NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 11, 13 January 1934, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

FOUND IN A CASTLE

MAINTAINING DISCIPLINE. : Bulgaria's Minister of Education has dismissed all women employees of his department, giving "necessity for maintaining strict discipline" as his reason.

SOLAR KITCHEN. The sun's heat was used at Samarkand to cook borsch, the Russian national eoup, on a "solar kitchen" perfected by the Central Asian Helio-Technical Institute. The soup took two hours and a porridge fifty minutes. The scientists claim the apparatus could be adopted to household use.

WEATHER FORECAST COMEDY. An extraordinary reason is stated to have brought about the stoppage of the weather forecast of the meteorological station in Warsaw. It is said that just before he set out on a journey one of the Ministers consulted the ofiicial weather forecast, and read that the "sun will shine all day, and the temperature will be warm." He went and got wet. This so anno3 r ed the authorities that the forecasts were stopped altogether. MOST AIR-MINDED NATION. An American statistician has prepared figures to show the following daily averages of persons who fly on the air lines: United States, 1382; Germany, 270; British Empire, 139; Italy, 118; France, 101; Russia, 77; and Japan, 22. The average mail poundage flown daily is: United States, 21,040; Russia, 2946; Germany, 2072; British Empire, 1824; France, 932; Italy, 281; and Japan, 239.

More than two hundred statues and statuettes by Jean Pierre Dantan, the French sculptor, have been found in an Austrian castle. Thay disappeared from Paris, but how they came to Austria has not yet been discovered. It is stated that there are busts of Paganini, Verdi, Franz Liszt at the piano, Balzac, Victor Hugo, Rossini, Spontini, Bellini, and Rothschild, who is shown sitting on a heap of gold.

RESCUE HUTS WiTH RADIO. A new rescue hut has just been opened ou the HoclialmsaUel, near the famous Kreuzeck mountain, Garmiseh-Parten-kirchen. It is installed with wireless as well as the usual litters, ropes and first-aid material. Three further huts of the same type arc to be opened shortly. Separated at a distance of one day's march from one another, the huts are being erected owing to the great increase in the popularity of this district for mountaineering. DENTISTS' PARADISE. If the sound of a dentist's drill gives one a slightly weak sensation, imagine 130 of them going at once. This is the number of dental chairs, complete with every modern piece of equipment, that line the hall at the University of Pennsylvania, where students of dentistry learn their profession. Since the young dentists have already acquired a high degree of skill before they are allowed to treat cases, volunteer patients are not hard to fiud.

FLOWERS—BY REQUEST. Wembley Council are economising. In future they are not going to stock local parks with flowers. They are asking the public to do it instead. This notice has been issued by the council: "In the interests of the ratepayers, the council has been exercising great economy. The result has been restricted expenditure on plants and flowers for parks and open spaces, and consequently the flower beds are not so well stocked as the council and residents -would wish. Knowing that at this time of year there are usually many surplus plants which are frequently destroyed, ratepayers who have surplus plants are inyited to communicate with the council." A large number of residents have already responded to the appeal, and a man has been engaged to collect the plants. This move is the latest of a series of economy measures-taken by the council. MAN WHO DRANK FOR HIS CITY. The 88th birthday of Colonel Nusch recalls the feat of his ancestor, Burgomaster Nusch, of Bothenburg, on the Tauber, who drank a gallon of wine at a draught to save his city from pillage. In J631 Kothcnburg was besieged unci taken by Tilly's troops after a particularly stubborn resistance. Tilly then called the burgomasters to him and resolved to pillage their city, but Nusch. noticing that a huge beaker of wine, holding nearly a gallon, could not be emptied by Tilly and his captains, laughed at thorn. Tilly then sprang up, and said that if Nusch could empty it at a draught he would not pillage the city cr hang him and the other burgomasters. Niisch took up the beaker, emptied it, and collapsed. His amazing feat is commemorated at Eothenburg annually by a play, "The Master Drink of Eothenburg." BULLET'S "FINGERPRINTS." A suggestion of importance to the science of crime detection was advanced at the meeting of the American Prison Association when Dr. Wilbur B. Eaytou declared that every gun and revolver should be fired before its sale, so that the ballistic "fingerprints" of the bullet could be recorded, lie suggested Federal legislation making the firing mandatory. In an increasingly greater number of criminal cases proof of guilt is being established by showing that the bullet which caused death has the same markings eis one fired by a gun in possession of the suspect. The rifling in the barrel and incidental scratches produce markings which have been found to be characteristic of that particular weapon and no other. With a set of bullet fingerprints already in the possession of the police departments of the country the identification and tracing of gun ownership would be greatly speeded. The practice- is common in France to-day.

