NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 177, 28 July 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

ARMLESS ARTIST. An armless man living in a South "Wales mining town can paint pictures, write letters, and play the piano. He is Mr. W. G. Collins, a clerk, of Ebbw Yale. He plays the piano with his nose, and uses a paintbrush or pen with his mouth. 34 CHILDREN DROWNED. A steam launch carrying 80 children capsized on the River Kuban, near the town of Teniryuk, Russia. Thirty-lour of the children were drowned. Kuban is a river flowing from the Caucasus into the northeastern waters of the Black Sea. Temryuk is between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. DRIVER BLINDED BY LIGHTNING. \\ hile a storm was at its height in London an L.G.O.C. bus driver was struck and blinded by lightning. ,The man, Charles Nelson, of Homerton Terrace, E., succeeded in bringing his bus to a stop iti Morning Lane, Hackney, then was taken to hospital. At the time the bus was full of passengers. Xelson's eyes were affected, but he will recover his sight. MAN SHOT BY LAMB. A frisk lamb was responsible for a terrible tragedy which occurred at Gibraltar Farm, near Chatham, England. Isaac Chambers, aged 49, farm bailiff, was talking with a shepherd who was looking after some sheep in a pen. He had in his hand a double-barrelled gun, the butt of which rested on the ground. A lamb stumbled against Chambers and accidentally fired the gun. and the full.charge of shot from one barrel entered Chambers' head. FALSE SUEZ BONDS. An attempt to forge 5000 Suez Canal bonds of a total value of £800.000 was discovered when a Paris printer informed the politic that a man giving the name of Roger Netter had asked him to print that number of bonds, declaring that he needed them as duplicates, the original bonds beins held in England. Netter, who was arrested, confessed to the attempt, declaring that he intended to lodge the shares as security for loans at a number of banks. He had estimated that each bank would advance him up to 50 per cent of the value of such gilt-edged securities, and that he would therefore make £400,000. CAUGHT BY CAMERA. A camera was successfully used in Paris by a newsagent named Raoul Lafour to discover the author of a series of petty thefts. Lafour was in the habit of placing his takings on the chimney-piece of his room, and every day he found that money had been taken from it. He hid a camera which was so placed that the approach of anybody to the chimneypiece would open the shutter automatically. When he returned in the evening he developed the plate and found the image of a woman, Mine. Normandy, who lived in the next flat to him. She was shown taking the money. Mine. Normandy was shown the picture by the police and confessed her guilt. SWORD CHARGE ON 70,000 CROWD. Many people were injured in a riotous scene which occurred when two queues, totalling 70,000 people, were waiting at an office in Amsterdam to purchase tickets tor a match between Uruguay and Holland in the Olympic football tournament. It appears that late-comers endeavoured to obtain places to which they were not entitled in the queues, with the result that the police had to charge the crowd with drawn swords in an effort to maintain order, and to prevent people who had waited "24 and even 30 hours for their tickets losing their places. The Olympic Committee reported that one man had been killed by a police sword, but the police deny this, while admitting that a large number of people were injured. INNUMERABLE WINDOWS. It lim just beei! discovered that there is no one who can say precisely how many windows there are contained in the British Houses of Parliament, and it is asserted that no two totals have ever been made to agree. Several country houses at Home are in similar plight. Wentworth Woodhouse, the Yorkshire home of Earl Fitzwilliam, for instance, has an unknown number of windows, while the late Duke of Marlborough said the same of Blenheim, adding that there were so many windows there that their repair cost him £500 a year for putty alone! It would seem, too, that no endeavour has ever been made to count the number of windows at Windsor Castle. RATES 36/2 IN THE £. An appeal is being made to the Ministry of Health, on behalf of overburdened ratepayers in Gelligaer, South Wales, asking that any further loans to the local council should not be sanctioned. The rates are 36/2 in the £, the highest in the country. Collieries having closed down in the area there are thousands of unemployed; thrifty people have spent all th'-ir savings and have to borrow to pay rates: and there arc more shops closed than at any previous time. In a letter to the Ministry of Health a Bargoed ratepayer writes: "You are doubtless aware that the majority on the council is held by irresponsible Labour men who contribute to the Socialist programme, and who are. | pledged to pursue wild-cat schemes for the extension oi our electrical undertakings and publicly-owned omnibuses-" SHOWER OF NOTES. How to dispose of "easy money" was explained in Court at New York by William Lougheed. a former employee of a New York street cleaning department. He, with other late employees, is charged with wholesale graft which Lougheed admitted had been goimr on for 30 years. One district alone yielded £80,000 in three years. Lougheed confessed that he made £16,000 by this means last. year. He proceeded to r» !l how lie got rid of his huge "earnings." jWith other employees, he said, he tossed dice in office hours for £200 a throw. Racing at Belmont Park one afternoon cost him £16.000. while for single bets £160 was quite usual. I'oker nights "would , tiie 10.v.-rs anything up to £1300 per sittiiiir. N<>t content with these methods of i idding hiniselt of his accumulated funds. Lougheed said that just for fun lie would toss up bundies of small notes in the street and permit boys to collect them. He would thus dispose "t £1000 in one throw. "The lulls caiiic .1,,u- n like a beautiful snowstorm, said Laugheed.

