NEWS CURIOSITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 37, 13 February 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS CURIOSITIES.

ITEMS FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS,

At Madiouna, near Tunis, a -woman and her five daughters were buried alive by fl pse of their house following

Cardinal Verdier, Archbishop of Paris, has ordered that 60 churches shall be built in Paris and suburbs as a measure to rekeve unemployment.

Quadruplets have been born to a Trork-lng-class woman of Lebrija, near Seville. The mother and her three tiny sons and daughter are in good health.

An interesting and ingenious challenge to bus competition has been made by the Canadian National Railways in an attempt to popularise excursion travel to and from Montreal. It consists of "luncheon counter car" for snacks and refreshments.

It is reported, states an English weekly, that the dental profession is one of the few that is short of recruits. Experts seem to agree, however, that dentistry is a man's job, and that women have not the necessary strength of wrist to extract the more stubborn molars.

In the old days in Karachi it was necessary to have a fore-caddy to prevent kites from swooping down ayd carrying off a ball, often before it came to rest. A story was told of a dead kite being lifted from its nest, disclosing twelve golf balls.

The use of coal was prohibited in Lonu V, n „ 1273 , because it was "prejudicial to „„S nd yet smoke now costs London £6,815,000 a year and the whole country something like £80,000,000.

It is reported that a Divorce Ranch lias been opened near Heno, Nevada, where guests may enjoy six weeks' entertainment during the legal residential period, and secure a divorce for the inclusive nguro of £100, which also covers all legal fees. The idea was, perhaps, the logical outcome of the success of the "dude ranches" in various parts of the West, where tired business men on vacation ; can play at being cowboys.

The report that a Polish peasant, reputed to be 123 years old, has started to grow a new set of teeth prompted me to ring up a dentist friend to ask him whether he believed it," writes "Peter Simple" in the London "Morning Post." He didn't. In extreme old age, he said, there is a tendency for broken stumps of old teeth to emerge, which might have given rise to the story.

There are divers opinions as to the life tenure of the yew tree. There are some prehistoric vessels made of yew tree wood, which may be seen in the British Museum. In Darley churchyard (Derbyshire) there is a yew tree estimated at about two thousand years old. .There is alsothe "Yew tree of Ormiston (Last Lothian), which was mentioned in 1474. There is another in Scotland called the Tortmgnll" yew, which is about two thousand six hundred years old.