NEWS FROM ALL QUARTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 266, 9 November 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTS

HUMAN JAWBONES AS MASCOTS. A gruesome ceremony has been brought to light at Port Moresby by a Government patrol officer who has returned from the west of Papua. In order to ensure success in a coming raid, a tribe ■of swampdwellers he came upon sacrificed a human being to propitiate the spirits of wind and water. The victim may be either a man or a woman, and is always a member of another tribe, found alone in the swamps. To the accompaniment of dancing, singing and the beating of drums, the victim is killed, and the body cut up "with full ceremony." Some parts of the body are eaten; others are preserved as trophies. The upper part of the skull is retained by the chief and the lower jawbone is the perquisite of his second-in-command. With these trophies slung on cords round the necks of their leaders, the raiders believe they are assured of success. They are making every elfort to evade the commands of the Government that both the raiding and the ceremony must cease, the officer states.

£5 BAFFLES FINANCIER. A memorial to all things "human and animal, animate and inanimate," which have not hitherto been commemorated, has been endowed by an anonymous donor to the British Association. And, to perpetuate the memory of all forgotten things, £5, in notes, was enclosed. Only a Greater Pyramid could do justice to such an all-embracing proposal, and, while the British Association admits that its interests extend from the invisible atom to the stellar outposts, of the. universe, it cannot build a pyramid for £5. Nor, indeed, can it attempt the more modest suggestion of the donor that the memorial should be carved on some rock looking out to the horizon—preferably at Flamborough Head. There was a reference by the donor to one of the association sections by its key letter, which provided the clue that the sender knew something of the association dad the letter, which had a Huddersfield postmark, was written on a torn envelope I no "Memorial Fund" is scarcely sufficient to endow a research scholarship, and the association, with scientific scrupulousness hesitates to put it in the petty cash. So Sir Josiah Stamp, the general treasurer, who, us a director of the Bank of England thinks in terms of hundreds of millions' does not know what to do with £5 in notes.

DOCTOR URGES THE SIMPLE LIFE

Wliilo ,n charge of the medical services at H.M. Naval Base, Singapore, SurgeonCaptain U. H. C. Given, M.V., was struck by the contrast between the healthiness pi the Asiatic labourer and that of the civilised inhabitants of more Western countries. Captain Given came to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with the habits of life encoura R ed I by the processes of civilisation, and with a wealth of statistical analysis lie has presented Ins views in an interesting book,entitled "A oSew Angle on Health." The essential thesis here proposed is that the selfishness of material prosperity and selfaggrandisement leads to the 'conditions under wjliieh the poorer sections of the population have to live. Thence comes a mass of diseases and infections, especially of the respiratory organs. It is certainlv a curious fact that the Asiatic labourers who came under Captain Given's observation were remarkably free ■ from those catarrhal conditions of the nose and throat which constitute one of the major nuisances of modern urban life The authors recipe for good health consists of a sound health heritage, sound bodybuilding, and a healthy environment anil he urges a return to this simple formula us the solution of the problem of how to attain health and happiness.

TELEVISION faEWS CINEMA. A newe cinema, with television as part of ite permanent equipment, is being planned to open in Berlip shortly. The Astor Theatre, Kurfueretendamm, has been chosen for the experiment, and technical experts are now working out the plans, in conjunction with the German Film Chamber. The television apparatus will be mainly used for quickly reproducing news films, which will be transmitted from a central television station. Apart from these transmissions there w.ill be a regular service of news films, similar to those already shown in news reel theatres. LOVED AND LOST. So hastily did Chief Petty-Officer .Tohn W. Chandles, of the United States Navy, marry that he never discovered his wife's last name. He only knew her as Katherine when he slipped the ring on her finger. And while they were celebrating their marriage he lost her for ever. Considerably embarrassed, Mr. Chandles disclosed the story of liis brief married life when he filed a petition at San Diego, California, for the annulment of his marriage, and had to .explain how it was that ho did not know his wife's surname. He met Katherine at a party in New York in 1930, he eaid, while: they were bobbing for apples in the same tub. They went out and got married and returned to the party to • celebrate their wedding. There he lost, her in the crowd, and never saw her again. IN MEMORY OF A CROONER. An unknown woman lias ordered a gigantic candle, "large enough to burn for 1000 years," in memory of the late Mr. Russ Colombo, the popular film "crooner" who was accidentally shot dead in Hollywood a year ago. . Her order has been received by Mr. Antonio Ajello, a New York candlemaker, who has made some of lie fines.t scented candles in the world. He declines to reveal the woman's name, but admits that she is an unmarried woman, living at Beverley Hills, the home of Hollywood's film stars. Another strange order just received by. Mr. Ajello is for a huge candle —to burn 500 years—as a symbol of gratitude to the saints for bringing Mme. Amelita Galli-Curci, the opera singer, safely through her recent operation on the throat. This order also came from a client at Beverley Hills. Both orders were received on the same day.

GERMANY'S LUXURY^ Horses can pour out +1. -\ at the new barracks 1 Berlin, described as L}**& what a soldier's livinT 08 >iS be. In every stall th er 8 e ? Batt < horse has only to trL a causes fresh water to *Y tt fJ trough. The barracks, J& , $ most modern ventilation . h ing, cooking and 6 ari tar V hea % were built in ten moSt^-gJjj WEDDING iJTSiroßto Arrangements were ™j ■ °*l wedding at sea off HartWTr M Swedish couple, Mr S I,( *i) officer of the steamer ll « M. Karbon. A accommodation for eight ° engaged at Greythorp, n e a?T* pool, and at 6 p.m 'the J?'E were beyond the three-miS the ceremony wa s nerfnl.T'-Jp Swedish pastor for* ft # J. he party arranged their when they dieeovered thV tl > not comply with the qualification for a wedd§^gj PRAYERS FOR DYING BAN J In a little church in LondbkTl recently a group o£ wffljw their wives were on their iZj% They were praying f or thi I p,|Swealthy banker, wlo«S*f in a nursing home in fhe C» London. He was Mr. HenrvßrfiSf , old, director of Lloyds Bank # months previously 'he Trinity Church, East IRM and hen made an offer whfcKwY": the ives of scores of will back any one of you J^r^ said. "You find the work-KS : and I will find the money' good as his word. With kW started street stores, opened and stocked street barroffs i Liter Mr. C. H. MartirTa m*J£* ■ church said: "We twice. But some of our peopWoSl' been in a very gad way witho U ?S■ lo these people lie was juat'ffS lo the greater world he ivaaul" an expert on international g^S served as a member of the ComSJ' War Savings, and attended ZJ- "' io"o I,lllance Conference k j^,

GENEVA POLICE ROUND UP WEleven starving cats, 'Vanted" Iji Geneva police, are successfully enS the arm of the law. An elderly ic recluse kept 14 of the animals, but ft , . ing complaints from the neighbours t'she failed to give them proper attaS^; : a policeman was sent to take then ft . and destroy them. The policeman ana, : but found that the task of catdiijßi; fierce and hungry eats was beyoniljjfi| He rang up his headquarters, squad of policemen hurried to " lE '?»|> ance of their colleague. But the feifflEf aspect of these gaunt and savage lajlL made the officers unwilling to execnt!«sv, warrant for their ''arrest,' , and it TCf:g when three escaped from the hoi»Ss|; they were captured. The remain?! *j|,; are still at large.