NEWS FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 19 April 1912, Page 2

NEWS FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS.

ONE-LEGGEI) BANDIT

A daring outrage was committed by a one-legged hooligan in the Bois de Bou-. l<Sgne, Paris, on""'March 8. eavlv in the nVorning. Two pblicemen found a young woman lying,, on the ground with two knife wounds in the back. She told them she had been attacked by a man with a wooden leg. who had gone away ill the direction of the Avenue Kleber. The police hurried after the apache, and near the Arc de Trioinphe caught sight of a one-legged man hoboling away as fast as he could. He was ordered to stop by the police, hut pulled out a revolver, and, standing with his back to the wall, shouted to a policeman who was only a few yards away, "Stand back or I fire."' The policeman knocked the revolver, out of the apache's hand, and secured him. CENTENARIAN IN THE DOCK. Duncan Cunningham, a feeble old man. whose age was given on the charge sheet as 100, was charged at Bow-st.. London, before ill* Marsham, on March 8, with being drunk and incapable in the Strand at- midnight. He said he was very sorry, and was discharged with a caution. MISSING FOREARM BONE.

A child in the Shad-well Hospital for Children, London, has been fo and to lack in both arms the radius, the outer of the two forearm bones which connect the wrist -with the lower end of the up-per-arm bone. As a result both hands are constantly turned outwards. A 1 though the muscles and tendons are at present normal, there is little power in either hand owing to the lack of a firm base for the wrist to work upon.

A HOARD OF FARTHINGS. Giving evidence at an inquest in London on John Cotterell, 74, who was found dead at Meyrick road, S.W., where he lived alone in two rooms, receiving no visitors, the Coroner's officer said he found ill the rooms some gold. 26s in silver, and nearly 2000 farthings, distributed in various places. A doctor gave 'the opinion that the man had been lying dead about a month.

SOUTH AFRICA'S INDUSTRIES. The report of the South African Com mission on Trades and Industries which was appointed by the Government has now been issued, and consists of a majority and two minority reports. The minority reports are each sighed by one member of the commission. The majority report, which is signed by five members, favours the moderate protection of agriculture and all industries, .and advises increases of duties in certain cases. It also recommends the lowest possible railway rates on raw materials. With a view to the encouragement of white labour, the commission recommends that primary education should be not only compulsory, but free, at any rate to children of the working iclasses; it also recommends that the Government should grant a subsidy for the support of free technical education. Various recommendations are also made with a view to effecting a, decrease in the cost of living. While the commission urges the establishment of an ii*on and steel industry, it deprecates any attempt being made to compel the etsablishnient in South Africa of the diamond-cutting industry. Such action, it maintains, would spell disaster to the diamond-min-ing industry. BATTLESHIP'S RECORD SPEED. Making an average speed of 22 knots in her foui hours full-power, run ofl Providence early in March, the battleship Utah lowered sill speed records to. battleships in the United States navy. The designed speed of the vessel was 20.75 knots. The Delaware in her preliminary four hours full-power trial made an'average of 21.56 knots. BAZAARS 1 IN SUBWAYS.

The underground footways in London are not popular, though they have cost many thousands to construct. The subway atUlaekfriara -Bridge, for instance, cost £25,000, and another of these tunnels at the Elephant and Castle had £15,000 spent on it. There is a scheme for providing more of these underground footways in Trafalgar Square, and in order that the people shall be induced to descend from the pavements to the underground, it is proposed to turn these tunnels into bazaars, in hopes that there may be some return for the money spent on them. RUGS FOR TAXIS. Herr von .Jagow, the head of the Berlin polic-;, has exhorted the proprietors of taxi-cabs in that city to provide rugs for the use of the public. "It has come to my knowledge," runs the manifesto, "that the public are complaining of the absence of rugs for wrapping up persons driving .in taxi-cabs. I beg the proprietors m-their own interest to provide.such rugs, as almost at any time of the year it is necessary to have them in readiness for use." DANGER OF STATE AID."

Speaking at the annual dinner of the Leeds Chamber of Commerce, Sir H. Llewellyn-Smith, permanent secretary of the Board of Trade, said. Chat the beneficial exercise of the functions, of Government departments associated with commerce was proportionate to the .degree of co-operation between those Departments and the voluntary organisations representing commercial opinion. State action, he declared, could never be a substitute for private enterprise, and it Would be disastrous for this country if those who directly represented commerce allowed the vitality of their private enterprises to be impaired by reliance upon. State assistance, however weif-intentioned this might be. OIL FOR BRITISH NAVY. It is understood that the Admiralty has' placed large orders with Scottish oil companies for liquid fuel for the use of the Navy, and that a seaboard site has been acquired by Government near the new naval base at Rosvtli for the erection of oil storage tanks. GERMANY'S NEW DIRIGIBLE. The latest Zeppeiin airship, model ll'., has just been completed at Friedrichssaven, and made her trial trip over Lake Constance with the inventor at the helm. The construction is the same as the previous dirigibles, with several improvements .in the steering apparatus. For more than one hour the maj'estic ship manoeuvred over the lake and town; great speed was attained, and Count Zeppelin and his trusty engineer, Herr Duerr, were delighted with the results. The new dirigible lias oeen named Victoria Luise, after the Kaiser's daughter, who has signified her desire to go for a sail at the earliest opportunity. THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD. Miss Virginia Lee, 20 years old, a stenographer, of Pittsburg, U.S.A., has been declared by Mr Andrew Carnegie to be the prettiest girl in the world. Miss

Lee. who was graduated in 1909 from the Margaret Morrison Carnegie schools, has never been seen in person by .Mr Carnegie. He obtained her photograph from her father in Hot Springs, Ark., where he is sojourning, and was immediately struck • with her demure attractiveness. .He gave her picture to a correspondent of tile "Pittsburg Dispatch," with the request that it . be published, saying that .he had found her to be the world's'prettiest girl. .The steelmaster 'wrote on the back of the photograph, "Bonnie Virginia Lee, , a prize for some lucky man. Andrew Carnegie:" "Why, the • idea," she said, "I don't know -.Mr -Qarriegie. Mi' Carnegie might' think that I am a pretty girl, but please don't say so in the newspapers."

HIGH COST OF LIVING. The Canadian Department of Labour's wholesale prices vecwd shows a still higher level for February than tha!fc- for January, notwithstanding that the latter mouth was reported as having- seen the highest prices since 1882-84, and possibly since 1873.' The index number rose during February from 131.4 to 134.3, these being percentages of the average lfevel of prices during the last decade of the last century.- The upward movement was largely the result of advances in grains, animals, and leatherj , dairy products and potatoes and meats. Retail prices were also upward. especially in the food products derived from the lines above mentioned.