LONDON MAN FINED £590. A penalty of £550 was imposed by: Aldeman Sir David Burnett, at the Mansion House. upon Carlos Fonteyn. director of lilil.M'i i Kontev n and Co., Blandford Mows. Baker Stieet, W., for evading Customs duty on motor cycle tyres. The evasions, it was said, liad been cleverly carried out by an arrangement with the exporter whereby invoices and ledger, both incorrect, corresponded. Had defendant's figures been accepted, the loss to the revenue would have been £194. He had rendered himself liable to a penalty cf £ 12'J3. BRIDE'S "I WONT" AT ALTAR. A bride changed her mind as the stood be fore the altar in the parish church at Lllesmere Port (Cheshire). The vicar, the Rev. If or Jones, had obtained from the bridegroom, Mr. Arthur Attwood, aged 20. the response, "T will." But when he nsked the bride, Miss Mary Paxon. aged 21. if she would "have this man to be iier lawful wedded husband," he got no reply. Then the bridegroom asked the girl to respond and she replied, "I won't." The girl's mother was sent for and took liar home after she had again told the vicar that she did not want to marry. Mi— Faxon's sister was her only relative at the wedding. TIGER MEAT IS COSTLY. Tigers are "keeping the wolves mwtj* from the doors of many » big game honter at Harbin, in Manchmfa. Calculated m Manchurian fashion, a pound of tiger fetched £1 this season, bringing the value of a full-grown specimen to £400 or £500. It must be explained that, apart from its pelt, each part of the tiger's body has its own value, the Chinese attributing to tihea many medical and magical properties. The most valued parts are the heart, blood* brains and bones. The heart, if eaten, M believed to instil bravery, and is often served at war lords' tables. The possession of a tiger's moustache bristle, on the other hand, makes one irresistible to the fair sex* ENRAGED ELEPHANT. A terrible account of a man's death ill Uganda from an infuriated elephant is tolA according to a story from Nairobi. X young chemist at Jinja went on an elephant expedition. He encountered a herd of fire beasts, and laid down his gun to photograph them, when an elephant, through the bush behind, seized him in his trunk and dashed him against a tree, breaking it. It then battered him against the stump of the tree. The man crept away, but the elephant charged him again and kneeled down on his body, after which he picked him up in his trunk and hurled him away into the long grass. The injured man lay for two hours before he was found and taken to hospital at Kampala, where he died. MARTYR TO DUTY. An instance of an employee's marty»» dom in the cause of duty was reported at a meeting of the Bermondsey Borough Council. When the Public Health Coin* mittee recommended that Mr. H. J. Midasa, caretaker of the tuberculosis dispell" sary, be granted three months' leave of absence, a member remarked that three months was a long time for leave a£ absence and asked what was the matter with the man. The mayor, Alderman Bat* man, replied that Mr. Madasa, through the conscientious performance of his duties had himself contracted the disease, and had been medically advised to get sway from Bermondsey as soon as possible. The council agreed to the recommendation and passed a vote of sympathy with Madasa.

