NEWS BY MAIL

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12534, 22 April 1935, Page 2

NEWS BY MAIL

“RECEIVER 1 ' OF NURSE CAVELL’S MEDALS. William Gray, aged 79, was at Oxford City Quarter Sessions sentenced to six months’ hard labor for receiving medals and a watch which foimorly belonged to Nurse Edith Cavell. The medals and match with jewellery were stolen from tho house of Dr. Wainwright, of Henley, who is Nurse Cavell’s brother-in-law. Gray pleaded not guilty on the advice of the Recorder, who found him not guilty of theft but guilty of receiving. Tbe medals included a Red Cross' medal, a Spanish medal, and the Memorial Medal struck to commemorate Nurse Cavcll’s sacrifice and that of Marie Dupree, the French heroine. Grny was arrested near Reading, and some of the property was found in hpossession. He coneealed Nurse Cavell’s watch down his left trouser leg. Other articles were buried ill a wood. He first, said that he. had given a man £3 for the articles, but later-stated that a man named Bristol, who could not he traced, had broken into tho house while he waited outside. Gray said that he was muddled with drink, and did not know what he had. Gray, it was stated, had a long criminal record. “I am very relieved,” said the ' Recorder, “to find you did not know what you were stealing.” JUDGE THRASHES PRISONER. ■ Mr. William Grady, Recorder or Southampton, Now Jersey, believes in letting the punishment fit the' crime. When John Senski, a 30-ycnf-old laborer with a fine chest development, was brought before him charged with heating his wife, the’ 50-year-old Recorder asked him why he did it. “She needed a licking,” Senski added with assurance. '“Oh, she did, did she?” returned the Recorder. “Well, so do you.” Stepping down-'from his chair, tho grey haired judge .landed an uppercut on Senski’s jaw, and the big fellow wentdown for a short count. As ho was getting to his feet another judicial uppercut caught him on the same spot and felled him again. A third timo the Recorder knocked the accused laborer to tho floor. Then ho asked him if he had had enough. “Yes, judge,” said Senski, “that’s all I want.” “Very good, prisoner,” concluded thejudge, “you are discharged.” LONDON’S STATUES. It is a curious thing in Britain that prides itself on its naval glories rather than on its land victories that* it should have dozens of monuments to soldiers and only two to sailors. Apart from Nelson’s Column, there is only Captain Cook, by Brock, ip the Mall, set up in recent times in London, and a few busts of admirals in the crowded facades of Government offices. Nelson, from his masthead in Trafalgar Square, can see nothing but statesmen and soldiers in the space below him. Of his great captains not a trace! (says J.B. in the “Manchester Guardian”). He must feel lonely. War monuments to the Royal Marines and the submarine men; however, exist Actors'" and actresses hate two—Henry' Irving in his doctor’s robes outside the National Portrait Gallery, and Mrs Siddons in Paddington Green. Great writers are commemorated by Boehm’s fino seated figure of Carlyle on the Chelsea Embankment, Epstein’s Rdma memorial to W. . H. Hudson —one of the few works ot art able to rouse tho London public to fight like Parisians about art — and the comic figure of Johnson in St. Clement’s - churchyard looking towards Fleet Street. Thero is a statue of Robert Bums in the Embankment Gardens that Scotsmen rediscover almost every Burns’s birthday anniversary; and John Stuart Mill, too, is on the Embankment. Bacon walks in a square in Gray’s Inn. Shakespeare, in a reproduction of Scheemaker’s statue in tho Abbey poses ‘in Leicester ' Square; Milton stands bareheaded before St. Giles’s, Cripplegate, whore he is buried ; Bunyan lies on his tomb in Bunhjll Fields Cemetery. Lockb, Hume, and Adam Smifh are iu front of the Civil ServicO/Commission’s building in Burlington Gardens; Sir Thomas Browne, sits under the portico of University College. It is a. thin muster' for. England’s groat company of writers. Little is to lie said of our soldiers and statesmen, except that . they have been respectfully buried in sculp -turn. Frampton’s Nurse Cavell memorial, with its roused British lion and other national, symbols has an inscription that is also,nn admirable art criticism of it all—“ Patriotism is not enough.” CHANGE-GIVING MACHINE. Manchester and Blackpool Corporations are carrying out experiments with a new coin change-giving machine, a portable one, for use by their train and ’bus conductors. The machine is the invention of a London engineer, Mr. Govan Gee, of V inchmore Hill. It is small, and is worn with a belt and shoulder strap in place of the usual cash bag. .Air. Goo told a correspondent of the “Alanchester Guardian” that he has been carrying on experiments for over a year with his invention, and he now considers it to bo perfect. “One sample machine has been in regular use for six months,” he said. “At a test' before London Passenger Trans port Board representatives a few days ago a two-shilling piece was given me for a penny fare. The 1/11 change, seven coins, was ready for them in less than two and a-half seconds.” Air. Geo’s machine consists of a number of slots for the coins. They are released by depressing keys about six in all—which are similar to those on a typewriter. Tlie money for change falls into a tray from which the conductor can easily take it and give to his passengers.