NEWS OF THE WORLD

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6746, 2 January 1932, Page 4

NEWS OF THE WORLD

\ LIZARD METHUSELAH ' ALIVE FOR MILLENNIUMS. All Canada is watching with interest the journey, across the Dominion, of a 12in lizard. This creature which, it is claimed, has been alive for millenniums, was unearthed by astonished miners at " Hudson’s Hope, in the northern part of British Columbia, when they were digging in a canyon. Together with it was another. Both, at first, showed signs of life, but one died a few minutes after it was unearthed. The other is still alive and has been sent to Ottawa, where Dominion scientists will examine it. CHOPIN’S ASHES MAY BE TAKEN TO POLAND Much discussion is agitating the French Press and musical public ns to whether the ashes of Chopin which have reposed in the ancient cemetery of PereLachaise at Paris since 1849, should be transferred to Poland. From time to time Polish patriots have demanded that the remains of the illustrious musician be conveyed to the land of his birth, but all agitations have failed. Now, however, an important _ and influential French body, the Society.Fredcric Chopin, has taken up the affair and is claiming that in justice to the memory of the dead -composer, his ashes be conveyed to the village.of his birth and there buried with fitting honours. ELECTRIC AIRPLANE M. BLERIOT’S FORECAST Speeds of 800 miles an hour are envisaged by M. Louis Blcriot, who made the first Channel flight in 1909 and won a “Daily Mail” prize of £IOOO, He foreshadows what he calls an “accelera-tor-drome,” consisting of a circular overhead track carrying a single rail, and having a circumference of about eight miles. An airplane would be attached by a cable to a special antifriction carriage on the circular track, and would hurtle round, utilising centrifugal force as well as the power of ' its propeller. By this means it would be possible to use an electric motor instead of a petrol-driven engine, the current being conveyed to the airplane from the metal track through the connecting cable. ANCIENT EYE DOCTOR PRACTISED IN 300 A.D. A stamp belonging to a Roman eye doctor who practised in London about 300 A.D. was recently discovered during the course of excavation work near London Bridge. It was made of a flat stone two inches square and threeeighths of an inch thick. On the four narrow sides had been carved the name of the doctor, Cauis Silvius Tetricus, and his prescriptions for four eye troubles. The stamp was apparently used to impress the doctors name on his preparations, which were made in the form of solid sticks, resembling sticks of sealing wax. END OF HISTORIC CAFE FAVOURITE RESORT OF NOBILITY The Cafe Voisin, one of the most famous of the old Paris restaurants, has closed its doors for the last tinlp. It was one of the select Second Empire restaurants which survived the fall of the Napoleonic dynasty and the scattering of the brilliant society which used to throng the Tuilcries Palace and so often assemble in its dining-rooms and salons. For many years nobody without a title or outside the most exclusive society of Faubourg St. Germain was allowed to enter the inner rooms. Its patrons included King Edward, princes, artists, statesmen, and the nobility of half a dozen countries of Europe. The restaurant’s cellar was at one time second to none in Europe. The Cafe Voisin was the property of a wellknown Bordeaux wine-growing family, and no time nr expense was spared by them, in keeping the cellars stocked with the best vintages available. SKULL DISCOVERY

BONES OP NEANDERTHAL CHILD Discovery of the skull of a Neanderthal child near Jerusalem is believed bv archeologists to have given conclusive evidence that human life existed in what is now Palestine 60,000 to 100,000 years ago. Report of the discovery in a cave at Athlit was made to Professor George Grant MacCurdy, of Yale, director of the American School of Prehistoric Rcsearch, by Miss Dorothy Garrod,. explorer in charge of the school s expedition with the British School or Archeology. Previous remains had indicated man inhabited the section as far back as 30,000 years ago. Miss Garrod discovered a Neanderthal skull at Gibraltar in 1926.

ROAD-RAIL TRAIN LATEST RAILWAY VEHICLE The latest thing in railway vehicles is a coach that can run either on rails or on roads. The “Ro-Railer,” built at Huddersfield, was recently tested. The road-rail coach looks at first sight very much like any other you may see on the highways of to-day. But a closer inspection shows that it has two sets of wheels, one with large pneumatic tyres and the other with flanges to fit rails. The new vehicle will save people the trouble of walking between their homes and the railway station. In the morning it will call at the houses of those who book seats in it. Then, having picked up its load of passengers, it will make its way to a special kind of launching place near the station. Here it will drive straight on the rails, continuing its journey without a pause. In the evening the process will be reversed. PADEREWSKI’S WORST PIANO PEDAL AS SOUVENIR On the occasion of his departure from England to take up his political duties in Poland, M. Paderewski made the first portion of his journey in a British destroyer. Here, as-was natural, he was hospitably entertained and honoured in the wardroom which boasted a piano that> had been treated in a most disrespectful manner. After dinner bis hosts'pressed M. Paderewski to play to tlaerff; and though be was reluctant at first, he finally yielded to their argument, after having first pulled up to their normal level as many of the notes as had been permanently levelled flat with the wood. After the pianist had evoked something in the nature of music from this rather unsatisfactory instrument, some of his hosts pulled oil its sole remaining pedal. This was inscribed: “Presented to Ignaz Paderewski as a souvenir of the worst piano he has ever played upon,” and presented to the pianist on disembarkation.

