AS IT HAPPENS-

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22431, 18 June 1938, Page 19

AS IT HAPPENS-

Grand Larceny “Nine upright pianos and a baby grand” have been stolen from the premises of a haulage contractor in London and a member of the firm js reported as having said, “We think it was the work of somebody familiar with the business.” Not many people are moved to steal just one piano on the spur of the moment; to make off with 10 of them, nine upright and one baby grand, is a bit too much to be put down to kleptomania or sudden impulse. Still, the man who stole the whole 10. sounds a promising subject for psychological treatment. The first question that the professors might put to him would be whether music rims in his family.

Books for the Dog Watches Men in small ships in the Navy are in future to have circulating libraries provided officially. Each destroyer flotilla will have 950 books in circulation among its 1400 officers and men. The books will be divided into sets of 50. Each destroyer will have two sets at a time, the flotilla leader having three, and the senior officer will arrange dates for sets to pass on from one ship to another. The books will be selected from the catalogue already used to supply libraries in battleships and cruisers, and the scheme means a considerable increase in purchase of books. At a rough estimate the publishers (and authors) will benefit by sales of an extra 18,000 volumes this year. The libraries will contain works of all kinds, from popular fiction to naval history, from biography to technical engineering works.,

TALE STORIES?

Children Ride a Shark

Tall stories of the Pacific were told by Captain L. C. P. Tudway, of H.M.S. Leith, of the New Zealand Station, in a luncheon address to members of the United Service Institution, writes the Sydney correspondent of “The Press.” “There is an island in the Malaita group where the natives have a tame shark,” he said. “It is a big fellow, about 2501 b in all, and they call him up by smacking paddles on the water. We saw them do this, but the Bishop told us more. He said that the children play with him, and in the early morning they can be seen riding on the shark’s back.

“In the Solomons there are two islands, one of which has an excess of males and the other a surplus of females. When fthey marry, the girls have to paddle across to the other island, anid they are not allowed to return home. One girl returned home, so the natives appealed to the Bishop. He asked the girl how she got back, and she said T swam,’ but the Bishop had his doubts, as the distance was 18 miles, the current very strong, and the water shark-infested. “ Ts that true?’ he pressed her, and she said, ‘Well, I rested on the way sometimes, as I had my shark with me, and I slept qu bis back.’ “That,” said the capta&Jb “is what the Bishop said.” --