NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 2, 3 January 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

900 MILES ON SKATES. Mr. Arnold Birms, Hebden Bridge, ■who holds the world endurance non-stop roller \ gkating record (61h 11m), has now skated f all the way from John o' Groats to Land's I End, a distance of over 900 miles. 1 1 A TEST FOR BEEFSTEAKS. j A machine lias been invented at the f United States Department of Agriculture to test the toughness of beefsteaks. A dial attached to the blade of the simple but ingenious instrument records the degree of difficulty which the blade en- I counters in cutting through the tissue of c the meat. ' 1 < 10,000 AUTOMOBILE FRAMES A DAY. { A machine capable of making 10,000 j automobile frames a day was described by j Lieutenant-Colonel H. C. Hawkins to members of the Society of Engineers at < Burlington House recently. Colonel Hawkins, who had returned from an extensive ( tour in the United States and Canada, ' said that the frame-making machine be- j longed to the A. O. Smith Corporation, of ( Milwaukee, and was entirely automatic. It ( made about 420 frames an hour. ' MURDER FOR A PENNY. J A large force of police were recently , sent into the forests in the Szarch dis- ( ! trict of Central Poland to hunt out a girl bandit and her two accomplices, both men. The girl, named Kophowna, became a, bandit as soon as she left school, and, with the men, has committed several ' murders and many robberies. Her last crime was to murder an old beggar to steal a penny. Kophowna's father, a peasant, is helping the police to find his daughter's hiding place. CARDINGTON AND FAME. Cardington was comparatively unknown before it became an airship base, but before that it had a claim to fame. John Howard, the prison reformer, lived there, .and made it "one of the neatest villages in the kingdom." His house is within a short distance of the place_ where the dead of RlOl are now buried. In a chapter of his life at Oardmgton he made a "record of meteorological observations' which led the Royal Society to elect him a member. This was much to his amusement, for he had no such scientific qualifications. SIEGE OF BARN. A siege of a barn and alleged shooting at police officers were described at Bedford when Edward Brook _ (24), labourer, was remanded charged with theft and maliciously shooting at two policemen. Brook, it was stated, took refuge in a barn to avoid arrest, and stayed there for two days without food. He was armed with a double-barrelled gun, and while the police were watching the barn two shots were fired, one passing through the roof of the barn and the ottier over the heads of the policemen. Brook was ultimately persuaded to come out of the barn for some food. YOUNG MAN HOAXES FIRMS. An unknown man, by a series of telephone calls, recently hoaxed a number of London's West End business firms into sending representatives and goods to the house of the Marchioness of Huntly, in i Grosvenor Square. In motor cars the representatives brought with them jewels, dresses, coats, shoes, creams and lotions. There was dismay among the gathering when they were informed that the Marchioness knew nothing about it. "It is all too stupid," said the Marchioness. "Two of the firms know me very well, and, of course, they sent along immediately. I cannot think why anyone should do such a thing. These people said that they had been instructed to call by my secretary." MAYOR AS ADMIRAL. Although the history of Mayors of Rochester dates back to 1461, Mr. George Jenner, the recently-elected Mayor, is the first wholesale newsagent to fill the position. A native of Gillingham, Kent, he began his career in a printing office, and later became a newsagent at Old Brompton, removing to Chatham in 1904. Mr. Jenner, who has the distinction of being one of the youngest members of the council in service to„fill the office of Mayor, has a busy year before { him, with the opening of the local hospital shortly, and a civic week with a big historical pageant of Rochester next June. A Mayor of Rochester is also Admiral of the river and Constable of the Castle. He presides at the annual Admiralty Court held in a craft on the Medway, attended by water bailiffs carrying silver oars, and as Constable of the Castle he is entitled to carry a sword as part of his Mayoral equipment. MAN WITH 22 WIVES. By his will, Mr. Josiah Henryson Doherty, an African negro and Nigerian merchant, left legacies to each of his 42 children and numerous wives. Under the main clauses he left £100 and £3 a month each to seven wives named; £100 to each other "wife" living at his decease; various properties to several "wives" named; and £500 to each boy and £250 to each girl of 42 children by twenty-two "wives" named. The testator, who lived in Campos Square, Lagos, left property valued at £531 in England and "under £58,500" in Africa. His executors were enjoined to "continue to bear the expenses of the education of certain 'wards' until they attain the highest class in either the Church Missionary Society Grammar School, the Church Missionary Society Girls' School, or the Wesleyan Boys' High School." He gave £250 to the Church Missionary Society, payable to the local secretary in Lagos, and left the residue on trust for Kis children. GIRL'S HAND CLUE. Was it a girl's hand that opened the door of a fiat in Hallam Street, London, from which jewellery valued at more than £400,0 was stolen? Scotland Yard experts, who examined a broken glass panel of the front door of the flat, found that the hole was too small to allow the insertion of an average size man's hand. Whoever opened the door left a trail of blood, apparently from a cut, which led from the flat to the 'main staircase of the block. Finger-prints ;on the door had been wiped off. The stolen jewellery belongs to Mrs. Roy : Lewis, who, with her husband, returned | from a cinema about 10.30 p.m., and found ; the panel broken—the door is panelled ; with "unbreakable" glass—and the bloodstains on the door frame. "One peculiar feature of the robbery," said Mrs. Lewis, I "was the smell of an anaesthetic which hung about the rooms, but the detectives believed that this was due to an antiseptic which the thieves brought with them in case of accidents, and applied to the cut caused by the broken panel." iiiinruiiiimiiNHHiiiHiiiiinimiimiioiiiimimniiiiiiiiiniuiiiiiiiiiim

DIED AT THE ORGAN. While playing the organ, as the choir /ere singing an anthem at the harvest estival service at the parish church, Jpper Cladford, Hampshire,. Mr. George iurden fell dead with his arms across the :eys of the instrument. ' His wife and hree children were in the congregation. -Ir. Burden had been organist at Clatford or 20 years. THE WAYS OF WOMAN. A young English woman artist of Montlarnasse married a sculptor, who later livorced her. She still loved him, hut he efus6d to see her. Learning that her ix-husband was moving, she persuaded he removal contractor to carry her to he new address in a packing case. Her ilan was successful, and the couple then lecame united again. iAFETY OF "OLD CURIOSITY SHOP." Fears for the safety of the Old Curiosity >hop, in Portsmouth Street, London, led 0 proceedings "by the London County Jouncil at Bow Street Police Court. The >wner of the premises had been served vith a summons requiring Mm to secure ;he external walls and make other mprovemente. It was reported that the ■equirements of the council had been carried out. The summons was withlrawn. TIGER KILLS TO SAVE TRAINER. An animal trainer in a circus at Leipzig 3wes his life to a tiger, which has been with him since a oub, and which has always been his special pet. As the trainer was driving the animals into the arena, a tigress attacked him and struck trim to the ground. Before she could worry him his pet tiger, now a full-grown beast, sprang to his assistance, biting through the neck of the tigress and killing her instantly. The trainer escaped with slight injuries. HOSPITAL PATIENT'S WALK. A band boy named Stark, of the 2nd. Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, was found seriously ill by the roadside at Hook Common, Hampshire, by a motorist. He had been sent to a military hospital in. Aldershot for an operation for appendicitis, and while preparations were being made for the operation he eluded the attendants and reached the common, 14 miles away, where he dropped exhausted by the roadside. He was taken back to the hospital in a serious condition. DEFIED SUPERSTITION—AND DIED. One of the most romantic weddings of the year is recalled by the death_ in November of Mrs. Eileen O'Neill Haines, only daughter of Mr. Cyril Atkinson, K.C., M.P. for Altrincham, Cheshire. Mrs. Haines, who was married on February 3 this year at St. George's, Hanover Square, was a bride who defied superstition by being photographed in bridal gown and veil several days before the wedding. She declared that she was not superstitious, and explained that she wanted the picture taken before the ceremony to save time > afterwards. SHOT BY FRIEND. How a clergyman's son