NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

MOTHER'S LIFE IN VAIN. Mrs. Maud Greenwood, aged 33, of the Ridgeway, Mill Hill, N.W., seeing her daughter fall off a fairy cycle in front of an omnibus, ran out to save her. The omnibus driver, who swerved round the child, did not see the mother, who was knocked down and killed. At the inquest at Hendon it was stated that the driver, Herbert Holman, held four safety first awards for good driving. A verdict of accidental death was returned. AN ANCIENT ROCK. The rock upon which Christ stood on the shores of the Sea of Galilee to perform the miracle of the loaves and fishes is believed to have been discovered at Tabgha, near Tiberias. The stone wa6 was found in the centre of a fourth century church recently uncovered, and it is presumed to have been beneath the altar. The church was one of the many built during the reign of Constantine the Great. Behind the stone was found a mosaic panel, depicting in vivid black, red, and yellow, a basket, several loaves of bread and two fishes. CRUCIFIX AFFECTS WOMAN'S NERVES. A wayside church crucifix at Peasec'own, near Frome, Somerset, to which, a man who lived opposite had objected on the ground that it was affecting >his wife's nerves, is to be removed. Roman Catholics met the councillors to whom the complaint was made, and chose a new site where the crucifix would be almost hidden by the church hedge and a belt of fir trees. Father Agius, priest-in-charge, said local Catholics recognised no obligation, but did not wish to disturb even a minority of local residents. The controversy has raged since Mr. W. Filer, of Peasedown, wrote to the council complaining of the effect of the crucifix upon his wife's health. Other residents have described it as weird, and a councillor said the sight of it at dusk had given him a great shock. It was stated at the council meeting that the effect of the crucifix on certain minds might be serious. The council agreed that it had. no authority in the _ matter, but would approach, the parties concerned with a view to a peaceful solution.

THE WINDIEST PLACE. Port Elizabeth, in South Africa, is making a serious claim to be called the most windy place in the- world. According to the tables compiled from records of the instruments at the Algoa Bay lighthouse there was wind from one direction or another almost every day last year. The lowest velocity was nine miles an hour, and the highest 68 miles an hour. On the great majority of days the maximum velocity was between 35 and 40 miles an hour, and the average daily "-wind velocity through the year was 33 miles an hour.

SPEARING A LEOPARD. A leopard was speared by an. Englieh farmer at Naro Moru, on the western slopes of Mount Kenya. Such an occurrence has not been reported before in East Africa. There is a considerable element of luck as well as risk in successful " leopard sticking," as they are seldom found in rideable country—if at all during the daytime—and leopards will hardly consent to be ridden at in the same way as pig. The leopard is a much more dangerous customer, and the feat of this Kenya sportsman is the more remarkable because his pony, though well bred, was quite untried at the game, yet pushed boldly on for his rider to administer the coup da grace.

MAN HAS "DIED" THREE TIMES. , Max Grosskreutz has been "dead" three times. Max, who figured in a race at the Crystal Palace Speedway, said: ."I was first reported dead in 1928, when I fell and broke by wrist at Lea Bridge. Somehow the story went round that I was killed, and the newspapers back home in Australia billed my 'death.' Then in 1930 I went to ride in Argentina. I suppose I must have stayed at Buenos Ayres a bit too long._ When I arrived home I found I was being mourned for dead. In 1931 I went to Australia, and news reached my friends in Argentina that I had been killed. One rider wrote home to his relatives in Australia asking them to place a wreath on my grave."

SECRET OF SEX FORETOLD. A young wireless salesman claims to have discovered the secret of sex determination which has baffled scientists for generations. He is Mr. Douglas Engert, of Bucks Avenue, Oxhey, Watford, and although only 30, * has already had an adventurous life. "It was while I was in Australia a few years ago that I learned the secret of sex determination from the aborigines." he told a pressman. "I hold a little piece of steel with a short string, attached to it in my hand, and inside 30 seconds I can tell the sex of the child." Since his return to England Mr. Engert has tested hia powers on hundreds of occasions. "For one month I saw every case at one of London's large maternity hospitals, and I foretold the sex of the child correctly each time," lie said. "A few months ago I told my sister-in-law that she would have a baby boy, but she laughed at me because she belongs to a family where all the children are girls. A week ago her baby was born—and a boy it is!" Mr. Engert's services have been in demand by Harley Street specialists, and society women have consulted him.