RELICS OF WATERLOO BULLET EXTRACTED FROM WOUND In a recently-published will, the testator left to his son, along with a Waterloo medal awarded to his grandfather, the bullet extracted from the wound received by him at the battle of Waterloo. The bullet that killed Nelson was given by the surgeon to William IV, and is still in the Royal collection. It was shown at a public exhibition in London some years ago. There still adhere to it fragments of the uniform and portions of the gold lace. UNIVERSAL TRAFFIC LANGUAGE BRITISH WORDS USED Motorists in foreign countries find the word “stop” on traffic-control signs almost everywhere, regardless of the language spoken." Tourists trayelling over the mountain road in Albania saw this English word on traffic signs as frequently as signs printed in the native tongue. In Bucharest, the capital of Rumania, both “start” and “stop” are commonly used for traffic signs. The need for a universal traffic language where much motoring between different countries is done is responsible for the use of these English words. BOY JUMPS FROM BERENGARIA STOWAWAY ESCAPES When the Cunard liner Berengaria anchored at Cherbourg recently a boy was seen swimming from the ship. A French pilot cutter picked him up, unconscious. He was Lewis Jones, 16-year-old son of Mr H. R. Jones, confectioner, of North Terrace, Birstall, near Jones had climbed up the liner’s mooring ropes one night in Southampton and hid himself in the hold for two days, until hunger drove him out. Arriving in the United States he was taken to Ellis Island and later deported. As the ship near Cherbourg he was locked in a cabin, but was next seen swimming towards the French shore. He recovered in the liner’s hospital. HUMAN SEISMOGRAPH PHYSICIANS MYSTIFIED A man whose nerves are so sensitive that he can record earth tremors at the other side of the world with such accuracy that he might rival a seismograph, is mystifying physicians. He is Mr G. H. Robson, an unemployed iron moulder, of Acomb (Yorks). Through the removal of a muscle some years ago, he has been able to record earthquakes in Japan, India, New Zealand and the South Pacific islands by means of the vibration of his spine. Mr Robson said that he first recorded a shock eight years ago, and by checking it by newspapers and expert observations, found that it coincided with an earthquake in Mexico. “During the present summer I have recorded 21 shocks,” Mr Robson said. “These have been verified as coming from Japan, India. New Zealand and South Pacific islands.” MARRIED BY ’PHONE FALLING IN LOVE WITH VOICES Telephone girls make excellent wives. According to a prominent Post Office official, they settle down after marriage much more easily than the average business girl does. “They are patient, tactful, good-tempered women, who talk little,” declared this official recently, “and their conversation is not as a rule empty chatter, but good common sense. About 700 girls in the London area alone leave the telephone services every year to get married. And m a large number of cases their romances have begun over the ’phone. They have fallen in love with voices. Often it is not until the girl announces her resignation, and applies for the wedding dowry, which it is a custom to award the telephone operators, that the Post Office authorities are aware that one ot their employees has been wooed .ana won by ’phone. ___ BOY ATTACKED BY DOGS HAS NARROW ESCAPE It was stated at Dublin District Court recently that four dogs chased Owen Byrne, aged 10, as if he was a hare and nearly killed him. Byrne said he was taking a short cut through a field to the dog races, and was climbing over a wall when four of the animals attacked him. by the ankle,” he said, “and started to eat me.” As a result his arm had to be amputated. Medical evidence was given that if Byrne had been sno_^5 no _^” er minute with the dogs he would have been bitten so badly that he would have died. A summons agamst the owner of the dogs was dismissed on the ground that the hoy was trespassing.

BARON DEAD IN CASTLE DRUGS TO KILL 5000 Drugs enough to kill 5000 people were found at Castle Hollenstein in a room where Baron Rudolph Drasche, one of the richest men in Austria lay dead. He was once a happy man, but a sudden change came over him live years ago, when his only daughi?er, whom he loved devotedly, was killed in Paris by falling from her horse before his eyes. , , , , Baron Drasche then took to drink and was often seen in night clubs in doubtful company. Finally he fell under the influence of a young man named Bildstein, who claimed to be a former cavalry officer, and became Drasche s secretary. Baron Drasche left Vienna and lived at Castle Hollenstein, where drug orgies are to have taken place, opium and cocaine being consumed. DISCOVERY OF COMPASS ATTRIBUTED TO CHINESE The first record we have of any one being aware of the fact that iron or steel might, under some_ circumstances, point in a certain direction, is the ancient Chinese mythical story of Ho-ang-ti. Ho-ang-ti had conquered his foe, but the latter had the good fortune to escape in a fog. Whereupon, Ho-ang-ti ordered a chariot to be built which should reveal the direction in which the fugitive was travelling. By means of this he was able to overtake his enemy. That story is dated 2634 B.C. The llrst mariner’s compass is actually recorded about 265 B.C. It was also Chinese, and the instrument was called “ting-nan-ching”—the thing that points south. To Europeans, who travelling east, first met with the compass, the instrument was supernatural, and for centuries they believed, as did the Chinese themselves, that it was controlled by a spirit.