NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

BOY DIES AFTER S^CE. After running in races at The Bee School, Beechcroft Road, S.W., Frank Walter Cough, aged 11, of Coteford Street, Tooting, 5.W.17, returned to his home and died shortly afterwards. It is believed that he over-exerted himself and that death wa3 due to heart failure. CITY'S NOVEL OFFER. Manchester Watch Committee, finding that the police-box system operating in Manchester has met with great success, has decided to dispose of a number of local police stations. Two stations have already been acquired by the city education authority for use as clinics, and a fourth is to be utilised by the _Baths Committee. But seven more police stations, the "Sunday Chronicle" learns, are to be disposed of. and unless these are bought privately, tney are to be sold by auction. OLDEST-KNOWN BANK DOCUMENT. Among the treasures of the bank is the oldest-known banking _ document in the United Kingdom. It is dated December. 1633. It is a receipt made out by Lawrence Hoare for £3 5/, deposited by a Mr. William Hale. It proves that Lawrence Hoare was carrying on business as a goldsmith in that year. The same William Hale drew a cheque upon Richard Hoare in 1676 at the sign of the Golden Bottle in Cheapside. J t was in 1692 that the business was removed to the site now occupied by the bank in Fleet Street. The ledgers are complete from 1673. ARMLESS PAINTER. The Queen paid a surprise visit to the Star and Garter Home for Disabled Sailors and Soldiers at Richmond and made a complete tour of the principal parts of the home. Her Majesty paused for several minutes before an armless man who was painting wooden boxes with a brush which he held in his teeth. The man stopped working when he saw the Queen, but Her Majesty immediately asked _ him to continue his painting and told him how clever she thought he was to have overcome bis disability. Before leaving him she bought two of the painted boxes. WHERE COLUMBUS WAS BORN. Italy must not be blamed for having produced Christopher Columbus. The responsibility lies with Corsica, according to Gairon Castaing. Canon. Castaing said that he had evidence that Columbus was bom at Calvi, where he began 'his studies. According to the canon, iam historian named De Oonte makes this assertion, while he also cites as proof a stoaie found in Haiti bearing the inscription "Accursed be the CorsioaTL who led us here." Columbus himself tried to hide the place oa nis birth by passing as a Genoese. WHEN IS A VIOLINIST A FIDDLER? The distinction between a violin and fiddle has been lucidly put lately by an American journalist. There is no difference, he suggests, between the two instruments until they are played. The violinist wears evening dress, "has an accompanist, and plays classical pieces. A fiddler usually has no collar, dispenses with an accompaniment, holds the instrument in the crook of his elbow, rathei than under his chin, beats time heavily with his boot-sole, and plays tunes. So is reached this ultimate and definite conclusion: The difference between a violin and a fiddle is that one is played by a violinist and the other by a fiddler. JEWEL THIEF'S TRICK. A dealer in precious stones was attacked while walking along Hatton Garden, London, with an attache case containing a large number of diamonds and pearls. He was approached by a man, who asked him if he could decipher an address on a parcel the man was carrying. As the dealer looked down to see the address fluid was squirted from the parcel into his eyes. The dealer shouted for help, and the man, dropping his parcel, jumped into a waiting car and drove off. The parcel was tound to contain a football pump in which was a dilute of ammonia. There is no doubt that the dealer's assailant intended to snatch the bag containing the diamonds and pearls but was frightened by the dealer's cry.