was accidentally shot was told at the inquest on Alban Y. Martin, son of the Eev. Henry Martin, of Oulton, near/ Lowestoft. Mr. Clive Locke, secretary of the Power Boat Company, Hythe, said he and Martin went to the bottom of the rectory garden to shoot birds. Each carried a gun. They found nothing to shoot and as he was putting his trigger at half cock Martin spoke to him and turned towards the hedge. "I think then," said Locke, "I must have made a half turn. The gun went off and the charge went into his back. He could not have been more than 3ft or 4ft away." A verdict of accidental death was returned. H.M.S. VICTORY VI. The war-time record of the Crystal Palace, which was officially named H.M.s. Victory VI., and became the training depot of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, was commemorated in an appeal issued last month. During the five years' "occupation" 125,000 men were trained at the Palace for naval service. Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, the wartime commander of the Palace Naval Depot, is now president of the R.N.V.R. Committee, which has been formed to set up a permanent record of the part played ,by H.M.s. Victory VT. and her crew. The intention was to erect on the terrace of the Palace (the quarter-deck of Victory VT.) a trophy in the form of a ship's bell, a replica of the one used at the Palace during the naval occupation. BURGLAR'S PRESENCE OF IVIIND. Hearing a noise Miss C. E. Wells, of Chelmsford, awakened about daybreak to find a man in her bedroom. The man flashed an electric torch in her face,, and, leaning over the bed, said: "Burglars Tiave been here. Don't be' alarmed; I am a detective, and I am merely in the house to investigate. May I look over the other rooms?" Miss Wells replied: "Yes, do so.. . . ." Miss Wells hurriedly dressed and called her woman companion. Together they went downstairs, and found that two ; missionary boxes, containing about £6, had been stolen. The boxes were later discovered on the roadside near the house, broken open and the contents missing. "I was not really frightened," she said. "The man was so gentle and spoke so nicely. I quite believed he was a police officer, although he was wearing' rough clothes." WORLD'S GREATEST JIG-SAW PUZZLE. The construction of the largest jig-saw puzzle in the world is the latest undertaking of the Canadian Government Exhibition Commission. It takes the form of 35,000 pieces of wood and other items ] weighing nearly 1200 tons, and which, 1 when assembled, constitutes a building 100 yards long and 48 yards wide. All the materials are of Canadian origin, but they are being prepared at New Maiden for subsequent dispatch to Buenos Ayres i where the building will house the Cana- | dian section of the Buenos Ayres British Empire Exhibition. The component parts will fill 5000 packages. Among the material used is 100,000 square feet of Canadian building board, 42,000 square feet of linoleum and 42,000 square feet for flooring of Douglas fir and framing of Quebec spruce, the total cost running to over £20,000. The entire building is possibly the largest to have been constructed on one side of the Atlantic for erection on the other. In view of Canada's rapidly expanding trade with Latin America the Buenos Ayres Exhibition has become an important factor in the extension of Canada s trade. £250,000 FOR AN INVENTION. A camera for .taking coloured photons which brought the inventor £250 - 000 was mentioned during a recent English action. Dmitry Gorsky claimed damages from Tri-Chrome Photos and * ilms, Ltd., of which the Duke of Atholl is chairman, for alleged wrongful dismissal from his position of assistant technical engineer and adviser. The company was formed in 1928 with £500,000 capital for the exploitation of a camera rtor taking coloured photographs. The company sent plaintiff to France with Michael Astafiev (the inventor), to take photographs. Passport difficulties arose over Mr. Goreky's return, and the company dismissed him. The duke said Gorsky was given permission to go to France for a_ week to take photographs with the special camera. "He was away more than a week, and I begau to get frightened that the camera might go missing. We had insured the camera for £2000." In cross-examination he said that the company pak' Astafiev £250,000 in fully paid up shares for his invention. That was for the patents and possibilities of the invention and not merely for the camera itself. "We did not pay that ■money for u box." Judgment was given ' for the company.