NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 40, 16 February 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

FIRE WARNING AT SEA

Another use for the invisible ray which has been adapted to control burglar alarms iu a London West End store and to light street lamps, was recently demonstrated. The demonstration showed how a tire in a ship's hold can be detected by smoke crossing the path of the invisible beam of light. By means of an indicator board on the bridge of a vessel the captain or officer in charge can be warned instantly of an outbreak of fire. The smoke, intervening between the light from a small electric lamp placed in each hold and the radiovisor invention —a "bridge" or cell, of selenium—causes an alarm to be rung and another electric lamp to be illuminated.

POISONED IN GARAGE.

The peril of running a motor car engine in a closed garage was again emphasised at the inquest of Mr. Kogcr Bate (351, solicitor and assistant deputy coroner for West Cheshire, who was found dead in the garage at his house. Great Boughton, near Chester. Mrs. Bate said that her husband, after they had returned from a run, went to give the car a "warm-up," as it Mas a frosty night. She went to bed. Awakening at S.lo a.m. she found her husband missing and the lights in the bedroom still on. Going to the garage, she saw him motionless before the radiator of the car and she called a doctor. A verdict that Mr. Bate died from poisoning by carbon-monoxide gas fumes due to the lack of ventilation in the garage was returned.

FOUR-DAYS' TALK "RODEO."

The climax of absurdity in the craze for competitions seems to have been reached in what the promoter calls the "great, noun and verb rodeo," which was held at New York in the armoury of the 71st Regiment. lis 37 competitors, 11 of whom were women, started talking at 2 p.m. on Christmas Day, with a prize of £200 offered to the person who talked the most before 11.45 p.m. on the following Saturday, when the contest ended. Small tents were placed round the 6ides of the armoury, in which the contestants each had to .est for at least an hour and a half out of the twenty-four, but they could not rest for more than ten hours altogether, on pain of being disqualified. In front of these tents were small platforms on which the competitors mumbled, whistled, sang, laughed or cried, for the rules simply specified that they must emit sounds, however unintelligible.

HALLUCINATIONS

When Sir Robert Wallace, K.C., bound over a woman at London sessions, her son, a well-dressed young man, fainted and was carried out of Court. The woman, fashionably dressed, was Mrs. Rachael Benjamin (50), and she pleaded "Guilty" to stealing a fountain pen. Mr. St. John Hutchinson said that Mrs. Benjamin had had a terrible time. Her husband left her some time ago with four children, to whose care she had devoted the whole of her time. They were now grown up and doing excellently in life. She was well off. "She has suffered from hallucinations, and has behaved lately in a most unusual manner," said counsel. "She gets up early in the morning and is found lying m front of the fire. She is also seen counting the marks on the wallpaper, and was so upset at this case that she tried to take her life." The judge said it was perfectly clear that the woman had not a criminal mind.

PANEL PRESCRIPTIONS.

A memorandum recentlv circulated to British M.P.'s by the Medical Practitioners Union concerning the supply of drugs and appliances under the National Insurance Acts has evoked a reply from the Retail Pharmacists' Union. It is pointed out that the chemists received an average of B'Ad per prescription, about twothirds of the amount received in pre-war days, and had lost collectively £130,000 on their National Health Insurance contracts during 1027. In contrast, the payment 01 the doctors, it is claimed, is at least double to-day the payment received by doctors for similar work in pre-war days. "The approved societies," it is added, ' are very much at the mercy of insured persons and the doctors who certify them, l.ie doctors are equallv at the mercy of insured persons, who threaten to change their doctor if they do not receive the utmost consideration from him, and the chemists are at the mercy of everybody concerned in the Insurance Act"

INVISIBLE INK TRAP. A postman, Adrian Edward Chaplin, aged 42, of Peabody Buildings, Herbrand Street, Russell Square, who was charted at Marylebone with stealing two packets, value £6 17/, was sentenced by Mr. Singley to six months' imprisonment in the second division. It was stated that two test letterß were placed among the letters being sorted by Chaplin. They contained notes and ppstal orders which had been marked with invisible ink. They disappeared, and next morning Chaplin was cautioned and asked to turn out his pockets. He willingly did so, and in his wallet £19 in notes were found. Among them were three of the missing notes, and the invisible ink marks were developed iu Chaplin's presence. Mr. Bingley, in passing sentence, said it was a veryserious matter to steal letters, which might contain Christmas gifts or money from poor people. So serious was it that in his younger days the offence was invariably punished by penal servitude.