NEW HOFFMAN OPERA. "Aurora," a romantic opera in three acts by E. T. A. Hoffman, which had been lost for decades, has been discovered' in tho State archives of Wurzburg. The opera was written 125 years ago, when Hoffman was conductor at the Bamberg Municipal Theatre.

WILL WITH A PROVISO. Under the will of Mr. Archibald E. E. Trim, Fairlands, Lodo Lane, Solihull, Warwick, general manyger of Lewis, Limited, of Birmingham, drapers, the estate of £40,841 is left upon trust for his wile during her widowhood. If she remarries she is to receive the income from half.

A NEW MOTOR SLEIGH. A huge motor sleigh is being built at Moscow for use in forthcoming llussiau Arctic expeditions. It will travel under its own power in the deep snows of Siberia, and can be converted into a car for running on ordinary roads within a few minutes. The sleigh has cabin accommodation for four people, and will carry half a ton of luggage.

CROWS TAKE GOLF BALLS. For the past two yeare a poultry farm had been carried on near the Bagdad golf course, but crows stole so many eggs that the farmer gave up his business. Thereupon the crows turned their attention to golf balls, and have carried off fifty in one week. Greenkeepers armed with shotguns are to be employed to keep them off the course.

£10.000 FOR FAITHFUL SERVICES. A bequest, of £10,000 and certain furniture has been made to Miss Dora Holline, Pinewood, Budleigh Salterton,. The donor was Mr. James Courtenay, of that address, who died at the age of 79, leaving £28.22 G. The gift was in recognition of Miss Hollins' "faithful services to myself and my cousin in connection with our business during many years."

i- . —"Tatlcr." PYJAMAS "RECOGNISED." The existence of pyjamas has been officially recognised by the French Academy. In the new volume of the academy's dictionary, they are defined as "A costume made of a very light material, consisting of a loose-fitting coat and very wide trousers which men and women wear, chiefly as -clothing for the night or for wear within the house."

OBJECTION TO "LAZYBONES^ , The German Government has objected to the popular American dance-song "Lazybones" on the ground that, as it sentimentalises, and therefore encourages idleness, it does not conform to the national ideals. The Berlin publishers of the song have been told that its publication and circulation are discouraged by the Government. THE PRICE OF BLOOD. "One price for all" is the goal of professional blood donors at Memphis, suffering from a price-cutting war. "I have no interest in what price bood sellers receive," explained 11. E. Hahey, general secretary at the University of Tennessee, the 'Instigator of the movement, "but I would like to see a standard price set." The price for one pint, he said, formerly was fifty dollars, but, in the last few weeks, some have reduced the price to twenty-five dollars. BLIND COW'S RECORD. Jessie, a Shorthorn cow, of Gilmoro, in New South Wales, has made the best of her 30 years of life in spite of the handicap of being born blind. She has a wonderful sense of hearing and smelling, and is able to find all the gateways to her homo paddock. Sometimes cattle witli eyes to see fall into creeks or waterholes, but so carefully does Jessie feel and smell her way about that she has never had an accident. She has brought wealth to her owneiis, for she has had 24 calves, every one being of outstanding quality.