HUNTING THE PORPOISE FROM THE AIR. The uses to which 'the aeroplane is being put in Canada would seem to be infinite. It carries 'the mails into out of the world regions: it has transported the jskk snd carried medical stores to the sutisring, is a valuable adjunct in _ detecting _ and fighting forest fires. Now it is apparently to be used to protect the fishing industry on the St. Lawrence against its enemy, the porpoise. Four bombs dropped from the air on a shoal of these enemies of the fish are reported to have had remarkable effect, and it is regarded as that this method of dealing with the fisherman's enemy will be adopted for the reduction of its ravages. 141 WORDS WILL. Including her full name, address, and description, the appointment of an executor and similar details, directions for the disposal of her property and the attestation clause, the will of Mies Margaret Preston, of Koby, Lancashire, and Deganwy, North Wales, contained only 141 words. Yet she left unsettled property in her own disposition of the gross value of £350,669, with net personalty £339,327. The duties on the property at valuation, and according to the dispositions on the will, will amount to about £104,000. Mr. William Welstead, a well-known resident of Cheltenham, who died last November. aged- 82, left £11.288, with net personalty £10,336 15/. He gives to his ''dear little friend," Mary Daley the Holy Water stoop formerly belonging to Abbot o'Gorman. BEFORE DINNER—BATH. The Earl of Crawford and Balearreopened the new pithead baths attached to the Wi'.vn Coal and Iron Company s Parsonage "Pit. Leigh, the first to be erected in Leigh. He said the building had cost nearly £11.000. It was intended that then; should be 1400 "clean'' and 1400 "dirty lockers for clothes, but for the time being onlv 1050 were to be used. The remainder would be installed soou. There were 74 bathing cubicles, drinking fountains, boot cleaning machines, boot greasing _ appliances, and an ambulance and first-aid room. Application for a canteen and suitable washing facilities for the women screen hands" was being considered by the welfare committee. Mr. Gny Rowson, MP. for Farnworth. said there had been pithead baths at the Atherton Colliery for many years, but all the miners there did not "use them. If he were a miner's wife and the husband came home without having had a bath he would have to go without dinner.

BULL-RING DRAMA. The ambition of the young Amcricaa, "Yankee" Franklin, to become the world'* greatest bull-fighter received a check ia Madrid bull-ring, when he was seriously gored by a one-eyed bull. Franklin w&• rushed to hospital, and he is said to hs-rt a good chance of recovery. He began hi* second Spain season at Valencia, whera ha killed four bulls. SLOW-MOTIGN TRIP, Thirty Russians who have been hald up in England for seven years on thei? way from Riga to New York will conthma their journey soon. They axe the last & bis batch suddenly affected by the 1523 redue* tion of the United States immigration for Russia, and have for years formed a migrant colony at the Atlantic Park Hostel, Eastleigh. LEAP INTO CAR. A theft of a tray of nearly 41 wedding rings was carried out by a young car bandit. Walking into Mr. A. Shutake's shop, St. George's Circus, London, S.E., the man asked to see some rings. When he was shown the tray he grabbed it ajal dashed out of the shop, leaping through the open window of a car, which stood by the curb with the engine running. Th* car drove off. ONE-HORSE TOWN! Andreas Meterns, the only horse-cab proprietor left in Cologne, has vowed that, he will drive his cab up to the day of his death. Last autumn, says Reuter, Andreas and his horse had a little trouble at a street cors-er with one of their detested motor competitors. Andreas waa carried to hospital, while his faithful steed was killed. The old cabby is now out of hospital—with a new horse and a. cab. CAR RUNS INTO TRAIN. Presence of mind on the part of a motor* ist when his car collided with an. exprsSi train at a level crossing enabled bin*- td escape with slight injuries. Mr. C. Robinson. of Egginton, crashed into* the gatea at Horninglow station-, near Bur ton-on-Trent, just as an express goods train dashed through at 50 miles an hour. Mr. Robinson steered in the same direction as the train, which carried the car 100 yard* along the line before puling up. The car was smashed, but the driver's injuries were not serious. "SIXPENNY SNOBS." London taxi drivers are upset oyer the "Sixpenny Snobs." Seeking to impress theatre commissionaires, hostesses, or shopkeepers at an economical rate, these people travel almost to their destination by bus and hail a taxi to carry them the remaining few hundred yards. "They more often than. Hot dismiss me with the bare coin," said a Strand driver. "Then I have to go to the back of the rank, and it is perhaps an hour before I reach the I head again. Most of the Sixpenny Sn->b*: are young courting couples out tc r-v". l dash at our expense." COIN IN THE CATCH. There seems to be a growing j. at Home to reserve a carriage i the railway company's sanction. T'-'x « done by placing a coin in the catcL •r.i.di the carriage door. At a big London j>: a rather elderly man arrived on the platform just as the guard whistled. He hurried to a carriage which contained a young couple. Wrenching hard fit the handle he found that the door wouM not open. His struggles met with laughter from the occupants, auid he eventually turned to another carriage, which he entered while the train was moving.

