NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1934, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

THE DANCING GIRL. There is a girl in Tokyo who cannot stop dancing. She is Miss Kiku Shmdo, a<'cd 19. who was recently taugnt the famous Japanese (lance, the Sakura-ondo, or "cherry blossom dance," and became so entranced by the steps that now she uses it -as-her normal means ot locomotion —instead of walking. Her parents have just reported to the police that she has disappeared. She danced out of the house, taking with her all her possessions. 1 reviously, said her father, she had been seen dancing in cafes and had to be taken home by force. Only exhaustion ever stops her dancing—and she begins again as soon as she has recovered. MUNICIPAL MARRIAGE MART. Tokyo's municipal marriage mart has just celebrated its first anniversary. in the past year 1098 men and women ■ have come to the special oflice opened at the Town Hall to seek life partners. Among them was a 68-year-old widower and a 58-year-old widow. Women applicants greatly outnumbered the men. The chief qualification which most of the women sought in a would-be husband was a fixed and substantial inconie. Education, appearance and behaviour were secondary considerations. On the other hand, the men demand of their prospective mates good looks, smart appearance and modern ideas. Only 33 marriages were arranged by the office during the year. FEEDING A PET. Instructions for feeding a 10ft crocodile which he has presented to the Taronga Park Zoo are contained in a' letter from Mr. St. John Robinson to an official there. They are: "With a long stick touch him behind the neck and he will open his jaws. You can throw a half-inch rope over his jaw and get the rope on his upper jaw, then tighten and pull him toward you. If he is not facing you, throw the meat into his mouth, and, with the blunt end of the stick, push it down his gullet and you will see him swallow. You will find that when you take the strain on the rope he will roll, but if you slacken the rope he will remain quiet. I am sure you will manage him and you will have no trouble—after the first attempt." Any kind of flesh, he adds, will be acceptable— "from a billy goat to an elephant."

HIS WIFE'S "WISHES." Fearful that his wife might be granted "three wishes," as was the innkeeper's wife of folk-love fame, John Kulcznski sought a divorce at Detroit. According to Kulcznski'a statement, several months ago his wife had said:—"l wish you'd go out and have an accident." Soon afterward he was run down and lost three toes and part of his right foot. A few months ago, Kulcznski declared, his wife said she wished he'd lose his other foot. He did— in another traffic accident. "I want to get away from that woman," Kulcznski explained, "before she wishes that I'd go out and get killed." MAN AND WIFE TO BECOME MONK AND NUN. Mr. and Mrs.' Lueien Salanave, of Oakland, California, who have embraced the Buddhist religion are about to renounce the world—the one to become a monk nndthe other a nun. Having realised about £15,000 by the sale of property in America they are on their way to Chittagong, in Bengal, to found a nunnery, which Mrs. Salanave will enter. When the nunnery is built her husband proposes to enter the .Buddhist priesthood. Chinese Buddhists in Malaya gave the couple an enthusiastic reception on their arrival in Singapore. They are visiting Siam and Burma before going to India to carry out their plan. PRESS BUTTON "AYE." Sweden will probably soon have a "robot" Parliament. It is announced that a committee of the liiksdag has recommended the carrying out of a proposal to install electric equipment for automatic voting in both chambers. Members will be able to vote without leaving their seats, simply liy pressing a button. To vote for the motion, a member will press a button marked "Aye," and to vote against lie will press a button marked "No." If he does not wish to vote he will press both buttons. The installation is so arranged that it counts the votes for and against, and the abstentions. It also counts the number of absentees by registering the number of buttons not pressed. AN EXCITING JOB. Mi". .T. Holmes, resident engineer at the Bast African Power and Lighting Company's new Tana River station. 00 miles from Nairobi, has one of the most exciting jobs in East Africa. Although completely isolated from civilisation, he is never lor.cly—ho is too busy keeping wild animals at bay. Two lionesses and their cubs broke into the station and frightened the switchboard attendants. Mr. Holmes drove them out before (hey could do any damage. Hippopotami frequently come up from the .river and romp in the garden outside the station. Baboons swarm all over the building—and a constant watch has to be kept to stop them playing havoc with the machinery. Hundreds of storks jget entangled in the overhead wires and are killed, often causing short circuits. The other day a crocodile caused a hitch ill the work of the station by swimming into the canal which feeds the turbines. SEA SERPENT MYSTERY SOLVED. The people who believe in sea serpents are jubilant in Nova Scotia. They have received the (support of an eminent scientist and fishery authority, Professor J. A. Gowanlooh, former professor of biology at Dalhousic University. The professor cites an old sailor from a Nova Scotinn port who related how a great sen serpent—with a head like a horse on a five-foot neck—came over the side of his schooner. It was, he said, shot by tha moro spirited members of the terrified crew and slithered slowly back into the sea. "As a matter of fact," says the professor, "that description of the sea serpent closely tallies with the descriptions of what, is in many ways the most remarkable of all known fish: the o;\r fish or king of the herrings, the scientific name of which is Kegalescus Glosue. This astonishing beast has been captured at widely separated points, from Now Zealand to the most northerly Scandinavian waters. One specimen which went ashore at Bermuda was 20 feet long, while another 25 feet long has been recorded. In spite of its great length, the king of the hearings is only a foot high and is so compressed laterally that ;(s thickness is loss than four inches. The grov*p to which Regaleseus, Glesnc belongs are normally denizens of the ecenn depths, but occasionally they me cast to the surface by some disturbance." i

