NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 134, 8 June 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

CIGARETTES FOR '/ 4 d. For stealing a sixpenny packet of cigarettes from a slot machine by means of a filed farthing, Wilfred Kite, 37, of Railton Road, Brixton, London, was at Lambeth Police Court fined 40/. 'lou evidently have an outfit at hc:::o for the purpose," said the magistrate. It was stated that Kite was seen to insert a filed farthing in the slot of a machine, and at his home there were found a filed farthing, a table-vice, and a number of files. Kite said he used the tools for wireless. A SLIM BURGLAR. By taking away a few bricks in the back of the, shop and making a hole 2ft by lft. a burglar was able to steal jewellery worth over £1000 from the premises of S. Reiner, of Norton Folgate, London. \ caretaker was in another part of the building at the time. The burglar first broke a window at the back of the shop, and finding the door leading to the front was secured he made the hole in the wall. The fact that the hole was small indicates that the burglar was slimly built.

COMEDY AND TRAGEDY. Unaware that his mother, who had brought him to the school, had died suddenly, a little boy of seven went through his part a sketch given at an old folks' treat at Earlsheaton, near Dewsbury (Yorks). Tha boy had been brought to the school by his mother, Mrs. Emmie Holdsworth, aged 33, of Earlsheaton, and as she was leading him up to the steps of the platform she was taken ill and died soon after. Neither the boy nor the old folks present knew of the tragedy. .

BANDITB , NEW TRICK.

For the second time within two weeks there was a revolver hold-up at the Victoria petrol service station, in Edgware Road, Cricklewood. One evening recently a car, with three men, drove up, and the men asked for an electric light blub. When the cash register was opened for the purpose of giving change the attendant was held up with a revolver while the till was cleared. The bandits made off with between £5 and £6. The previous inci dent happened the day before Good Friday. On that occasion three men were involved, and they held up the night attendant with revolvers. CARUSO'S EARNINGS. Caruso, the great tenor, was, it is stated by some of the newspaper men in New York, very generous. He used to give them each year he was in that city a sum of about 1500 dollars as a douceur. A man in a position such as that of Caruso could easily afford to'do this, because in New York alone he got a fee of 2400 dollars for each time he sang—and that was _at least sixty timee in a season —besides being invited to sing five or six times at Atlantic City at a honorarium of 4000 dollars a time; so that this famous einger made in one season in America a sum of 200 ; ,000 dollars, besides 30,000 dollars for his gramophone records. GREAT PAUL. "Great Paul," hung in the South or Clock Tower of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1882, is the largest bell in England. It weighs nearly 17 tons, and is over nine and a-half feet in diameter. It is rung for five minutes daily at one o'clock, and is also used as a service bell on Sundays. On all other occasions it remains «ilent, the clock ohimee being sounded on three older bells, the biggest of whic'h—that on which the hours are sounded —weighs five and a-quarter tons. It is this bell which is tolled on the death of the Sovereign. St. Paul's famous peal 'of 12 bells, first m-~ on November 1, 1878, is hung in the North Tower. Their weight totals 12 tons and a-half, of which the tenor bell weight 3 tone 2cwt.

A TRAGIC FAMILY. Within a few days a triple bereaveWnt has fallen upon the home of an Eastwood miner, Mr. Harold Charity, of Scargill Street, three out of a family of six young children having succumbed to bronchialpneumonia. Following the funeral of the youngest child, a one-year-old boy, the mourners had been back in the house only about 90 minutes when the nest youngest child, a, boy aged two years and five months, passed away. The third death occurred two days later, the victim being another boy four and a-half years old. A fourth boy, a year older, is in Heanor Hospital, suffering from pneumonia. Two little girls, remaining at home, still have whooping cough. 1/ A MILE AIR TAXIS.

A plea to make Hanworth Aerodrome the # "Brooklands of the Air" and an air taxi centre has been outlined by Lieut. Col. I. A. E. Edwards, formerly chief technical adviser on civil aviation at the Air Ministry. "The name of the company which is being formed will be National Flying Services, Ltd.," said Colonel Edwards. "It is intended to make Hanworth Aerodrome, which covers 230 acres, the centre. There are two fields and a country club. One of the fields will be used by air taxis, which at 1/ a mile, will carry a passenger with small baggage anywhere, and can be chartered at a moment's notice. Sixteen light aeroplanes will be stationed at Hanworth to begin with,. Air meetings, tests, and demonstration flying will also be held there. We shall have six instructors."

SELLING FROM WINDOW. It is common knowledge that some firms have a strong objection to selling goods from the window, but it may perhaps be rather unusual for an employer to go so far as to dismiss a member of the staff for selling goods which are displayed for sale at prices fixed by the firm (writes the secretary to the National Amalgamated Lnion of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks). An assistant employed by d clothing firm was actually dismissed for taking a suit of clothes from the window for a customer who specially wished to have the one displayed; there was no other of the same kind and size in stock. When the matter was reported to the Union's representative in the district, he immediately arranged for an interview, with the result that t'je member was reinstated. He considered his action to be in the beet interests of his employers.

A PLEASURE ISLAND. Preliminary investigations are being made with a view to Kangaroo Island, which lies south of Adelaide, with the mainland by a seaplane service. Kangaroo Island is a wonderful tourist resort. The inland harbours, the rugged scenery, exquisite wild flowers are very attractive. There are also caves which are estimated to extend over 70,000 acres. Kangaroo, pig and wild goat hunting may also be indulged in on the island, and the fishing grounds are said to be the best around the Australian coast.

