NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 56, 7 March 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

HORSES DROP DEAD. A remarkable coincidence occurred in the hunting field recently when valuable hunters, ridden by a father and his daughter, at a meet of the Cottesmore hounds, at Melton Mowbray, fell dead beneath them. The horse which collapsed first was ridden by the Hon. Mrs. Theodore Grosvenor, daughter of Mr. R._ E. Strawbridge, the American millionaire. Mrs. Grosvenor was thrown heavily, and her father and other riders who went to her assistance, found her unconscious from slight concussion. Later Mr. Strawbridge remounted his hunter, and shortly afterwards the horse collapsed under him. He escaped injury. CAREER WRECKS MARRIAGE." Captain Jefferson D. Colin, the English •millionaire sportsman, and his wife, the French actress, "Mile Marcelle Chantal,'' were div-orced, the Seine Court dividing responsibility. Captain Cohn complained that his wife insisted on continuing her stage career against his wishes, while his wife declared that her husband iuterfered with her career. Captain Cohn was born in London. Mile Chantal is has second wife, and is well known, both on the stage and on the screen. She played th.i leading part in the French historical film, "The Queen's Necklace," out of which the British censor cut scenes depicting her being whipped and branded. GANG LEADER. Jack Diamond, the Chicago gang leader, who was shot and badly wounded by unknown gunmen on October 12, left the Municipal Hospital on Welfare Island recently with a strong escort of detectives. He looked weak and wan, and his left arm was partly paralysed. Two bullets are still in his body. His wife met him at Acra railway station and warned him "mot to be too brave in case of trouble, but to dodge behind the nearest piece of furniture in sight." Someone again asked him who fired the fusillade which came so near to ending hie life. To this he replied: "I have no more idea who shot me than you have, and I don'it know why I was shot." The gangster is still under £3000 bail as a material witness in his own shooting. RADIO ON TANKS. As the result of recent tests carried out between two high-powered VickersArmstrong tanks, travelling at full speed across open country, a reliable wireless telephone and telegraph equipment for use on any tank has been produced by the Marconi Company. The secret of the equipment, as revealed in the "Marconi Review," is a receiver giving terrific amplification, so that the voice of the other tank commander can be heard above the roar and clanging of the powerful engines. Normally, when the tank is moving it is impossible for the unprotected ear to hear anyone speaking even three or four inches away, but by high amplification and the use of specially-padded headphones wireless communication has been made perfect.

APOLOGETIC BURGLAR. Awakened in the early morning by a •man in iher bedroom, Mrs. Margaret Da vies, aged 74, a widow, of Bridgend Rcsad, Maes teg, Glamorgan, asked 'him what he was doing. Somewhat taken hack, he apologised for disturbing her and said he thought it was an empty house. He besought her to remain in bed as it was ifcoo early for her to get up. J He said he had ransacked the drawers downstairs but before going he would put everything back providing she said nothing. He then went downstairs and she heard hi™ shutting and opening drawers. She switched on the light but he called to her to extinguish it, which she did. Before going he wished her good morning. She then went next door to a clergyman and reported the occurrence. "PRETENDER" TO FRENCH THRONE. "The Pretender to the French throne is knocking at the door of France." This phrase appears in a letter to the Press from the I>uc de Guise and M. Charles Benoist, a former ambassador, who was the tutor of the Count of Paris, the eldest son of the Duke. The Duke declares that there is no stability under the Republican regime. A hereditary monarchy alone can give security, order and prosperity. He concludes: —' Tell the French that the repository of the royal prerogative which made France is still there; that he is knocking at the door of his country and that' he is ready to avail himself of all the glories and difficult tasks of the public weal, social well-being, and order and peace, which is the honour and grandeur of our monarchy since ten centuries old." The letter is signed "Jean, in exile," dated December 23, 1930.