PAGAN FEARS THAT STILL EXIST. Popular superstitions received some hard knocks at a meeting of the Hehfield Women s Institute, when they were attacked by Mrs Graham Lacey, of Wimi*u -v vr ls T hat she Baid abo "t a few of the beliefs which still persist in nearly every part of the country:-Touch Wood! A survival of pagan times, when people 2??? aD r Ser^ion placed the * hand! on a tree where it was believed the Kods resided, lest an outraged deity should tend tur^i W ing Salt: Whik a S £ «» -» vi^lf^™ - the superstition dates back Jht °2at* Chri * tian era - *» RomaTthnes £L d ? re an< ? , the Blaves had no privT leges and no rights. They only had salt money (from which the present-day name was'valull 15 l Salt in *2e davs to snS St 5 tk CG -ix- Was a \ surv v,l J V JJ 16 . Weari °B of Green: tJl urvnal , ot the times when the gods ?™?J° nS It ered to be attired emerald; en^Tif ntly> mortals shou 'd not dare to j «W^ them In a word of advice Mrs. asked the women present not to pa ?. 8 , a °y of these beliefs down to their children.

tHJQS M¥OROE TOY4C.

There to approximately one divorce m every ten 111 —■ ikg/s in the United States during 1927, aecortNrwt to •tatiatics published by the Census Bureau. Jhe figures indicate a steady rise iu the divorce rate, accompanied by a decline in the number of marriages. Divorces granted during th« year totalled 192,037. which is an increase of 11,184 over the figure for the previous record year, which was 1926. There were 1,200.691 marriages in 1927, or ISSO less than iu 1926. In England and Wales th<j divorces totalled one to every 100 marriages in the same year.

ILLYRIA.

lllyria is a name that has disappeared from the modern map. and the discovery by an Italian excavation mission of an Illyriau Acropolis, that must have been the largest in the world, has awakened great interest. The Illyrians were the last; Balkan penple to be civilised, and aftor becoming a. Roman province, the country furnished several Emperors, including th* notorious Diocletian. At the division of the empire the name was discontinued. Napoleon revived it. but it was again dropped. It was the scene chosen by Shakespeare for his •'Twelfth Night. 7 ' "This is lllyria, lady," says the sea captain to Viola.

CLARA BUTT'S FIRST SONG.

Attending the jubilee celebrations lecently at Kedcliff Crescent Chape!. Bristol, where she was a Sunday school pupO in childhood. Dame Clara Butt said she made her first appearance in public in that school room at a concert. "It was not a very happy beginning," she said. "I had to walk the whole length of the schoolroom to the platform and I had on a pair of boots that squeaked, and when I reached the platform my poor little voice was very weak. 1 dreaded mv second song, but out of kindness of heart the people applauded, and I arrived at the platform without having heard a single squeak, so I sang with my heart in my voice instead of in my boots."

WINDOWS OF ILLUSION.

A new use for glass was mentioned by Mr. Basl lonides. in a paper Tead at a meeting in London of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Illusionists, he said, used a special kind of glass which acted as a mirror from one side and yet could be seen through from the other. The result depended on whether the light was in front or behind. "I have seen it on a lower pane," he added, "so that the people in the street see a mirror, while those in the house can see through. The view, however, is a bit spotty." Mr. lonides complained that English _glass makers hated being made to go out of their accustomed stride and to produce anything new unless they were sure it would suit every little villa built.

