NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 156, 4 July 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

"LIFE" FOR QUART OF BEER. For being in possession of a quart of liquor, Mr. E. P. Butler has been sentenced at Kansas City, U.S.A., to imprisonment for ' life. Mr. Butler was ' sent to the penitentiary three times 'before for other offences and he became liable, upon a fourth conviction for a "felony," a.* opposed to a "misdemeanour," to a life sentence. BOOK IN STATUE'S HAND. For 50 years people have been asking: "What is the book which the Prince Consort is holding in the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens?" . Some have suggested the Bible, others a history of the British Royal house. Viscount Burnham, in a recent speech, supplied the correct answer—it is the catalogue of the 1851 Exhibition! A "HAUL".AT BRIGHTON. Brighton fishermen hauling .up their nets lien miles out in the Channel recently found a strange creature without scales included in the catch. At the aquarium it was recognised as a lumpsucker. Weighing 151b, it was the biggest lumpsucker ever exhibited alive in England. The lumpsucker is one of the very few, fish that show the slightest ■ interest in their offspring. It. lays 136,000 eggs and then watches over them. WEALTH OF OLD TREASURE SHIP. Quantities'of ancient coins, ingots of gold and silver, and human bones, grim relics of the ill-fated Dutch, treasure ship Der Verguide Draek (the Golden Drake), which was wrecked on the West Australian coast in the middle of the seventeenth century, have been recovered. Hundreds of persons have been sifting the sands in search 1 ' of , the ancient treasure at the mouth of the Moore River, on the north coast of West Australia. The ship's cargo of treasure was lost, and most of the crew perished or were killed by natives. WHEN IN CHICAGO— A small car. slipping along the dimly lit boulevards of Eyanston, Oklahoma, in the early morning, was observed by a police officer- to be bristling with firearms. Officers chased it and finally brought it to a halt. They levelled their pistols at the heavily armed driver and ordered him to surrender, which lie did. "My name's Clyde 0. Genter," he explained. "I'm on my way from Wisconsin, to my home in Michigan. I've got to pass through Chicago, and I'm not taking any chances with gangsters and hold-up men. . That 12-gaug'e shotgun and .45 calibre revolver is to fight it out with them if they attack me." The officers wished him godspeed! KING'S PARDON TO EX-SOLDIER. . The King has granted a free pardcn to a Birmingham man who was convicted during the War for receiving a pair of boots.. The .man was convicted in-ilfllO. The first situation he was able to obtain after the war was a post in 1923 as a licensee for a Birmingham brewery firm. He held this position until 1930, his conduct of the business being ex'emplary. Th' j fact that he had been convicted,-however, was communicated to the police and as this debarred him from holding a license he had to surrender it. He made known his position to his ■ trade .protection society and it was ascertained from the police, the brewery company, and the licensing justices that if the. man had a clean sheet there would be no objection to him as a licensee. The Home Secretary was informed and he recommended a free pardon. >

WORLD'S LARGEST EARTHWORM. -i Almost as famous now as the platypus is the giant earthworm of Gippsland, Victoria, which ds being, made the subject of a sound moving picture. Mr. Charles Barrett, a naturalist, is studying the world's biggest earthworn in its haunts, and collecting specimens for purposes. He is accompanied by the. managing director of Australian Sound Films, Mr. Herschell. A complete film record will, if possible, be made of the life of Megascolides, . from the egg to lull adult stage. A record will be taken oi the weird sounds made by the,great worm when moving along in its burrows. Ihese noises startle a stranger. The giant earthworm averages four feet in length, but six-feet specimens are not rare, and some grow much longer. There is dence that the worm may attain a length oi lift, but science has no records exceeding three yards for. this world-famous creature of the Bass River Valley. FAMOUS PARIS CAFE CLOSES. The Cafe Voisin, one of the most famous of the old Paris restaurants, has closed its doors for the last time. It was one of the select Second Empire restaurants which survived the fall of the Napoleonic dynasty and the scattering of the brilliant society which used to throng the Tuileries Palace, and so often assembled in its dining rooms and salons. For many years nobody without a title or outside the most exclusive society of Faubourg St. Germain was allowed to enter the inner rooms. Its patrons slumbered crowned heads, ' including King Edward, princes, artists, statesmen, and the nobility of half a dozen countries of Europe. The restaurant's cellar was ak one time second to none in Europe. The Cafe Voisin was, indeed, the property of a well known Bordeaux wine-growing family, and no time Or expense was spared by them, in keeping the cellars stocked , with the best vintages available.

