NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 38, 14 February 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

COUNTESS INHERITS MILLIONS. The Countess of Granard recently received £2,439,947 under the will of her father, the late Mr. Ogden L. Mills, the financier, sportsman and art collector. The legacy was to be administered by a trust fund. The Countess of Granard was also given the Mills mansion in the _ Rue de Varenne, Paris. Mr. Ogden Mills died in January, 1929. The total estate was valued at £8,213,738. GLORIFIED LAMB. During the hearing of a case at Willesden, for alleged housebreaking and theit of goods worth £400," the .prosecutor held up a coat and said: "This alone w worth £250" "What is it made of?" asked the prisoner. "Glorified Persian lamb, was the reply. "Glorified, eh? May I examine it closer?" The coat was handed to him in the dock, and as he fi the fur, ihe exclaimed: Lummy. £200. CIGARETTE GUESSING. A competition to estimate the number of cigarette packets displayed in three large glass cases in a Glasgow shop was held at Glasgow recently to be a lottery, and fines of £10 and £5 were imposed. The sheriff said there was no means or knowing the volume of air spaces m tne three cases after the boxes had been tumbled in at random, and the success of any estimate was thus not the result oi skill but a matter of guess-work. BLOOD SUBSTITUTE. A chemical substitute for blood for use in emergency transfusions has been developed and used successfully in Omaha, Nebraska. The serum is called normet solution, and was named after an ancient French formula. It is credited with saving one life, as it was used in an operation on a negro dancer, stabbed through the heart in a knife fight. While scientists agree there is no substitute for matched blood m transfusions, it is not always possible to get it in an emergency. The new serum is then used until the real article can be obtained. MYSTERIOUS BURGLARIES. For the second time in six months thieves obtained entry in some mysterious way to a certain hairdressing shop in Bermondsey, and stole goods to the value of £200. The front door had a double patent lock, and the, back door had not been forced. A window on the ground level has massive bars, which had not been tampered with, and a skylight was also_ intact. Mr. George Govier, the landlord, lived on the premises, and did not hear a sound. "I have a dog," he said, "which would wake me if a cat scratched at the door, but she made no noise during the night, and I cannot understand how the thieves got in." CRUSTACEAN TRAVELLERS. Hidden under the thick shell of the crab and the lobster is the urge for exploration and travel. Given the chance, they will travel far and wide. M. Gravel, French naturalist, told how many species of shellfish, native to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, emigrated to the Mediterranean Sea, and are now found along the coast of Egypt and Syria. The crabs and lobsters emigrated through the Suez Canal, and, according to Gravel, it required 30 years for them to make the trip. Lobsters formerly found in the Mediterranean region have entirely disappeared, and have been replaced by large shrimp from the Indian Ocean. i — STREET NAMED FOR SCULPTOR. The Paris Municipal Council has decided to give Emile Antoine Bourdelle's name to the Impasse du Maine in which the great sculptor had his 'studios. Universally famous, Bourdelle died in Paris on October 1, of last year. His most striking work, the gigantic Alvear monument with four allegorical figures has been erected on one of the finest squares _ in Buenos Ayres and his monument dedicated to Miskievic,. a gift of the Polish nation'stands in the Place de l'Alma, Paris. The constant change in the names of the Paris thoroughfares is a great nuisance to the taxi drivers, (mostly ex-officers of the Russian Imperial Army. NEW USES FOR SILVER. Scientists in Germany are coming to the aid of the silver' industry, and at the same time benefiting the population of the entire country. For many years silver mining has been conducted at a loss in Europe. German chemists decided to experiment with the metal in an effort to find new uses for it. In their research work they found they could use the white metal for the sterilisation of municipal water supplies. They claim it is more effective and less expensive than the chlorination process now in general use throughout the world. As a result of their assertions, silver mines have been reopened, more miners put to work, and the price of silver has