NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

FATHER SEES SON KILLED. A father saw his son killed by a fall of roof at Fricklcy colliery, South.Yorkshire, and was unable to help. George Jel fcrtson (30), of Wood Lea, bouth Elmsal , was working with four other men including his father. Tom Jefferson, of Ivy lerrace, South Elmsall, when a roof fa I pinned him and Thomas I'retwell, ot Cailton Road. South Elmsall. Jefferson was killed, and Fretwell and another man, Timothy Connor, of Cambridge Street, 1 Moortliorpe, were injured. OVERSLEPT ON WEDDING MORN. The bride, Miss Appleton, and her bridesmaids turned up. Ihe cl lo £®'™ a turned up, and all waited in ?ckenliam (Middlesex) Church for the bridegroom. Prompt at 8.30 all were ready. Ihc policeman bridegroom was not there at BAo, nor at 9, and at 0.30 there were anxious rushings to and fro and worried looks I\C. Harden dashed up in a taxi at J.4U with a very human, very simple excuse he had overslept because Tiis alarm clock had overslept, and only when the taxi arrived at his home was he roused to his duty. SEVEN-LEAFED CLOVER. Everyone at some time lias searched for "lucky" four-leafed clovers. Newest among the botanical discoveries m the United States is another species of clover, not with four but seven leaflets. Mr. O. V Morton, botanist of the Smithsonian Institution, reports the discovery but makes no mention of the relative merits of foiir and seven-leafed clovers as lucky fetishes. The new variety is the giant of the ciovei family. It grows on a stem 2ft high with the seven leaves at the end of an Bin stem. Instead of nearly round leaves as in the common variety, the new species has Jong and narrow finger-like leaves. Lxnerts oi Smithsonian Institution believe that this clover may be one of the last conspicuous new plants to be discovered in America.

NEEDLE IN BABY'S HEART. What a doctor said was the most extraordinary case he had icver. known was described at an inquest on, ten-months-old Sidney Cooinbs-Goodfellow," of Owlsmoor, Sandhurst. The mother said the baby was crawling on the floor when it suddenly screamed and would not be pacified. She could find nothing wrong, but the child died next morning. A doctor said that the child had a needle in its heart. It must have picked up the needle in its olcthing while crawling and a fall forced the needle through its chest. Returning a verdict of misadventure, the coroner said the mother was blameless.

FIGHT TO THE DEATH. A battle to the death between a native mountaineer and a jaguar was revealed with the finding of the torn body of the man beside a highway in the State of Sinaloa, not far from Mazatlan. A few yards away lay the carcase of tho "tiger," as these animals are known among the Mexicans. From the evidences of the battle which were found, the jaguar apparently leaped from a roadside tree upon the shoulders of the man, who had been carrying a machete. With this he defended himself, hacking the jaguar to death with the broad blade, but not before he himself had been mortally wounded by the claws and teeth of the animal. THE BIGGEST CLOCK. The citizens of Messina boast of having the biggest town clerk in the world. It has now been completed and will start going as from August 15, a Festival of the Virgin. The clock, they claim,'is larger than Big Ben. Its mechanical figures, over life size, include a lion that roars at midday, a cock that crows at dawn, two Sicilian heroes who beat the quarters, lunar signs, a representation of the planetary system, a perpetual calendar, symbolical figures for spring, summer, autumn and winter, Biblical scenes and mythological figures for the days of the Week. Each quarter of an hour a boy, followed by a youth, a warrior, and an old man, appear on a platform built out from the clock tower, go round and disappear. At mid-day, when the lion lias finished roaring, the platform is filled with a group consisting of tho Virgin, an angel, St. Paul, and four attendants. On another platform another scene is enacted and varies with the time of year. CHANGING DIAMONDS TO GREEN. The discovery that diamonds can be made green by exposure to radium, coupled with the fact that green diamonds have a special value as fancy stones, is causing some concern in Hatton Garden, and it is understood that efforts aro being made to find a reliable method of distinguishing between stones ot" natural and artificial green. While a blue-white diamond will always be at least as valuable as a green diamond, the value of a yellowish diamond may be doubled by radium treatment. Large numbers of yellowish diamonds arc available, and while such treatment would be uneconomic if the radium had to be purchased for the purpose, there is reason to believe that a number of odd stones are being treated in. this way. Hospitals and research laboratories are almost the only places where radium in sufficient quantities can be obtained, and it is suggested in Hatton Garden that unofficial use may have been made of oue or other of these sources of supply. The suggested explanation of the effect of radium on a diamond is connected with the stone's chemical nature. A diamond is carbon in a very special form, and it is thought that vadium changes some of the particles in tho stone into graphite. Very thin films of graphit' may appear green, and thus the mei iinorphrsis of part of a diamond into worthless graphite may 'rcreasc its value.

MAN'S TRAGIC THEFT. Out of work for two years, reduced to his last 3d, and with his wife and children almost starving at home, Edward Hammond, 42, of Chichester Terrace, Ki burn, was bound over on a charge of stealing a woman's handbag, while she was shopping. When caught lie said: lam almost starving and so arc my wife and children. A detective said that Hammond had searched for work. His only resources were a sum of 3d. His unemployment benefit had run out, his poor law relief was stopped and he had a boy in hospital. DIVORCES SAME HUSBAND TWICE. For the second time Mrs. Madeline Yvonne Lilias Powell, of Green Island, Antrim, has found happiness impossible with the man she divorced and re-married —and for the second time there has been a divorce. Lord Merrivale granted her a decree nisi and costs against Henry W. M. Powell. After the first marriage was dissolved in 1028, the parties met in England and were married again at the Jieltast Register Office in April, 1930. Two years afterwards, Mrs. Powell alleged her husband formed an association with a girl whom she employed as nursery governess. CRADLE IN THE CLOUDS. Infant twins, only six weeks old, of Lieut.-Commander the Hon. A. J. Morton Stuart, brother and heir of Lord Moray, have started to become air-minded early. Accompanied by their father, Mrs. Stuart and their nurse, they flew from Johannesburg, where they were, born, to their father's ranch in Becliuanaland. A cradle was inserted in the cabin of the machine and the twins slept for the greater part of the two-hour journey. When they did occasionally wake, they cried lusti y. Tliey appeared none the worse /°r the trip, perhaps because aviation is in their blood. Their uncle, Lord Moray, served with the Royal Air Force and during the war won the Military Cross for 'bringing down a Fokker.

BANNOCKBURN DAY PROBLEM. For the first time in centuries Bannockburn Day was celebrated at St. Andrews, Fife, by tho flying of the Scottish flag from the town hall buildings. A brand new standard was purchased for the occasion. The ceremony was arranged with all due attention to the demands of patriotism. There was only one 6nag: the town officer is a member of the Auld Enemy with a good English name, Jack Green. Ferfervid Scots were uneasy in their minds ns to tho propriety of having Jack as the high priest of the ceremony. What was to be done? Oid Mother Nature took a hand. The rain poured in torrents. The flag pole is situated in a precarious part of the roof, so there was nothing elise for it but to employ a skilled roof climber. The nationalists sighed with relief w,hen the flag was broken by a pukka Scottish slater. The lion rampant flag was hoisted on the anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn by Oban Town Council on the flagstaff on the summit of the 250 ft Pulpit Ilill, which rises above the town, despite the declaration of the Lyon King-of-Arms that the flying of the flag is illegal. A penalty of £8 10/ for flying it can be imposed.