NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

AGE DOES NOT WITHER. Maria Zogarska is puzzling the medical experts of Lodz, Poland. Although she is 65 years old and has been married for 37 years, she looks like a girl of 20. Doctors who have examined her say that her interior condition and skin do not show the slightest signs of age. Maria has never been ill in her life. She drinks a little wine occasionally, but has never smoked nor drunk coffee. INDIAN TITLE FOR SCOT. The Indian title of "Chief Over the Salt Water" is to be bestowed on the Provost of Fort William, Scotland. The title is a gift from the Ojibway Indians of Fort William, Ontario. A handsome war headdress of feathers is also being sent to Scotland for the Provost, The headdress is to be taken to the Scottish town by the Mayor of Fort William, in Canada, Mr. R. B. Pow. He and his wife are to return a vkit made to their city last June by Provost Simon MacDonald, of Fort William, in Scotland. SAFE LANDING. After falling 73 feet from a bridge over the River Yarra at Fairfield, Victoria, a 12-year-old boy was rescued, unharmed save for a few minor bruises. The boy, Neil Whibley, was walking along the framework of the bridge when he .slipped. He plunged 73 feet down into 30 inches of water where the river swirls in rapids. Rescuers rushed to the spot expecting to find the boy dying from multiple injuries—but all the hurt he had suffered was a few bruises and a shaking. "ARZEEZ." The Arabic word for telephone may in future be "arzeez," which, according to the dictionary, may be translated in three ways —as "gurgling in the belly," "sound from far off" or "grumbling of a camel." A new Arabic Language Academy is being formed to "overhaul" the Arabic language and substitute true Arabic words for foreign words and expressions. The new body has already come in for a good deal of criticism in the Chamber of Deputies, and there has been much . Ministerial and general laughter over the discussions of certain words which had been suggested to supersede English words. A word suggested for tramways was "gummaz" which, according to the dictionary, means "quick moving." ONE-WAY COLOURS. An ingenious scheme for dividing the city into different coloured zones—with scarlet streets for pedestrians—is being put into force in Istanbul. Workmen have already started painting light grey all buildings, municipal kiosks and tram and taxi-stations in Pera. the European quarter of the capital. The main parts of the Oriental section of the city, the old Stamboul. will be painted brown. A light shade will be used for the more important thoroughfares, while shades varying from light to cocoa and the darkest chocolate brown will be used for "secondary" and "third-grade" roads. The scarlet paint will be reserved for streets allotted to "pedestrians only." Light blue and green are the colours which have been chosen for the suburban streets.

ITEMS OF INTEREST IN PASSING.

SWAM TO FUNERAL. News of the death of a dear friend who lived near on the other side of the Narenta River, Batschwitze, Yugoslavia, reached Mathias Brabarowitsch, 78-year-old peasant, almost too late. The Narenta is dry eight months of the year, but becomes swift and deep in the winter. It has few bridges, and Brabarowitsch plunged, fully clothed, into the stream, swam across and attended the funeral in dripping clothes. "TORTURE BELT." A woman who is alleged to have tied a "torture-belt round her little stepson's waist to prevent him from satisfying his hunger has been arrested at Oberradkersburg, Southern Styria, The boy, Alois Kraft, aged seven, is a quiet, timid child, and for some time his school teacher had been worried by his increasingly sickly appearance. At last the school doctor was requested to examine the child. The doctor found that Alois was wearing a leather belt, reinforced with iron, which was fixed tightly round his middle, just beneath his ribs.

STRENGTH THROUGH JOY. Germany's first ship built entirely for the purpose bf giving holiday cruises to working people to be launched from the shipyard of Blohm and Voss, Hamburg, on May 5, will be a ship without classconsciousness. The crew have exactly the same sleep'ng accommodation as the passengers. There are spacious lounges, a swimming bath, a "talkie" installation, hairdressers' shops and a gymnasium. As part of the Nazi "Strength Through Joy" organisation, she will make cruises throughout the summer months available to workers who can afford to pay the comparatively low charges. PIGEON TOES. Boot polish has caused the downfall of an ingenious pigeon thief, Heinrieh Scholtz, of Nuremberg, Bavaria. He stole his neighbour's carrier pigeons and blackened tlieir feet with boot polish to conceal their identity. Proud of his cleverness, Scholtz boasted to his victim that he had raised a specially line brace of birds. He let them fly from their roost —but the pigeons "hoiined" back to the neighbour. His suspicions aroused, the neighbour washed the birds' feet. They turned red. So did Scholtz's face, first with embarrassment and then with rage. For he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for theft. A LIGHTNING SHAVE. By winning an "International Shaving Competition" in Vienna, Karl bacher, a Viennese barber's assistant, claims to have achieved the distinction of being the quickest professional shaver in the world. In the competition he beat 11 rivals by shaving a man in the record time.of 19 seconds. Every competitor was provided with a "model"— a man with a beard of at least three days' growth on his chin. They were given 6 seconds to work up a lather and then, at a given signal, they began the shaving. Cutting their "model's" face meant immediate disqualification—but not a single candidate suffered that humiliation.