NEWS IN BRIEF.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 7 August 1926, Page 5

NEWS IN BRIEF.

ITEMS OF INTEREST. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. CAPETOWN, Aug. 5. One of the most disastrous oane fires in the history of Natal ravaged the J Hove River district. The flames travelled for five miles, destroying upwards of five hundred acres of cane. It is believed -that at least 12 natives were incinerated. PEKING, Aug. 5.

The editor of the-'Chinese newspaper Shihhuijihpao was arrested .by the gendarmerie and shot at five o'clock the •following morning. The execution was due to his having written something derogatory to the Shantung Governor, Chang Sung Chang. SYDNEY, .Aug. 6. The Parliamentary Labour Party’s sub-committee on the workers’ compensation * insurance scheme recommended to the Premier that the premium .rates for sawmill employees be reduced iby 50 per cent. This coincides with the reduction the mill owners are agitating for. LONDON, Aug. 5. Frederick Jones was remanded at Westminster on a charge of theft. He confessed that he stole the Salting coins from’ the Kensington Museum under great prorate-ion, and was ignorant of their value. He .walked the streets destitute for three days, entered the museum to rest, and forced the case with a screw driver. He was there for twenty minutes, the attendant passing four times without .suspecting him. Jones then walked out undetected.

LONDON, Aug. 5. Explaining that it was only because certain work requires a man’s brute strength, the women’s communal colony at Lingfield has decided to admit a limited! number of husbands. The women claim that they have done exceedingly well with dairy cows, breeding dogs and rabbits, cultivating oal> bage patches even on small holdings, but heavy labour is- fit only for men. Three husbands accepted the summons and were admitted after understanding that they mast not attempt to interfere with the women’s control. LONDON, Aug. 5. At the British Association Congress. Professor Osborn (America), discussing the progress of the study of the emblem of the origin of species, said the number of species had increased by thousands since 1859. Intensive laboratory research added vastly to our knowledge of the functions of animal, but greatly increased the difficulties of the problem. We had reached an entirely ,new era in research, having solvr ed The lesat difficult half of the problem confronting Darwin. We knew how the species- originated, but the causes of variation for evolutionary process might be humanly insoluble.