NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

CATS' CONGRESS AT GENEVA. The biggest assembly of cats ever known gathered in Geneva for the International Cat Exhibition last month. Three cats went by air from Istanbul, Turkey. There were twelve cats from Persia and at least ten from New York. The "cat jury" was composed of three experts from cat clubs in London, Paris and Belgium. FORCED TO SELL WORKS OF ART. Owing to financial difficulties, the Abbey of St. Peter, at Salzburg, Austria., has been forced to sell a number of historic chasubles and mitres to Switzerland and Italy. A magnificent home, altar of silver and mother-of-pearl, depicting a scene from the Crusades, and dated 1494, has also been sold. A Vienna collector acquired a beautiful thirteenth-century chalice, which is a representative work of medieval goldsmith's art. THE LOCUST EATERS. Pigs, poultry, and dogs have been waging a relentless and "successful war against invading swarms of locusts near Wagram (Algeria) which threaten to devour every scrap of leaf and vegetable in the countryside. Pour hundred pigs are estimated to eat nearly two tons of locusts every day. The whole population was mustered to fight the menace, and organised bands of natives killed, collected, and buried 15 tons of locusts. "AUNT BIBIA," A GIPSY "SAINT." The gipsies of Belgrade kept the annual feast day of a mysterious personage, "Aunt Bibia." Little is now known of her among the gipsies, except that she once delivered the whole of the gipsy race from the plague. The festival was celebrated with all the rites of the Orthodox Church due to" a saint, including the burning of special candles and the cutting of the "slava" cake, and the rest of the day was spent in dancing and feasting. SYNTHETIC AMMONIA. Another notable contribution to Canada's chemical industries has been made at Sandwich, Ontario, where an addition to the caustic soda works provides for the manufacture of synthetic ammonia, the "first to be made in Canada. In the electrolysis of salt brine, liquid chlorine and caustic soda are produced, and in the process large quantities of hydrogen are liberated. This formerly went to waste, but is now collected and pumped to the ammonia department, where it is burned in air and the excess is united under pressure with the remaining nitrogen to make pure liquid ammonia.

"MAGIC FOUNTAINS." Puzzling to the uninitiated ar. magic fountains" that have ann*! j* l " several cities in the United StatpTro , ln spouts from one of these a person bends over to drink ami ea when the user withdraws, all manipulation of handles or val»» secret of the fountain is an electrt .< ie sensitive to light, so mounted that W one who stoops for a drink will a beam of light focused upon the 3?n Pt shadow operates an electric l«e starts the water flowing! ay

UNBREAKABLE GLASS Glass has been produced i n (L m which, according to the PrankW paper, "Die Unischau," neither iC* nor breaks. I 0 test its streLft t h " adult persons used a long sheet J -' millimetres (nine-fiftieths 0 f »„ ■ 611 thickness as a see-saw The »1,„ . lnca ) an elasticity similar to highly* fe 1 steel. A heavy steel ball \ V L A, li from a height of 10 feet on P P°without _ leaving an impression iLii S authorities and motor car induswiv 3 / are interested in the glass, Xh ducod by a special heating process Pr# "

A RIB-CRACKING HUG. Wlien a pretty girl in " TT States gets a rib cracked sweetheart squeezes her too «fr»* , er it. is an accident; at least th e ? n U m with, which she carried accident in^ PW; says it is. This has developed ra ? ce claim filed in Ohio. The A-) will & a all her doctor's bills paid and wiUrJ^ 6 an indemnity for the discomfort followed the occurrence. The vain, i one rib-cracking hug, however, W been determined, owing to the fw t? ! all accounts are not yet in. Tht t victim must recover before the det£L;s tion is complete, ec «rmina-

WOMAN'S BULL-FIGHT HONOUR? The bull-ring has not been the invasion of women into aU snhl activity. Senorita Juanite £* ° f made her debut as "torera" in " Cabra. (Andalusia) and was loudly chwmi for the valour with which she two bulls allotted to her In fart , was the crowd that sho wi t a fe J ear .and the tail from" eaXTnjLdJ!f cutting off of these appendages and ;har award to the fighter by the president fight being considered as the Highest hon our which can be paid. Women b]. fighters were not uncommon in the X until about twenty years ago, when the hib tions eS P lblted absolute 'y such «

SHIP'S BOY'S ADVENTURES. This ia the remarkable diary 0 f an eighteen-year-old apprentice of the Blue 1 unnel liner Dolms, who arrived at Liverpool on board the ship: "Washed overboard froin the liner near Singapore into shark-infested sea; carried awav bv current and swimming about for several hours in darkness; landed on desert island devoid of life; plunged again into sharkinfested sea towards another island, and on way picked up by Chinese dhow; persuaded rescuers to chase Dolius; lat*r taken on board Dolius just in time to stop captain of the vessel sending out message of my death." The boy is James Millor formerly of the Mersey Training Ship Coiiway, who lives at Ashbourne, Derbyshire.

OFFICIAL MATCHMAKING. Help for Cupid by taking on the task of official matchmaker is being arranged by the municipality of Tokyo, Japan According to the plan, 1800 applications of lovelorn men and maidens caa be dealt with in a year, and it is thought that from these 300 marriages, liappy "or at least reasonably so" will result. But the municipality is not going to guarantee satisfaction. Xor will it undertake to patch up quarrels or compensate the disillusioned. The applicant will he required _to furnish adequate personal information and to state) what kind of a husband or wife is required. The bureau will then investigate the 'applicant's qualifications and if he or she appears to be fitted for marriage, an introduction to possible partners will follow.

FIRST MEETING AT ALTAR. A wedding on a scale practically unknown in Central Europe has just taken place in the Transearpathian town of Mukatclievo. The fathers of the bride and bridegroom, whose ages are now seventeen and eighteen, are famous and wealthy rabbis who decided eleven years ago that their children should become engaged. After that, according to orthodox Jewish custom, they were not allowed to see each other till the wedding took place. The bride has been guarded and kept out of v, K , ky her fatheir 'as zealously as any Moslem girl, and great precautions have been' - taken to prevent the bridegroom's seeing even her photograph, The wedding, for which elaborate preparations had been ' going on for many months, was attended by guests from all over Central Europe, and the presents are valued at some thousands of pounds.