reached a point where it can be mined at a profit. DOCTOR'S STRANGE WILL. Remarkable references to an " ex-car-nate". existence were contained in the will of Dr. Abraham Wallace, of Paignton, and formerly of Harrow. Dr. Wallace left £11,000, and his will was pronounced valid by a High Court decision. In it he stated:—"ln anticipation of my transition to an ex-carnate state of existence with which I have for many years experimentally become acquainted and know that the characteristic qualities developed on this earth plane are not changed when the body is thrown aside, and the spiritual powers become more and more evolved, and as the pursuit of truth, honesty of purpose and a consideration for the interest and good of others have over been present to my mind, I now desire to manage my material affairs so that those left behind me may be as little hampered as possible by the necessary machinery of the law." LIGHTHOUSE TERRORS. Marooned by heavy seas for five days in the lighthouse de la Vieille, off Brest, France, the keepers at last managed to establish communication with the outside world by means of a message in a bottle. This note dispelled anxiety for the actual safety of the keepers, which had prompted rescuers to battle for several days to reach the lighthouse, as it gave no indication that the keepers are suffering any distress. It stated, however, "that the marooned men were anxious concerning the safety of shipping, as the giant siren of the lighthouse was out of action, having been damaged beyond repair. The men were seen on the tower of the lighthouse when rescuers again attempted to get near in a boat, but without success. The rescuers, however, succeeded in recovering the message in the bottle from the sea hear the foot of the tower.

ITALY'S CRADLES FULL. Italian birth-rate figures for 1930 reveal Signor Mussolini as the victor in the first round of his battle with the women of Italy, for the 500,000 extra babies needed for his economic schemes. There were 997,219 births in Italy during the first 11 months of last year, with an excess of births over deaths of 478,347. The net increase of births as compared with the previous year is 43,094, and there were 13,898 more marriages in 1930 than in 1929. The Duce's campaign tor babies included a tax on bachelors, prizes for large families, and a premium on twins. WEALTHY WOMAN WANTED A HUSBAND. A young Englishwoman of wealth went to Berlin to seek a husband. In the advertising columns of a newspaper she announced that she wished quickly to find a man "of kindly nature, healthy, and in established circumstances," to whom she could entrust her heart and fortune. She stated that she had £100,000 and two large estates in England, so she did not lack applicants. Her age was given as 20 years, and suitors were invited to address their replies to a hotel in the West End of the capital. POLICEMAN ALWAYS ON DUTY. A Liverpool policeman who, while spending his holiday in London captured a runaway suspect, was commended by Sir Chartres Biron at Bow St. Police Court. In the dock was a private in the Royal Tank Corps, Farnborough, accused _ of stealing a suitcase from a bus in Kingsway. The man was alleged to have taken the case from the platform of a bus and was being chased by shoppers when Police-constable Veitch, of the Liverpool Constabulary, intercepted him. Meanwhile the ••■case had been thrown away. It was picked up by the owner, who disappeared with it. CAT SAVES THE SAFE. A man's thought for his cat led to the arrest of James Saunders, 28, and Harold Munro, 25, who were charged at Marylebone with breaking into a grocery shop at Queen's Crescent,. Kentish Town, and stealing a steel safe, about 3000 dividend checks, and 12 bottles of whisky, valued, at £57 10/. James Smith, the manager of the shop, eaid that on Boxing Day he thought of the cat he had left there and went to feed it. • He found the place in disorder, and after locking the door went for the police. He returned with a policeman and the men were arrested. Prisoners were committed for trial. DIED BEFORE SIGNING WILL. On the day ehe had arranged to sign a will, leaving £16,000 to Aberdeen hospitals, Mrs. Mary Anderson, 46, of Aberdeen, widow of a bank -agent, was found dead from gas poisoning. Her maid, an elderly woman named Jessie Dales, was also dead. Gas was escaping from the ga3 cooker in the kitchen. At the inquiry at Aberdeen it was stated that Mrs. Anderson had apparently fallen while preparing a meal and had been overcome by the fumes. The maid—who had no sense