Untitled

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20415, 9 December 1931, Page 14

One big firm of drapers in the West End of London estimates their annual losses through Shoplifting at £IO,OOO. They prosecute thieves in about 250 cases every year. Kingfishers are among the loveliest of British birds. To kill a kingfisher at a, time when it is rearing its young is to be liable to a fine or £l. 11l 1904 an Act of Parliament was passed forbidding absolutely the use of the pole-trap, which breaks a bird's legs. At Llangollen recently two men were /convicted of having trapped 17 kingfishers in the close season. Ten poletraps were set round their ponds. The men were fined 5s each on four charges. The big shipping companies are beginning to wonder whether it is not time to stop building larger ships. The famous French trans-Atlantic company has decided that it iB the .vessel ot ! about 30,000 ton* which will survive. It is very difficult for ships of sixty and seventy thousand tons to pay their way. A new .liner of '28,627 tons was launched at Saint Nazaire the other day, and this ship is thought by the French shipbuilders to be typical or the new generation of passenger vessels. The enormous Cunarder now being built on the .Clyde is calling for special efforts in various parts of the countrv. The rudder, weighing Wtons, Will be the largest ever made, and is to come from The two huge propellers, also the biggest •*er made, ara bunq; cAst m Lowtea.