SAILOR'S STRANGE MISSION. A sailor who, it was stated, believed he had a mission to rid Liverpool of coloured men and prevent them from mixing with -white women, was at Liverpool sent to prison for two months. He was Donald Charles Faulkner, aged 48, of St. James' Street, Liverpool. He was summoned for' assaulting Kharulla Khan, an Indian seaman, with a sheath knife in his hand. It was revealed at the proceedings, that Faulkner himself was born in India. It was stated that Faulkner met Khan in the heart of Liverpool's foreign quarter, and accused hint of associating with a white waitress in an Indian cafe. When Khan denied it, Faulkner pulled out a large sheath knife, but Khan took it from him. A police officer said that Faulkner was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment at Manchester Assizes last year for stabbing an Indian seaman with a knife. "Faulkner has an obsession that white women and black men should not be allowed to mix, and he lias been a source of great trouble for a long time," said the officer. "He has the idea," added a prison doctor, "that it is up to him to cleanse the port of Liverpool of coloured people, is rather dangerous."-

BRACHYDACTYLY. The occurrence of hereditary " brachydactyly "—shortness of fingers or toes, due to the omission of one of the normal joints —is rare in the human race, and is commoner with fingers than with toes, states the " Journal of Heredity," of Washington. "Brachydactyly may occur in the hands or the feet, or in both the hands and the feet of the same person," the journal adds. " The shortening is caused by, or is the result of, the absence of one of the three bones or phalanges making up the finger or toe, as the case may be. The fingers or toes affected are the small ones, the number of hones in the thumb and large toe remaining the same as in a normal extremity." PLAGUE OF MONKEYS. Delhi liSis been suffering from a plague of monkeys, which have become so mischievous that the municipality has taken drastic steps to meet this simian invasion. The first method they tried was to appoint a special monkey officer, whose duty, it was to capture the monkeys and deport them from the city region in lorries. Chattering hordes were rounded up and dumped some distance outside in the country, but to no purpose. Within a short time the officer reported they had made their way back to the richer hunting grounds within the city. The municipality ther. considered, establishing a home for the monkeys some distance from Delhi, but after considerable argument in the council the suggestion was defeated as impracticable. So far the monkeys have won the day. HOW TO LEARN ENGLISH. Some 450 Paris policemen are attending a course in English at the Prefecture de Paris. The men sit in rows in the courtyard of the Prefecture while a professor, aided by an electrical blackboard, coaches them in answering English and American tourists. The system is a new one, and it is based on the theory that eighty key words are sufficient to make anyone intelligible in a foreign language. The board consists of coloured glass squares, and as the professor pronounces a phrase the words are flashed in English before the eyes of the pupils, who repeat them until they achieve a fair pronunciation. The method is found to be very successful, and the classes have made rapid progress. German, Spanish, and Italian are being taught in the same way.

. DEATH AMID LAUGHTER. While other children were laughing at a comedy, a little girl member of the audience at a children's matinee at the Casino cinema, Oldham, fell forward in her seat in a fatal collapse. The child' was Jean Reynolds, aged 6, daughter of Walter Reynolds, grocer's manager, Palace Street, Oldham. Jean visited the picture house, which is only a few yards away from her home, unaccompanied. Twenty minutes after the start of the show a boy saw' that she had apparently fainted and informed the manager, Mr. R. T. Stott, into whose office she wae cairried. Mr. Stott and his wife treated her for a faint, but she did not respond, and brandy had no effect. In the meantime members of the staff had been sent to inform the child's mother and 6ummon a doctor.