LONDON LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 27, 1 February 1934, Page 23

LONDON LETTER.

PRINCE'S HOLIDAY.

DIVORCE COURT CHANGE

CENTRAL LONDON AIR PORT.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, December 26.

The Frince of Wales is considering a visit to the Bahamas at the end of January. It is some long time now since be has been able to enjoy a purely holiday tour. His last was a trip to Africa, which, it will be remembered, was interrupted by the serious illness of the King, to whose bedside his son returned after a remarkably speedy journey home. If his present plans materialise, the Prince will have as fellow visitors to the island Princess Alice and Lord Athlone, who arc leaving England about the middle of next month and expect to return early in April. But there is no news yet of the length of the Prince's projected holiday. No doubt the Governor of the Bahamas, Captain Bedo E. H. Clifl'ord, hopes it will be long enough to show his Royal guest all the beauties f this West Indian paradise, which has not been visited by Royalty since the King went as' a naval officer in the Bacchante in 1881. LAW REFORM. Close or the heels of Mr. Holford Knight's bill for reform of the divorce laws comes a recommendation from a very important committee, set up by the Lord Chancellor, to consider reform of the judicial system generally. Amongst the proposals is one to abolish the Divorce Court altogether and to hear all divorce proceedings in the King's Bench division. This would make an end of that surprising and special association of probate and Admiralty with divorce, which, at present, must be the puzzle of laymen and foreigners. The recommendations of the committee, which includes judges and leading lawyers under the chairmanship of the Master of the Rolls, include a limitation in the number of appeals; restriction on all appeals from the Court of Appeal to the House of Lords and total abolition of the Divisional Court. Drastic alterations are proposed as to Assizes. Amongst them is the abolition of Assizes at Appleby, Huntingdon and Oakham, the grouping of certain Assize towns for civil work and matrimonial causes and the necessity for entering cases to be tried at Assizes at least a month before the Assize is held. LATER MARRIAGES. Another bill affecting marriage has been introduced by Mr. C. E. R. Brocklebank, the member for the Fairfield Division of Liverpool. There is nothing fundamental about the change he proposes, yet its author believes that it may prove (of widespread utility. It is neither more nor less than to extend the hours in which marriage ceremonies may be performed,, which at present are limited to those between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Mr. Brocklebank's proposal is to extend the legal time to 6 p.m., and so suit the convenience of a large numbor of men and women who cannot, without losing time, get away from their work before 3 o'clock in the afternoon. According to the honourable member, there are large numbers of persons of soverely limited means who are penalised by the existing restriction. For them getting married means losing a whole day's work unless the parties return to their work in the afternoon, straight from the ehurch or registrar's And that, Mr. Brocklebank believes, is an unthinkable expediency. All the same, one wonders if there are many persons, even the poorest, ""ho would not manage to take a whole day oil to be married. COVERING UP THE THAMES. The Court of Common Council, meeting in the Guildhall, has discussed a rather startling proposal on the initiation of Mr. F. A. Horner. This was nothing less than the construction of an air port over the Thames. Mr. Horner pointed out that the river is about 600 ft wide between Southwark and Blackfriars Bridges, and the span there seemed to be the most suitable for the purpose. It was urged that such an erection would be only a matter of taking thought for the morrow; that very soon a city or town without a convenient air port or landing stage would be as inconvenient and incomplete as the city or town without a railway station. Probably this is true, but nevertheless One docs not take easily to the idea of a long stretch of the Thames in the middle of London, covered up and turned into a watery tunnel. The present journey from Croydon is an undoubted obstacle to air travel, although the arrangements for collecting and conveying passengers and goods are efficient and prompt. The idea of attempting to encroach on Hyde Park, for example, is only to bo stated to be rejected. The dilemma seems to be a thorough one. All that need be noted here is that- Mr. Horner's proposal to roof in the river was received with applause.

A BIBLE TROM RUSSIA. £.100,000 for a manuscript is a startlingly huge price, and yet it has been described by Sir Frederic Kenyon, exdirector and principal librarian of the British Museum, as being, in the circumstances, nothing lobs than a "scoop." The manuscript in question is that of a fourth century Bible, and the price is to be paid to the Russian Government in order to place the precious pages among the treasures of the British Museum. Half the price has been guaranteed by the British Government, provided the other half is raised by private subscription. The story of the manuscript reads like a first-class romance. In 1844 ft Germnn scholar, Friedrieh Konstantift von Tlschendorff, vieited Mount Sinai, and, in the monastery of St. Catherine, found 43 pages of very old Greek manuscript lying in a basket. He took these pages back to Leipzig, published in facsimile and dedicated them to the King of Saxony. Then, in 1853 and 1859, von Tischendorff went again and found over onethird of the Bible, including the whole of the New Testament, in manuscript, which had been written in the second part of the fourth century. At hie persuasion the monks presented thie Manuscript to the Czar, and so the Russian Government is now in a position to offer it for sale at a record price. It is an additional matter for congratulation that the Soviet Ministry has promised to spend the whole of the £100,000 on British manufactured goods.