NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 307, 28 December 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

LIPS ACROSS THE FRONTIER. When John Bissucci wants to kiss bis wife and two daughters he has to lean across an international frontier to do so. He is separated from his family, who are in the United States, by the immigration laws. A minor irregularity m Ins papers prevents him, for the time being, from leaving Canada. Every day Mrs. Bissucci and her daughters walk to the middle of the international bridge at Niagara Falls and spend some while conversing with the isolated man. ' BYRON'S INSPIRATION. The famous temple of Niki (Victory), on the Acropolis,'where the poet Byron received inspiration for his opening lines in the third canto of "The Corsair, is being taken down and rebuilt. The stones are being removed one by one, and numbered so that after the foundations have been carefully examined and the necessary repairs executed, the temple can be restored in its original beauty. The cracks which have appeared in the foundations as the result of age and weather have long caused anxiety to the authorities for the safety of the whole temple. Liquid cement will be used to strengthen the base and arrest further decay. WORLD'S RICHEST MAN. The King and Queen's Silver Jubilee Fund collected in India for Indian charities is being taken as a model for a fund now being raised in Hyderabad to honour the silver jubilee of one of the greatest of the Indian Princes—the Nizam of Hyderabad, generally regarded as the richest man in the world. More than £200,000 is expected to be collected. Plans for spending the money include the construction of a tuberculosis- sanatorium, four workhouses, three "orphanages, three child welfare centres, a model village for rural reconstruction work, an ophthalmic hospital and the endowment of educational scholarships. No one knows the Nizam of Hyderabad's exact wealth, but it is believed that he has stored away in the vaults of his palace at least £50,000,000 in gold. In addition his collection of precious stones includes some of the finest diamonds and rubies in the world. His revenue from his personal estates totals £1,000,000 a year. He celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession in December.

LOST HIS WIFE. Chicago police announced that Mrs. Bruce Bacon could huve her husband by calling at the, police staton and identifying him. He was in the police station because he could not remember his wife's first name nor her father's last one, and lost them both. Homeless, he sought shelter in the police station and the assistance of the police in finding his wife. Mr. Bacon married his wife three weeks previously after a lightning courtship in Charlevoix, Michigan, where he lives. He came to Chicago to visit his father-in-law, and to look for a job. After being out all day looking for a job, Mr. Bacon found that he had forgotten the names of his wife and his father-in-law and could not find the way back to where they lived. FIT-TO-WED CERTIFICATE CONDEMNED. Selective marriage—putting those wishing to marry into one of four medical categories and giving certificates — was condemned by Lord Dawson of Penn, Royal College of Physicians president and also the King's doctor. He told Oxford Luncheon Club: "There are certain people, to-day, dreamers, who say we should bring about selective marriage. It would not only be impossible but highly undesirable. Civilisation is based on choice in mating and any attempt at selective marriage would kill or inhibit the finer qualities we wish to preserve." The four certificates advocated by the selective marriage school are: (1) Fit to marry and have children; (2) fit to marry but not to have children; (3) there should be a delay; (4) must not marry. APPEAL TO THIEF. "Lady Portarlington earnestly pleads for the return of her single stone diamond ring, on the grounds of its sentimental value and historical interest to the nation. Telephone number London Wall 2934, '-j: write in confidence to Box Z.Q.871, c/o Deacon's, 5, St. Mary Axe, E.C.3." This newspaper advertisement was a sequel to the £4000 robbery at the house of the earl and countess in Chesham Place, S.W. "The ring," said the countess in an interview, "belonged to Louis XV. of France. It was used by King's Messengers as a sort of diplomatic passport. It came into the possession of George IV., who gave it to Mrs. Fitzherbert, who gave it to her adopted daughter, Miss Seymour. It was ohrough her that the ring has been passed down in our family. This is the first time it has been out of our possession. It was never off my finger except at night and I miss it tremendously. It was insured for £750. It consisted of a pale yellow Brazilian diamond the size of a thumbnail, set deeply in gold. There was a shank of rose diamonds. Once the ring was hinged at the bactk so that it could be opened and clamped on the finger, ft is still possible to see the hinge." During the night of the theft Lady Portarlington was awakened by a sound in her bedroom. She received no answer when she asked who was there and sprang out of b=d towards a man who was in the room. But he escaped.

150 MILLION YEARS OLD. Skeletons of tortoises and nt™ J (flying lizards) estimated to ?sß&g* years old have been found by M pin, a Soviet geographer, whiV oi!P? a " on behalf of the Academy^Sg*!** the U.S.S.R. He has made &fe^ o{ in the Kara-Tan Mountai s, n fc? CS Russian Turkestan. In the earlv n ! an ' the Jurassic period (150,000,000 yj r * a °l a sea with bays and lagoons e this region. It abounded with Shi'? perished in great masses when frmJIS • the lagoons. M. Vedenyapin J&& m ered one of these fish cenieteri£ sTT he has found well-present remains of,the same period and parts"!? skeletons or Jurassic period pterodactyls FALLING 1000 FEET. To study the sensations of a falling man Captain Harry U. Armstrong, a aK ?' the United States Army, jumped f to m' n aeroplane and fell 1000 ft his parachute.. He describes what it W? like in the journal of the Ameri Medical Association: "Throughout the free fall all conscious mental process?seemed normal, and as soon as the ami plane was cleared fear and excitement disappeared. Consciousness was un clouded. While the eyes were closed all sense of motion was lost. With the eves open there was a tumbling motion of tin. body. At an altitude of 1900 ft the ground was sighted and it was then noticed for the first time that there was a definite sensation of falling." SNAKE'S "MATERNAL AFFECTION." A snake is being worshipped at Senearang village, in Johore, Malaya, because the villagers believe it is displaying "maternal affection" for one of their children. It was discovered on the child's cot one morning. Although taken awav it returned three days later. Then the villagers decided the snake must be sacred so they offered alms to the child's father as a sign that they recognised the honour being paid to him by the snake. At this the police intervened and took the snake to Batu Pahat, a town some miles away. There it was found to be non-poisonous and was set free. Two nights later the snake was back in the baby's cot. It had travelled back, through miles of jungle to the object of its odd affection.

SWEEPSTAKE FORTUNE. Once an apprentice in a printing works, Mr. K. J. Duggan, whose death occurred in Dublin last month, left a fortune n the neighbourhood of £650,000, He ira. one of the founders of the Hospitals W organisers of the Irish sweepstakes, HWB which he secured during the past five years a total of almost £300,000. He was » director of nine Irish industrial concerns, in which he had invested £130,000, asj wed as being one of the most influential bookmakers in Ireland. From his bookrnaMU business alone he had an annual income in the neighbourhood of £11,000 a year. He was, however, a lavish eP 6O ' 1 "'/!; on one occasion recently he lost £l*,W on one race. In 1916 he lost a £10,000 <*' on one race to a backer and won a re P u "* lion throughout Ireland by paying „°J« a cheque on the spot. Before the legalwni, of sweepstakes in Ireland Mr. Dufflj» asked the authorities of Mater Hospital. Dublin, to allow him to organise a sweepstake for their benefit, and was «■ conndent of its success that -.he paid £V>,m to the hospital before the sweep was organised. It was successful and he mane a very handsome profit.