NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 235, 3 October 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

SINGER'S BOAT VIBRATION CLAIM. Nastia Poliakova, concert singer, filed a suit in the Federal Court ef New York for £20,000 damages against the French Line, owners of tho liner Normandie. She alleges that the vibration of the ship shook loose a stone in her left kidney, which lad to infection and an operation, and the loss of a £50 a week contract. "There was unusually excessive unseaworthy vibration," elie complains, in tho neighbourhood of her stateroom during her crossing a year ago. AVIATION IN EMERGENCY. Aeroplanes were used in two races against death in Scotland recently. James Lockerbie, aged 42, collapsed in the field of his croft on Islay, one of the Hebridean islands. A doctor said an immediate operation was necessary. An aeroplane, sent to the island from Renfrew, flew Lockerbie to Glasgow. He ia recovering. Miss Nellie Martin, sister in a Dumfries nursing home, received a message from the Isle of Skye that her mother was dying. She flew to Renfrew, changed into another 'plane and flew to Skye. Her mother died two hours before her arrival. DEATH FOR FALLING IN LOVE. Because she fell in love with a Christian, Selena Antarin, 17-year-old daughter of a Mohammedan, was stoned to death by her father, a Montenegrin landowner, and her brothers. When the father learned of the girl's love affair with a Christian farmer, he summoned his 12 sons during tho night. They dragged Selena from her bed, took her into the mountain, and there "the family court sentenced the girl to die." A largo black bundle was produced from behind a tree, and when it was unwrapped Selena saw it was her lover's body. Regardless of her cries for mercy, she was chained to the body and thrown into a pit, her father and brothers then casting stones and boulders on her till the pit waa filled in.

MARRIAGE DOWRIES NOT WANTED. The maidens and men of Ceylon are very disturbed. One of the oldest sfocieties on the island—the Kalutara Ma lift Jana Sabha —which boasts a membership of thousands, embracing all classes of the people, has passed a motion iirging the Government to provide facilities for young people to enter into matrimony on the ground that a large number of girls, eager and fit for marriage, were condemned to remain spinsters for want of a dowry. The society is now receiving protest.? from hundreds of enraged young people. They point out that the time has passed when a girl is chosen for marriage by the value of her dowry; stress that dowry hunters are not extinct, and say they are determined to have them "exterminated."

"MY AIR RAID DUGOUT." Sir Malcolm Campbell's Bft-decp bombproof dugout, which he is building in the grounds of his home at Ileadley Grove, near Dorking, is nearly complete. The floor and sides are almost finished and soon the roof and doors will be in position. The structure consists of two conpartments, 6ft Gin high, with sides 2ft thick, while the roof will include a sheet of armour plate, and will have a total thickness of about Bft. There will be comfortable room for 30 people in the dugout, which will be equipped with wireless, self-contained electric light set and provisions. Sir Malcolm said: "When—and if—the next war comes, I hope to be able to do my bit in it, but at the same time there are workmen living on my estate with their wives and children, and' it is only right that some protection should be made for them in case of air attack. Anyone who has the necessary facilities ought to build air raid shelters. It would mean less strain on the shelters which the Government ought to provide for the public. But it is no use my saying that the Government should do something in this direction unless I do something myself."

ITEMS OF INTEREST IN PASSING

SOLVED BY A PIGEON. A pigeon solved a legal problem at South Bank, near Middlesbrough. William Stanhope, of Lower Princess Street, and Charles Zinkewieze, aged 21, of North Street, disputed the ownership of three pigeons. Stanhope alleged that they were stolen from him. The magistrate ordered that the birds' clipped wings be allowed to grow, and that they be released from a neutral loft. The pigeons were released. One flew to Stanhope's loft. The two others had not turned up. The magistrates fined Zinkewieze 15/. GIRLS DIVE INTO "MONSTER'S HOME." More than 20 swimmers, including women and girls, dived into Loch Oich, reputed home of Scotland's Loch monster No. 2. They were competitors in Invergarry's annual loch gala, and "elaborate precautions" had been taken to ensure their safety should the monster appear. The crowd of spectators was ready to shout "Monster ahead," and a pipe band stood by to warn it off. Whether or not the monster came to hear of this conspiracy, it remained in the depths. DEATH ENDS "BABES IN WOOD" GAME. Melville Clack, aged 12, of Lafone House, New Park Road, Brixton, was playing at "babes in the wood" in the road near his home. His playmates had taken it in turn to be one of the babes. When Melville's turn came he lay in the road while other children covered him with leaves from lopped-off branches of trees growing near by. A heavy lorry approached and the children scattered, screaming warnings to the driver. He, of course, did not understand that under the pile of leaves in the road lay a little boy. 1 Tho lorry ran over the leaves and Melville was killed.

LEARNING-TO-FLY SCHEME. >Sinee the flying-by-instalments scheme was introduced by the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club at Yeavdon Aerodrome about 18 months ago, it is estimated that over 200 people, the majority of them from the humbler walks of life, have learned in this manner to fly. Xot only from Leeds, but also from many places in the West Riding have come typists, millhands, clerks, warchousehands and shop assistants, anxious to gain their pilot's A license; and a considerable number have succeeded. The arrangement is that these pupils pay 2/0 a week until the total reaches £4 10/, when they begin to receive flying instruction. They then continue with their weekly halfcrowns until they become qualified pilots. Flying is becoming popular in the West Riding as a conscquence, and the club authorities ars delighted at their success in turning out so many pilots. ROPE KNOT TAKES A STUDENT'S LIFE.

Anton Jvunz, 17-year-old German student holidaying in Switzerland, lost his life because of a knot in a rope. With three friends he had set out to climb the 13,000 ft high Eiger peak. Their route led up the steepest and most difficult side of the mountain. The rock face was almost sheer. After three days' climb an avalanche swept down. ..Kunz saw his friends swept off their feet, cling desperately to a ledge and then one by one drop exhausted; they fell 1200 ft to their death. Kunz was left alone on a narrow ledge in a blinding snowstorm. Through their telescopes the inhabitants of a town at the foot of the mountain had watched the climb, had seen the avalanche and then when the weather cleared had picked out the lonely figure still clinging to the mountain face. A rescue expedition set off, got a rope to the hoy and began to guide him down. He made fast the rope and tried to slip down it. All was going well till he came to a knot in the rope. He hesitated. He fainted from sheer exhaustion. Another fall of stone swept him away when he was only a few yards from safety. So the Eiger has claimed . another party for its victims.