BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1304, 6 December 1911, Page 5

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

LONDON SUMMARY. A-GHOST STOKY TOLD IN COVKT. London, (.totober '-"■ An amazing ghost story w?s tojil at the Wnnsvortli County Court when J nomas Henry Wmisled sued William Atkinson fnr .Ulfl 13s. l<l., rent dm- inrespect ol n hoiiM> in Cathles Itnad, llsiihani. Mr. Mamie, solicitor for tho plmnliiV, road a Idler from Mis. Atkinson to Uiii. pliiintiff in which the former said it.was, "impossible to live in this house; it is lieing haunted by an old grey-headed man. Somo noises we l'.isye hoard giro us no rest. Wo have tri'.'d all the rooms to sleep in, Imt Ihey are all alike. One of my daughter!- had her face slapped. One night tome lira's rails worn (lung across the room. There are terrible bangs at the head of the boil and-pattering up and down stairs. Our dog- whines, and it is very restless, and last week he was let loose'; the back door was opened, and the dog admitted to the house, by whom we do not know. Our experiences have been something dreadful. Tho shadows of «i man and a woman have been seen by more than one person." The judge said that a plea of ghosts could not bo n successful reason for not paying tho rent, and gave a verdict against the defendant. ..-'..

OSBORNE CASE SETTLED. A trade union dispute which has cost upwards of A' 12,000 in law costs and has involved five years' constant litigation has just ended. This was the famous Osborne case against tho Amalgamated Society of Kailway Servants—the series of actions brought by Mr. "Osboine, then a foreman porter on (lie Groat Eastern Eailway, against his union. Mr. Osborne, who objected to levies which h<! believed to bo illogjl, carried his Cnso from the High Courts to the Court of Appeal, and finally to tho House of Lords, where b< , got judgment in hia favour. The sequel was heard in Mr Justice Warringum's court, when Mr. CJauson, K.C., asked leave to mention the ease-.of. - Osborne against the 'Amalgamated; Society of Kailway Servants. This was the first action of the scries in which Mr. Osborne applied for an injunction .to . restrain tho union from expelling him -from ■ membership. -'Counsel added that; he 'was instructed that arrangements had been mado to put an end to all litigation, and by consent ho asked for au order staying all further proceedings. v Mr; , Justice Warrington accordingly mado the order, and tho action was settled'.to Mr. Osborne's satisfaction. r

NOX-ROLLING SHIPS. The Cnnard Comnnnv arc'having nntirolling tanks installed iii (he Laconia, now completing at \V.il|sehd, and if the experiment is successful similar tanks will bo fitted in the giant liner Aqnitania, now. building at Glydebhnk. Tho tanks arc ir.sliapotl, extending from one side of tho ship to (he other through the hold. The tanks contain water, the rising and falling of which" neutralises tho rolling motion of the ship. Tanks on this plan, the invention of-If err Frahm, have been installed in several German ships, and will be fatted in the now mammoth vessels of the Hamburg-:.} menka _ Line. In the Hamburg-Amerika liners Ypiranga and Gorcovado, tlie tanks reduced the rolling from 11 (leg., to 3 deg.

HIT BY A SHELL. Derails have just leaked out of a sensational incident which , occurred recently while, his Majesty's ship Hindustan, tho battleship on which tho Prince of Wales is-serving as midshipman,;\vns attending to her duties as umpire over the gunnery practice, of his Majesty's, ship Colossus. tho newest super-Dreadnought attached to tho Home Fleet. It appears that while tho Colossus was firing her six-poundor gnus, there was a slight mist over tho 'wator, and Iho target, although at no greater range than -1000 yards, was an indistinct object to tho men firing. Tho Hindustan was but a quarter of a mile from tho target at the lime, and,one of tho projectiles from the Colossus fell plump aboard tho Hindustan's quarterdeck—a ricochet. The quarter-deck was practically untenanted at the time," the only occupant being the marine on sentry over tho life-belt; onl.y, a few minutes before, however, there had been a number of officers standing (hero to watch tho firinjf. It was found, alter on examination of the quarter-deck, that tho shell had ploughed a groove in tie corticine deck covering and pitted tho steel of the armoured deck itself.- It is fortunate that the shell was plugged and not a "live" one, as in the latter ease no one in a radius of many yards' could have escaped injury.

DREADNOUGHT DESIGNER. RETIRES. Sir , Philip Walts, K.C.8., will shortly, in accordance with the age rules, relinquish his appointment as Director of Naval Construction, but will still bo available as adviser to the Admiralty. Sir Philip Watts will always be famous in (ho history of the Navy for his connection with (he Droaduought, of which he was the designer. Towards the end of IHO4- Lord Solborne, who was then First Lord, announced that, the hoard had appointed "a Special Committee on Designs to assist them and the Director of Naval Construction in the- consideration of certain questions to bo submitted to it by the board in connection with the features of the future designs of different types of fighting ships." The committee's recommendations were approved by the board, and embodied in the Dreadnought type of battleship and Hi 6 Invincible type of cruiser. The main features in which the new battleship differed from its immediate predecessors whs in the all-one-calihre big gun armament (in place of a mixed armament of big Rims), in the increase of speed, in the height of the freeboard, and in tho great increaso of manoeuvring power.

FORM IV. The celebrated "Form TV," eleven million copies of which were sent, to pro-perty-owners by Somerset House, with orders to till them up for the purposes of the Government's land valuation scheme, has now boon declared unauthorised. This was the decision given by Jfr. Justice HorridßO in tho High Court in tho case in wliich Mr. John Dyson, a Yorkshire property-owner, claimed against the Attorney-General for a , declaration that a person who had been served with a notice requiring. ..him to fill up Form IV, issued under tho Finance Act, IHO9-10, was under no obligation to do so. The Attorney-General agreed to submit to a decision similar" to ono given by Mr. Justice Warrington in the case .if Burghes v. tho Attorney-General, in which tho judge held that Form VIII was unauthorised, and that persona served with it. wero under no obligation to fill it up. Notice of appeal-was, however, given. TAXI-CAB INSPECTORS.

For a long time tlio proprietors of motor cabs have, complained that . (be drivers failed in a largo numler of instances to record the extras on (heir taximeters, and .thus evaded payment of them to (he proprietor.". Consequently, they hnvo now adopted a new scheme for the detection of driven; who are. delinquents in this way, and. the London Motor-Cab Proprietors Association, who represent the owners of about 7000 of the 7500 motor cabs licenser! in London, have arranged for a number of plain clothes inspectors in their employ to walk a-jout the streets and nota the driers who are carrying extra passengers or luggage. They will then report the.matter (o the firm owning the particular w.b, and the driver will bq called on to paj the extras if he has not already done so. I'or a hrst oiTenco a driver will be let off with a warning after ho has paid over his extras. . -For the second he will bo suspended for one day; for the third, he will lose a week's work; and for tile fourth offence he will be dismissed.

PASSING OP TUB HORSE 'BUS. The last horse- omnibus of.the London General Omnibus Company mado its last trip on Wednesday evening, October 25. Six years; ago the company had 2000 horse 'buses and 20,000 hors.es. They have now been replaced by a.Heel of sou'io 131)0 mntor-'buses. and the old'stylo of niotnr vehicle is being replaced by I hose of the noiseless type at (Iks rale of from twentvlivo k> thirty a week. ' The General Omnibus Company was originally formed in Ki.Vi, and the total number . of m*. vmgors win-iwl on its horjo 'buses i= given a≤ 5,170,000,000. Tho.lowest number of passengers carried in one year was ;ifl millions and the highest 210.300,000.— "Staa'Jrird of-Empire,"-' '