A PROPHECY FULFILLED. The Rev. Timothy Edwards, dean of Michigan Methodist preachers, who was born in England and went to America at the end of the Civil War and reorganised a Methodist Church circuit at lonia Michigan, has just celebrated hie 100t i birthday by preaching a sermon and fulfilling a prophecy. Ten years ago he stood in the pulpit of Washington Methodist Church and said: "I will not speak in ' Mis church again until I am 100 years old. He did not. The church was filled for the- birthday sermon, many people being turned away for lack of room. ? INSTEAD OF r For printing a question mark instead of an exclamation sign a compositor of Lssen has been placed under arrest. The error occurred in the account given by the Roman Catholic "Essener Volkszeitirng or the congratulations sent by President Hindenburg to Herr Hitler on the occasion of the latter's birthday. The sentence in which the wish was expressed that the Chancellor would be granted -'many years of hallowed labour and personal welfare was concluded with a question mark instead of the exclamation mark which German custom requires. Local Nazi headquarters at once assumed that an insult was intended, and took the compositor responsible into "protective custody." MIDNIGHT STRUGGLE FOR "LUCK." Thousands of naked men fotight for emblems of good luck during the age-old "nude" festival at the Temple of Kwannon, at Saidaiji, Japan. It was-full moon, and 50,000 pilgrims were assembled. Drums throbbed at midnight. Thousands of nude men rushed into the main body of the temple and shouted themselves hoarse for two hours. Each begged the goddess Kwannon to grant him strength in the coming struggle. At 2 a.m. the drums throbbed again. All lights went out, and the chief priest flung two little wands —eymbols of good luck—into the thick of the crowd. For an hour, in pitch darkness, the thousands of naked pilgrims struggled. Then triumphant shouts told the crowd that two men had gained the coveted tokens. The festival was at an end.

TWICE RUN OVER AND UNHURT. The six-year-old daughter of a labourer at Rumburg, Czecho-Slovakia, stumbled when crossing thft s.|reet. A large lorry ran over her. A priv.a to car following it could not stop in time and also ran over the child. Then she "was picked up from the roadway—unhurt. MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S ORCHARD. Mr. Lloyd George is. one of the latest converts to the system of protecting orchards from frost by means of oil stoves. He was so impressed by the possibilities- of the system that he ordered 60 stoves to be sent to his estate at Churt. They were installed in the plum orchard, and.w-ere put to tue test the same night when a sudden ground frost occurred. The stoves were lit, and when the trees were examined next day no apparent effects of the frost were to be found. The frosts of April and Slay are frequently fatal for fruit trees, and Mr. Lloyd George has put a night watchman in charge of the orchards to take periodic readings of the ground temperature. At the first, sign of frost the stoves will be lit. Mr, A. G. Harrington, a Bedfordshire fruit grower, is the pioneer of the system of -heating orchards in Britain. He started to experiment with oil stoves after the value of liis apple crop was reduced ' from £1000 to £25 in one night as a result of frost. ALLEGED TORTURE WITH CACTUS. Extraordinary.allegations of cruelty to a servant were made at the trial at the Dhulia Sessions Court of a member of the Bombay Legislative Council named Xamdcorao and 10 other men. They were accused of culpable homicide in connection with the death of a man who had been in the service of Xanideorao. The former servant was suspected of theft. It was alleged that, in attempts to extort a confession, he was made to lie upon cactua plants, walked upon, and beaten at various * times in the day and night for four days. He died a. few days later. The widow stated that Namdeorao took her husband awny on various occasions, that the man was beaten in an old sugar mill, and that when he returned home she and his child picked thorns from his body. Once he arrived home nearly senseless, and eventually he was brought home dead. The defence was a categorical denial of the allegations. It was asserted that the evidence had been manufactured for election purposes. Judgment was reserved.