"ROCKET" BIPLANE. The Raab Katzenstein aeroplane works at Oaseel (Germany) carried out successful trial flights with a "rocket aeroplane. Great secrecy was observed. The machine, which ie a biplane, hae no tail in the ordinary senee of the word, and the rocket cases are built in behind the main 'plane. A system of refilling the cases with explosives automatically while the machine is in flight k being 'investigated.

AN INTERESTING LONDON RELIC. In Little Stanhope Street, London, a stone's throw from a modern tube .station, there stands the oldest house in Mayfair. Appropriately named "The Cottage," it bears above the entrance the date A.D. 1618. Its original occupiers were the shepherds who tended the sheep that once grazed hereaibouts; and a forge where the horses were shod during the annual May fair ie now bhe dining room. Externally the place ie as it was when first erected, with ivy mantling ite three-centuries-old walls; but ite interior haa undergone many changes. WHAT IS A JEMMY? When a barrister asked a detective at the Old Bailey during the hearing of a charge of breaking into a post office, "What is a jemmy?" the officer produced a thin but businesslike bar of iron, "with one end slightly bent to give it_ greater leverage, and explained, "This is one." "Is it a chisel?" counsel queried, looking perplexed. "No, it is a jemmy," the detective replied. "Are jemmies very rare?" continued the barrister. "No, they are not," was the answer. "What do you call it —an instrument for opening packing cases?" Judge Atherley Jones interposed. "Or an instrument for opening post offices?" Mr. Percival Clarke, leading couneel for the prosecution, hazarded. The detective smiled, but did not reply.

MUTTON BIRD OIL. The therapeutic value of oil which Is now being obtained from mutton birds has been engaging the attention of British eoientiste for the last few months, and it is likely that interesting developments in the wider use of this product may be expected in the near future. Reports from the British fish oils research, laboratory Indicate that it ie one of the beet oils of its type which has been produced, and it <xmtains valuable healthgiving properties. The mutton bird oil industry is confined at present to Flinders Island, in Bass Strait, off the southern coast of Australia, where the birds breed in millions. The oil is obtained from the crop of the young mutton birds before going through tbe process of digestion, being squeezed out through the throat. It undergoes no manufacturing process or heating.

WHAT A POLICE DOG LEARNS. Mr. Reginald Arundel, late superintend" ent of the Yorkshire fW.R.) Constabulary, writes in the March Pearson's Magazine" on "Training a Police Dog." "Before a dog's training is complete," says Mr. Arundel, "he must be in possession of the following accomplishments:—(l) Implicit obedience; (2) undoubted courage; (3) to follow at heel and act as leader while unleashed; (4) to bark at command, and without command if introduced to any suspicious object; (5) to refuse food from a stranger's hand; (6) to fetch and carry both put of the water and over obstacles; (7) to jump at least five feet high; (8) perfect steadiness under gunfire; (9) to search premises; (10) to defend his master; (11) to follow up, throw down, hold fast and give tongue; (12) to carry reports to the police station or an official in charge; (13) by means of the scent, to discover and follow up a man's track and search for stolen property."

KOME OF ROMANCE. The Heacham Hall Estate, Norfolk, which is to be sold shortly, is an interesting link with old Virginia, for the hall was the home for hundreds of years of the Eolfe family.- Eustace Rolfe, who is commemorated by a braes in the church, dated 1593, was steward of the manor ■to Sir Nicholas le Strange. His grandson John (or Thomas) Eolfe became a notable colonist in James I.'s reign, and was the first Englishman to organise tobacco planting in Virginia. In 1613 he took as his second wife the Potomac prihcesa Pocahontas, or Maloaka, daughter of the chief Powhattan. In 1616 John Rolfe sailed with hie wife and infant eon for England, where the princess was handsomely received by the Virginian Company of London and entertained by Queen Anne, consort of James I. The English climate proving too harsh for her, the princess was about to return to Virginia in May 1617, when she died in the vessel as it lay off Gravesend. LOUD-SPEAKER TUTORS.

It is understood that education authorities are to be aeked in the near future to consider further the importance of wireless as a medium for instruction in schools in their areas. It is now felt that the broadcast lesson should pass from the experimental stage and be given a recognised place in the schools' curricula. More often than not the provision oi wireless facilities is left mainly in the hands of the teachers and the children. The move is to be made by the Central Council for School Broadcasting, a committee set up recently as a co-ordinating body between the 8.8.0. and education authorities throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The broadcast lesson, first introduced m schools in 1923 has ■become so popular that there are'now 5000 "listening-m" schools in the country in a few echools in the London County Council area sets have been Stalled by Bv[tkh Broadcasting R C S rai f' \ Ut - in the rwt majority o£ schools the sete in use have been made bL?VS, ldr ! n U . n - der by membere of the teaching staffs.

LIVING LINK WITH CAPTAIN COOK. c<4t2H/ C f^ n Cook has been dis" £i k * ed 150 years ago. But then former S k^aS TT not a tortoise. His fET c * £ ls - He is a " chief " of the Af'i lOnI On & a - When Captain Cook sailed into the Pacific with his ships, Resolution and Discovery, he captured the tortoise. The captain and the tortoise became great friends. When Cook was killed m the Sandwich Islands, the tortoise was brought to Tonga and the King of Tonga, as a sign of respect, conferred the title or "chief" on him. Ever since then he lias been recognised as an official "chief, and he now lives under the P 1,0^*01^ 1 " 15 , °£ s e £ cSg Cfppn Cook sailed £ a his head to where another giant " Lp"about four cwt was gently nibe has just started to grow again How do Tknow that? Look at the white seama between tKe plates onh-sback. They show he's growing again. He 11 be a line felW [Si 50 or a 100 years' time."