MEASURING WHEAT MOISTURE

The development of agricultural resources depends as much on the impro-i*-ment of scientific methods of handling and judging grain as on the evolution of sound grain in itself. In Canada, therefore, & great deal of time is devoted by research workers to the physics and the engineering of agricultural production. The latest result of such work is the invention of * machine for measuring almost instantly and with the greatest accuracy the amount of moisture in any substance, thereby reducing a process which normally takes a considerable time to a matter of minutes. The value of the device, which has been acknowledged at Ottawa, is particularly marked in the case of wheat. At pseseut it takes some hours to measure the moisture in a run of wheat, but at the University of Toronto, where the invention has been perfected, the operation can b» carried through in ten minutes.

LAW AND THE lOU

"You are suing on an TOU? asked Judge Sir Alfred Tobiu during the hearing of a case at Westminster County Court. Mr. V. M. Kuston (counselj: Ido not think we can sue on an lOC. It is not a negotiable instrument. Judge Sir Alfred Tobin: Why cannot you sue? It is an acknowledgment. Mr. Kuston: Ik i 3 an acknowledgment of debt, but is not sufficient evidence, as would be a bill of exchange. Mr. Claude Gruudy, counsel on the other side: It is merely evidence. You canont sue on an lOU. It does not discharge the plaintiff of the onus of proving the original debt. Judge Sir Alfred Tobin: Suppose you lent me £10 and I gave you an lOU for it and then died; what then? Mr. Huston: I should think those representing you would have no hesitation in meeting it, and would not require me to prove the debt. Judge Sir Alfred Tobin: How could they prove if we both were dead—they could not succeed against my executors? Mr. Grundy: That is the position. Mr. Huston: I agree with Mr. Grundy. Judge Sir AlfrJ Tobin: I am much obliged for the education I have received. It seems to me shocking.

GLUE TO MISSING SHIP

The mysterious disappearance of th* Clyde-built dredger Lady Combe, which vanished after leaving Greenock on De-

cember 9, 1927, for Lagos, with a crew oi 18 men, was the subject of a Board of frade inquiry in Glasgow recently. Mtf Veitch, of Fulbar Street, Renfrew, wire of the third engineer of the dredger, said she was holiday-making at Rothesay last August when a pair of trousers weie washed up where she was sittiDg on thw esplanade. She identified them as her husband's by means of a patch. Mrs. Veitch, while in the witness box. handed over a letter which she had received from a man named Robertson, writteD from a vessel at Greenock. The writer stated that his brother, who was a ii_-iuhou.» keeper at Chicken's Rock, Isle • f Man, had seen the Lady Combe sheiieriiy n-in the gale at the Calf of Man. He r t «d her name through his telescope. V\ kn tha vessel left she was steering a scr.-th-cast-erly course. The gaU. the writer continued, came on to blow asain. cmi ha afterwards heard of the vessel g lose. This ccmmii'sication caused a sensation in the court, tf there has never been aiiy official intimation of the ves.-e) having beeD seen since VJe left the Clyde over a year ago.

HONESTY Ot CROWD

I A jian -with a bag containing £170. A [ strugrle with a would-be robber whr* escaped. Treasury notes and coins scattered over the roadway, picked up by ar exictcd crovd, and not a penny lost This tells the story in brief of a desperate attack_ niaae on a London business man [ and or the splendid honesty of the "mar in the street. The victim -was M- A Simrnonds, brother of the proprietor of Messrs. T H. Simrnonds, fancy box makers, of trancis Court, Clerkenwei! " ; ™ on ds was carrying a bag holding Zl •'°T> W^ en , he was stacked from behind m Berkeley Street, off St. J o hn> Lane, Qerkenwell. He was struck a h ca vv blow knocked to the ground, and the bag snatched trom him. As he was fall Place and the n'Tn then dashef t* 0 * side turning and was W w mto L a crowd, which had collected JS?" thc him. Coins and notes ~*? P "i r6Uß the roadway and fV.I "**. •* a **«*d on Simrnonds To *■ penny was lost." said Mr T% >> ° t J * a brother to a "7Ja™liJ £ s "nmonds, 'It was a^maXStcapTa^ 11^" 6 - most pluckv of im- Wiu P ? ? nd u the man's le« TfcT t her to hold ou '- as foUowed him frojn the bank in Old *«■*