DOCTOR FOR A PENNY A DAY. The doctors of Essex have inaugurated a public medical service especially lor the benefit of the £250-£4OO a year man and his family. Under the scheme the middle class man who is not catered for under the National Health Insurance scheme will be offered a full medical service for himself, his wife, and children, at a cost of a penny a day per head. The actual subscription is 30/ a year, but in families of more than two children the third and every succeeding child will be admitted for £1 a year, and especially reduced rates will be offered in the case of exceptionally large families. The Essex Public Medical Service, of City Road, London, which already provides a service for the dependents of panel patients, will control the new scheme. "It is quite a new departure," it was stated at the offices of the service, "but it has been very favourably received by doctors in the county." Dr. Anderson, of the British Medical Association, said that the scheme had the full approval of the association. EXPELLED FROM SCKCOL. A boy's expulsion from a Swiss school was the subject of an action at Wandsworth County Court when Mr. Walter J. A. Skinner, of Putney Hill, was awarded 50 guineas and costs for breach of contract against Mr. W. Channing Pearce, proprietor and headmaster of Alpine College, Arveges-sur-Bex. Mr. Skinner complained that his son was expelled summarily without justifiable cause. Mr. Pearce said that Skinner was slack and very backward. He had used bad language, borrowed money from the other boys, and his influence was detrimental to the school. Judge Harington said that Mr. Pearce was not justified in expelling the boy from school without the knowledge of the parents; without having made a demand that the boy should be removed,, and without having complained to the parents of the boy's conduct. The boy's conduct, he said, was certainly not such as to justify instant dismissal, becausc many of the things complained of were really of a trivial kind.

CHURCH FIRED BY CANDLd. The Roman Catholic church of StJoseph's, one of the largest and most imposing churchcs in Ottawa, was totally destroyed by fire with a loss which is estimated at nearly 500,000 dollars (£100,000). The lire was caused by a votive candle which-was upset by a child and set alight to draperies sur. ouuding a crib of the infant Jesus. A number of worshippers were in the church at the time of the fire. The church had recently bt'en decorated at a cost of £9000. During the progress of the fire many members of the church'knelt in prayer in the street asking for Divine assistance to save thg edifice. LONDON'S ELECTRIC GIRDLE. The opening of the new of the City Police in Old Jewery, London* has enabled that force (to complete an "electric girdle" of its area. An elaborate switchboard at Old Jewery willenable headquarters to call officers at any of the 52 ambulance call boxes in the city. A flashing light at the top of the boxes will be the signal to all policemen that headquarters has something to communicate. As each box is equipped with a telephone, orders will be transmitted with the greatest rapidity. For instance, if a raid by car bandits is reported to headquarters it will be possible to warn all officers on duty to look out for the fleeing thieves, thus practically closing all exits from the city. GENEROUS EVEN AFTER DEATH. Noted in life for her charitable acts and benevolence, Mrs. Bertha Sherlock, of the Old Saw Mill, Sanderstead Village, Surrey, did further good to humanity even after death. At her own wish her body was handed over to St. Thomas' Hospital-for anatomical study. Mrs. Sherlock was killed near her home in a fog recently by a coach which ran into her and her two little boys. "Mrs. Sherlock's one aim in life was to bring happiness to others," said a friend and neighbour. "Her good works were known all over the village." In accordance with what her relatives know would have been her wish they asked friends to send no flowers, but instead to make contributions to the Infants' Hospital, Vincent Square, S.W., in which she took a deep interest. "WHYS" OF A PILLAR BOX. The architecture of a pillar box was explained by Commander the Hon. Humphrey Pakington in a lecture to boys,' girls and parents ait the Royal Institute of British Architects, London. He said: Ihe pillar box is_ round, first, so that no letters shall stick in corners inside; secondly, because a round box is stronger than a square one; and thirdly, so that there shall be no corners for us to run into. It has a slightly domed overhanging top to throw off the rain. It is painted red so that we may see it at a distance. +£ ® a little at the bottom so that if a nurse wheels a pram into ifc the rest of ithe pillar box will not be damaged; and this bottom part is painted black so that mud, dirt and kicks will not be noticed."