I LOORDES PILGRIMS' RETURN. •Tust over 300 people arrived at Folka> stone from Lourdes recently. They wer« known as the Leeds pilgrimage, and they were headed by Bishop R. J. Cowgill, of Leeds. There -were 10 stretchers and 20 carrying cases among the party. Though there 'was no disposition to claim that "absolute cures" had been effected, Canon Doolan, a member of the party, said that it had been a wonderful pilgrimage and that many of the sick were very much better. "A little blind girl," he added, "has been able to see again, and a young woman who went out in a stretcher from the Royal Infirmary, Sheffield, forbidden to walk, has got back the use of her legs. A 10» year-old boy, William Davey, who went on crutches was able to walk off the steamer, but was assisted by another member o£ the party." TUBE TRAINS GO TO HOSPITAL. Every week 20 of London's underground railway coaches go into "hospital." They; are tested, sounded, overhauled and operated up° n by both human and mechanioal "surgeons," their internal systems toned up and replaced where necessary, and cleaned and refurbished until they loot almost like new. This hospital is officially: known as the Acton Overhaul Works, where now all the work formerly carried out at the depots attached to each railway in the underground group is central* ised. It has only been in operation sinoa December, and it has a capacity of 2000 cars a year. Every device known to engirt eering science is here utilised to mated perfect the rolling stock which travels beneath the surface of London's streets. Each night, after the last train has gone London is asleep, the safety appliances on every car are examined. All cars are themselves examined every three days, and then in turn comes the complete ova"* haul once every three weeks. A GRAVE AFFAIR. Returning home after attending the funeral of a friend, ilrs- M., of Paris, found, to her consternation, that she had lost a valuable diamond brooch. Without mentioning the matter to her husband, she hastened to consult a fashionable clair- \ oyante in Paris. "Your diamonds are J>nig in soft earth," said the seer; "you will get them back." Mrs. M. sent a description of the brooch to the police and asked them to organise a search. Anxiotw bowed. Then one morning recently _ r - asked his wife what she had done with her brooch. "You don't seem to be it. ho said. Mrs. _\f. iirevuricajtec" "I suppose it's in its place,"'she said. (' _ haven t thought about it lately.'* "Well, what about this letter?" (ho husband replied. "I he police -write that it lias been found in the l'assv cemeterv, undamaged. _ and they want >v i to co and claim it.' Mis. M. has iecovered her brooch, but is fuiious with the official who reported the fact to her husband instead c>i to her. CAREER RUINED BY WIRELESS. Tii.- i-.-„u,ls v. ho be.-ieperl <he Albert H.i!!. !_<■•!<:--i:. i", a i i-i-piu .Sunday altert ■ ! .-. i Krn-i.T pissed a musician of ii.i | , vr ;i v !:o j»!it down on a • amp stofi ,it kerb outsido. and Jet lo<— a :1.,r veiio melody. He was K>ja P-.ik. a newcomer to the ranks of .tier nrif-icians. driven to it by wireless, : .i ,-:m1 the present lack ol enejgeineuts. 1 wa< a' student at the Royal Academy." sail!, "and won the Ben:.by Dobree there. For eight years 1 w.-.> principal Vei'list at the Gaiety 'Jheatre. I have solos in there (po:nt:ns: to the \lijcrt Jfall), in th<* Hall, the Aco.'inn Jbi!'• 1: - 1 ">"=•:«' n;.!l, and till hut the coinitiy. But i: p.-..p| ( . v an } Je4lt •i man <-"os on tin- wireless three tim<*>' a w.c.-. th. y will not go to the expense «i artiste. Last Sunday was t.i< Jir-t inn. i played in tl'e putter, outs!;!- the Albert Hall. Heifetz was periormnjg inside. I made 15/°" H, »t down sadly, nestled the 'cello to him, LDd poured lorth "Apres un Keve**lwr r'aure. -