to go to Europe and explain hia cancer theories to European specialists. He left in the French steamship D'Artagnaa on October 20 from Singapore. Dr. Lumentufa name came into prominence recently in connection with an address ho made before the scientific congress in Batavia. He said he had come to the conclusion that tumours were caused by radio-active matters and their transformation in human, animal and vegetable bodies, independently of race, species, sex or age. Accordingly, he deprecated the use of radium and X-rays, except in cases of extreme urgency. LEMONADE PERIL. The danger of the consumption of acid liquids which have been drawn through, lead pipes, has been brought to the notice of the Hackney Public Health Committee, who have warnpd local vendors of lemonade that the use of lead syphons must be discontinued or legal prosecution will follow. This warning has resulted frurn the medical officer's report thnt a .sample of lemonade when examined was found to contain .G grains per gallon of lead. Iα some instances, says the report, tbe pro. sence of load in foodstuffs and beer in the proportion of one grain per gnlion. Una been proved to cause lend poisoning. The lead In this instance was dissolved from the pipe employed to syphon tli" lemonade from the glass jars used as containers. RICHES IN REFUSE. Complaints that hnve reached the Ministry of Health regarding the present system of disposal of Londons refuse hnve led that body to consider improved methods. An Official of the Ministry told a •'Daily Mail" reporter that the complaints concern the huge dumps of refuse in use iicnr London. The Ministry is hoping to find a healthier and more economic way of disposing of the rubbish. Cine scheme that has been suggested recommends a huge central destructor and plants capable of making light and power and road and building material from refuse that is at present carted away at great expense, and left as a nuisance in public dumps. Many provincinl cities make use of domestic and industrial waste. Leicester in particular having made the pavement slabs for its streets from "clinker" and other waste for many years. HUMAN IMAGE IN A EUBY. Mr. 11. \V. B. Moreno, a member of the Bengal Legislative Council, has acquire.; ;i Burmese ruby which is probably unl.|it", and is of fabulous value. Thi- stone !s not a large one, says a "Central News" dispatch from Calcutta, but insi.lp 111-- l- i■■, deep down behind a scarlet cloud, appear* the tiny'image of a man, dr.■>-.■■! in whli■ . with a dark brown face nr.'! deep bro,\:\ eyes. The man l« wenring a white turls ::. and the rest of 11,.- ho.ly is <;-.\ ,-rfd l.y '!:<« flowing folds of a fianm-nt i>f white m;*. The stone does u«i sh.'W a:,.. era.'v <■< Indicate huw the i>nrtr;::t c-.ww t. i • inside it, mid the direct..r of the :• ..1...-:. .■: Department to whom ii u-.n *iihniii v 1 pronounced the >i .■:!■- I• • !■•■ ■•■ :'.*!■ - r-'l . . n ii.l declared th" portrait w. !■• a fr.. ',; of nature without p:ir.ii>l i'l h:» ''\|. one-. The ruby R.-n«r;ill> l< V.-i.'y ■■■ t. .•.::•■! in India, but a stmw of this cliaract.-r, almost miraculous in its .•..nformntlnu, would be viewed with deep reverence. Mr. Moreno declines to disclose how the seta came Into hla possession.