of smell—had apparently gone to her mistress' aid and collapsed. The jury returned a verdict of death due to accidental causes. A KING'S HEAD FOR SIXPENCE. The claim of a French writer, M. Joseph Bourdais, that a mummified head he bought for Gixpence at a Paris auction sale ten years ago is that of King Henry IV., the debonnair and romantic King of France and Navarre, has excited interest among historians in Paris. M. Bourdais says the head resembles the king's portraits. He also states that when the remains of the French kings were removed from their tombs by the revolutionaries in 1793 portions were afterwards preserved, and came into the possession of the German, Count Von Erbach, whose home was sacked by Napoleon's soldiers. These soldiers brought the head back to France. HANGMAN AS HERO. The latest object of hero worship in Czecko-Slovakia is the public executioner, Broumarsky. During the first week in January he hanged at Znaim a double murderer named Ellinger. On the following day huge crowds, consisting mostly of young girls and women, besieged the inn where Broumarsky was staying, trying to caJtch sight of him and obtain his autograph. To a newspaper man he eaid that after carrying out his first execution he received no fewer than 6000 offers of marriage, as he could prove by the originals which he had preserved in his rooms. So fax he • has accepted none of them. BADGER FINDS SILVER MINE. One of the most famous mines in the West was discovered by accident. This was the Tuscarora mine in Nevada, originally known as the Navajo mine. In the early '60's, when pioneers were streaming through Nevada on their way to the West, a group of prospectors were walking across the plains of what is now known as Elk Counfty, when they came upon a badger digging. As they approached the animal it ran away. One of the prospectors walked over to where the badger had been burrowing and found it had unearthed a piece of solid silver. The mine was soon developed, and it rapidly gained a reputation as one of the richest mines in the country. At - times the silver content was 20,000 ounces to each ton of meftal-bearing ore. DETERMINED DOG. A brown terrier dog, collarlesa and apparently a stray, in spite of determined efforts to dislodge it from the top of a London bus, journeyed 15 miles alone, and then behaved so badly that the driver had to take his omnibus to the police station at Ch is wick to get rid of the animal. The dog jumped on at Tooting and mounted to the top deck. Efforts were made to dislodge it at many stopping places, but without success, and it was still crouching under a seat when the bus readied Chiswick terminus. Here other busmen and police tried in vain to induce the animal to leave. The driver was told to take his bus to Chiswick police station. Here the dog was persuaded to leave its post. A veterinary surgeon said it appeared to be suffering from rabies, and it was accordingly shot. DOG'S GRIEF FOR A PAL. How an Airedale terrier guarded the body of a dead Alsatian provided a striking instance of canine fidelity at Basset, Southampton. The two dogs had been inseparable companions since their puppy days. While racing along the road together the Alsatian was knocked dosvn and killed by a car. The Airedale remained by the body of its friend throughout the night and attacked everybody who approached. A man who tried to coax the Airedale to ascertain from its collar the owner of the Alsatian had part of his coat torn away by the dog's teeth, while every time a motor vehicle passed the faithful sentinel set up a long howl. Ultimately the Alsatian's owner arrived, and only then would the Airedale relinquish its dead pal. MODEST V.C. I\ et ' u f in S mention that he won the i ; i t ' le } v " ar '. Sergeant Tommy, late of the Seaforth Highlanders, found it almost impossible to obtain work in Eng- * f i j case , was brought to the notice otan old comrade who appealed to former beaforth Highlanders to help him. Mr. Skelton, of Bolton Road, Bury, who made the appeal was a private in Sergeant iominj, s platoon. "He is a great man," pkelton said, a fine figure, a great athlete, and a good Rugger'player. There was never any bombast about him. 'J'hev told ine he was at Lees, near Oldham, and ins mother said lie recently applied for a caretaker's job—but woidd not mention his V.C. The applicants were reduced to two, and the other man got the job. After- - wards he was recognised by one of the appointing committee, who told him he would have been appointed for certain if he had been known."