GRAVE AS CHRISTMAS PRESENT. the strangest presents last Ohris.tmas was that of a grave. The recipient, however, stated that it was the most acceptable gift she could have received. It marks the culmination of a long-drawn out dispute in a family which 13 connected with the peerage. A well known woman who died recently had been twice married. Her first husband lies in a country churchyard. His children desired that their mother should be buried in the grav# with their father, but to this the second husband will not agree, and she was interred in a London cemetery. The deeds of the country grave were held by the second husband, but he has now handed them over to one of the daughter's of the first family. It is the daughter's intention to add her mother's name to the tombstone erected on the grave of her father. IN CANOE WITH MADMAN. A golden-haired woman, wearing a white satin dress, told an audience at Buxton -Opera House how she climbed on foot 17,000 ft over the Andes. She waa Mrs. Violet Cressy-Marcks, an explorer, who has just returned to her home town of Buxton from South America. She told her audience that she travelled altogether 28,000 miles, going up the Amazon by launch as far as possible, and then continuing her journey fey canoe with a young Czech surveyor and 15 Indians. "The heat and the insects were awful," said Mrs. Cressy-Marcks. She wenft on: A. V., the surveyor, fell ill with fever, and I and several of my men had fever also. I watched A. V. go slowly mad. At 5 o'clock A. V., still delirious, shaved, did his hair, cleaned his teeth, sat on the edge of the canoe, lit a cigarette, and then wew his brains out.

RUSSIANS WHO DID WELL. The success which has beiten achieved by a Russian family who settled in Canada 24 yeans ago has been disclosed following the election of the eldest son as Mayor of Windsor, Ontario. Four sons of HilLel and Minnie Croll, born in Russia, are to-day occupied as follows:—David, aged 30, a lawyer in Windsor, who has been elected Mayor of that city; Leo, aged ■1 ?- n c . ar ' nose and throat specialist in _Detroit, U.S.A.; Sam, aged 26, practising dentistry in Detroit; and Maurice, aged 25, an extraction specialist m Detroit. Of those born in Canada, Cecil, aged 21, is to graduate in law at the end of (this term at Osgoode Hall, lor into and Evelyn, aged 20, the only girl in the family, is a dental hygienist in Detroit. When the family came to Canada m 1906 elder boys sold newspaper# in the streets of Windsor. David, the recently-elected Mayor of Windsor, was selling papers as recently as eleven years ago. He is said to be the first Jew to be elected Mayor of a Canadian city. THE OLD BAILEY AT NIGHT. An oil lamp flickers every night through the Old Bailey, London. It is that of the night watchman—<three blue-uniformed men—who in turn eacli make the round of the vast 'building to see that everything is secure. The eight floors and basement are in darkness when the watchman sets forth on his lonely tour. The only sound he hears m the echo of his own footfall. Every nook and cranny hag to be explored. There are 98 cells. At the end of a gloomy corridor, 210 ft lone, is a cell, larger than the others. Instead of being furnished with a wooden stool and tmy table, it is fitted with a seat fashioned out of teak, extending round three sides of the wall, and a large teak table. This is the cell in Which murderers arc placed after being sentenced, pending their removal to prison. In it have sat Dr. Crippen, Seddon, Bywaters, Kennedy and Browne, and many others who subsequently paid the death penalty. The cells and the docks at the Old Bailey nominally form part of H.M. prison at Brixton, and are controlled by prison officials. "3AD TIMES STIMULATE READING. "The year 1930 has been the most prolific in the history of British publishing," states "The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers 1 Record." "This may seem extraordinary in a year marked by profound economic depression, and is a proof of the vitality and enterprise of the book trade. The 'ill wind' of financial stringency has a stimulating effect on reading, as can be proved _ from the statistics of our public libraries. When money is scarce for _ the theatres or the talkies, then the joys of the armchair and the book are discovered." The number of books recorded as issued during 1930 was 15,393, compared with 14,086 during 1929, an increase of 1307. The total for September (1659) was the highest monthly total for many years. Fiction again accounted for more than a quarter of the years total, and showed the largest increase (198). No fewer than 3922 novels were published, the next highest totals being: Juvenile; 1479; religion, 1074; sociology 975 i biography, 810; poetry and drama, m.