NOT A BOGUS "PRINCE." ' Prince George Windsor was the name figuring 011 the identity card whibh a young Briton passing through Dieppe, northern France, on his-way to Paris, presented to the Surete officers. The officers are well used to people giving themselves titles, and the man who dealt with this visitor saw in the name an attempt to pose as a member of the English Royal family. He challenged the bearer of the identity card, made, out under the hew regulations excusing Britons from the necessity of carrying passports, and the challenged man found it hard to make clear that Prince was just an additional Christian name. It was all to no purpose. The Surete man was convinced that there was a deliberate attempt to masquerade, and the bearer of the card was invited to "place himself at the disposal of Justice," the usual French euphemism for arrest. The Surete Generale eventually got in touch with London, and obtained the information that Prince as a Christian name was not unknown in England, and that as a matter of fact Prince George Windsor would have been guilty of an offence had he described himself in any other way.

HIS "DEATH SENTENCE." "You have pronounced my death sentence. I hope you will remember," declared Frederick Yarrow Talbot, aged 58, of West Hampstead, when the Marylebone magistrate fined him £5 or a month's imprisonment for stealing a bottle of milk from outside a house. The following day Talbot, who was a jeweller's salesman, was found dead in a gas-filled room of his home. VATICAN COIN ISSUE. It is doubtful whether any of the coins* issued this year -by the Vatican will ever find their way into circulation, as all of them were seized upon immediately by collectors. Only a limited issue, in fact, was made and it was sold for almost twice the face value of the coins. The complete issue consists of nine coins in values rav.giug from 100 lire to 5 centimes, of which one is gold, two are silver, four nickel and two copper. The coins, which are the work of the well-known artist Aurelio Mistruzzi, are beautifully engraved with figures, of' Christ, the Virgin Mary, saints and'other religious figures. HEAD LAMA ORDERS CAR. Departing from all the traditions of his country and faith, his Holiness the Dalai Lama, ecclesiastical king of Tibet, has ordered an automobile to be sent to him at Lhassa, high in the Himalayas. A newly-trained Chinese chauffeur will pilot the car where routes are navigable, but where no roads exist parties of thirty coolies each will be posted along the mountain passes and on the desolate Tibetan plateau to carry it in relays to its destination. Hitherto, all automobiles have been dubbed " devil wagons " by highly superstitious Tibetans, but the Dalai Lama expects his new acquisition to break down existing prejudices against these," infernal machines." GREATEST OF THEM ALL.

Marcel Rioual was a hero among heroes when official France decorated with, medals those who during the past year had done gallant deeds on the sea. There were old men and strong men who had saved lives, but Marcel Rioual had saved his ship. He'is only 16 years old, a handy lad on the fishing smack Bon Secours. But during a terrible storm ksfc September, when two of the crew of six Had been washed overboard and the others had to \vork desperately at the pumps, he held the tiller for 24 hours without a minute's respite and kept the ship afloat.' Ha seemed .somewhat puzzled by all the 'fuss which was being made over him. "What I did had to be done," was hie only coinznent. STRANGE SANITY TEST. . Tests made to ascertain whether an eight-year-old boy was mentally deficient were described by a. school doctor at the Bristol Police Court recently. Dr. Dalby said he asked the boy to give his age, distinguish four colours', give the number of fingers on his hands, describe three pictures; give the difference between a fly and a butterfly, choose a pretty falce from pretty and ugly faces, tell how he would attempt to find a lost ball in a field, give the similarity between wood and coal, define a tiger, a football, and a soldier. In another test the boy was asked' to give the similarity between an apple and a banana. He replied that one was round and the other long, which is the difference between an apple and a banana. TOMBS OF THE ANCIENTS. The largest sarcophagus in the world, weighing about 1118 tons, has been discovered by the Pennsylvania University expedition near Cairo. Dating from the fourth dynasty, about 2500 8.C.-, it was found' in a chamber which was partially uncovered by Professor Flinders Petrie some time ago. The expedition has also unearthed a prince's tomb at the bottom ■of a pit nearly 150 ft deep, but there was evidence that it had been visited centuries ago by thieves, who drove a tunnel 100 yards long through rock. Many hieroglyphic inscriptions were found in the sepulchre, showing that the inmate was Prince Niheb—meaning "belonging to Apis.". The discovery adds a name, hitherto unknown, to the royal family reigning at the beginning of the fourth dynasty. ■ '■ *■'■ y