DOWNING STREET SECRETS. Precedent must have been blown to smithereens when a party of visitors w_as shown round the Foreign Office and No. 10, Downing Street. The "invaders" _eaw the secret places of diplomacy and of the most high policy, and carried away such impressions as these: "Why is the Cabinet room decorated with lurid purple wallpaper? Why does the Foreign Secretary work with a thermometer on his desk? Does Mr. Arthur Henderson find it warm work? "Tihe visitors sat in the Foreign Secretary's black leather armchair aad read his memoranda. Luckily he was not there. WARNED BY DOG. A mother and her three chidren probably owe their lives to a dog which gave the warning of fire in the early hours of a recent morning. The woman, Mrs. Blomfield, who occupies a bungalow on Linwood Warren, Market. Basen, Lincolnshire, was awakened by her dog barking and scratching outside the bedroom door. She found that there was fire in the 'living room, and the way of escape cut off. Finally she managed to pass one child and the dog safely through the bedroom window 'before climbing through herself. A neighbouring farm worker helped 'her to prevent the_ flames spreading to an adjacent hut in which two other children were sleeping. 7000 MILES TO SEE "THE KIDS." The desire to see their daughter, from whom they have been separated tor JO years, and other children resulted in a Yorkshire labourer and his wife, both o'. er 70, undertaking their first ocean voyage in the White Star liner Arabic, to celebrate their golden wedding on a tour ot nearly 7000 miles. They are ~\£r. and Mrs. John Ambler, of Shroggsville Terrace, Halifax, and they said they would "do the thing properly," and spend £150 on the trip. "It was the missus' idea." said Mr. Ambler, who has worked in the cleansing department of the Halifax Corporation for 40 years. "I should not have gone if I had not gotten off from my work, but when tiiev granted two mouths' holiday I remarked to the missus, 'Well. I don't care if it snows, but I'll spend £150 in seeing the kids.' PIG-STRENGTHENED CIDER. Mention of synthetic cider (writes a "Daily Chronicle" correspondent) reminds one of an old Herefordshire custom that produced some of the most potent cider in England. The practice was to kill and dress a pig, and then hand it in a barrel of cider with the whole bodf immersed, and only the legs above the liquid. After a month or two the acid in the cider "ate" all the flesh away, leaving onilv the four legs intact. The barrel was then bunged up and kept for a year before being tapped. As the cost of doing this was large, only one such barrel of cider was made on the majority of farms. But on special occasions, when the drink was circulated, hah' a glass was sufficient to send away even the most inveterate toper with uncontrollable legs! FOOTBALL BY CrRLS. The Darlington Council of Ohribtiaa Witness asked the committee which had arranged the annual football match between Woolwcrth's Girls and Marks and Spencer's Girls on Good Friday to cam-el j the match. The match was in aid ot the i National Union of Railwayman's Orphanage Fund. The council considered -hat a football match between t'. o >u :h teams was a degrading /laapl-ty. particularly w-'-a the match was to take place on L-oj.l Friday mcrniiig. daring the hours of Divine service. Mem inns ot the tro seta-ted team.-' said that the protest ierS then: <-<>!«i. "Football w a man's jaw. one of the jrirls: "that's why we pjay it. We are not irohisr to cancel our filiate, I and if the organisers of the game decide to we shall be very disappointed, lae ' Rev. S. F. Warth said that the council | had a very strong objection to g-rls p!a.< - in-x football at any time. Lher Manic the sirls so imse!l liS . ."-- r committee who had invited them to p:..,.