GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12266, 9 May 1903, Page 6 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

! KILLED BY HIS OWN BtfRCLAR TRAP. .*»' ex-policeman, named Beatrix, living at 'Aries, was obliged to go away from home for a few days. Ho anticipated that the house might be visited by burglars in his absence, and therefore fixed a loaded revolver in the passage, and connected it by means of a string with the door in such a way that when the door was opened the revolver would be discharged. When he returned home he had apparently forgotten his own precautions and opened the door as u«ual. The weapon was discharged and he was shot dead, the bullet going through his heart.

POTATOES TEN AND SIXPENCE A FOUND.

When a man raises a new potato which has some conspicuous merit, such us being a heavy cropper or a disease-resister, he iMiturallv sells his seed at a stiff price. It is not for many seasons that he can hope to maintain such prices, since a few tubers will raise a quantity of seed potatoes for the next season. The " Northern Star" is one of the latest, particular stars in the potato world. Trials with it at the Colonial College, Ho'Jesley Bay, Suffolk, have yielded 4181b of tubers from 41b of sets. It is a heavy cropper and a disease-resister. The "Northern Star" was first put on the market, states the Daily Graphic, at £1120 a ton, and the same price prevails this season. SUPERSTITION IN THE HOUSE. That members of the House of Commons are not superior to the promptings of petty superstitious may be seen on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when the ballot for notices of motion takes place. A man will skip lines or even pages in order to write his name opposite a number which he regards as lucky. Odd numbers are the favourites. One member's predilection is for the fatal thirteen ; if that has been filled up he must have thirty-one. Seven is also in request. Yet these 'whimsies are not at all justified by the result of the ballot. In truth, the lucky numbers are not a whit more lucky than the others. PEEKS WHO ARE PUBLICANS. It is interesting, in view of the prospect of licensing legislation, to remember that between three and four hundred publichouses are owned bv members of the House of Lords. Lord Derby is by far the largest owner, with seventy-two licensed houses. No other peer has more than fifty, the next largest, owner beinr? the Duke of Bedford, who has exactly half a hundred houses. One member of the "Cabinet—the Duke of Devonshire has forty-seven, so that between. them these three have 169 licensed housesmore than half the total number held by peers. The Duke of Rutland has thirtyseven, and the Duke of Northumberland thirty-six ; Lord Dudley has thirty-three, and Lord Cowper twenty-two; and Lord Dunxaveu and Lord Salisbury have each eleven. The Parliamentary return from which these figures are taken gives also six licensed houses to Lord Hartington, and presumably, as there is now no Lord Hart-ingte-n, thev should be added to the fortyseven of the Duke of Devonshire.— James' Gazette. THE VENERABLE BEDE. It' has been decided to erect a memorial to the Venerable Bed: on the highest point of Cliff Park at Roker Point, Sunderland, at the cost of about £400. The monument is to be an Anglican cross of hard Northumbrian sandstone, showing in sculptured work scenes from the life of Bede. Mr. John Robison, by whose efforts some dozen memorials to Northern worthies have been erected, is honorary secretary to the Memorial Committee. THE SPEED OF THE HOMING PIGEON. The reason why a homer more than any other pigeon is able to find its way back to its home seems never to have been satisfactorily settled. That it does so, however, there is no doubt, and Mr. H. Kendrick, junior, in an article in the latest number of Animal Life Messrs. Hutchinson's attractive magazine— some particulars of the speed which homers attain. On one occasion a pigeon, he tells, flew for nearly twenty-seven hours at an average speed of 607 yards per minute, or ten yards per second. Greater speeds for short distances are frequently obtained. At a concourse of fanciers in Paris the rate of speed per minute of the first ten pigeons was 1202 yards; while a " fly" from Lille to Paris was at the rate of 1378 yards per minute! £100,000 OFFERED TO THE WELSH MISSIONARY- SOCIETY. Mr. Robert Davis, of Menai Bridge, has offered £100,000 to the Welsh Calvinistic Missionary Society, the money to be spent in sending preachers of the Gospel to our Eastern possessions, and in extending the Indian branch to Assam. The offer has been privately made to a leading Calvinist in the West of England, and will come before the Welsh Calvinistic body for discussion at once. ' The donor has long been noted for liberality to missionary work, and his large private fortune has for many years been put to charitable uses in various quarters. It is estimated that Mr. Davis has already spent £100,000 in the mission field. Another £50,000 has, it is stated, been offered by Mr. Davis for other special work. The announcement of the gift has caused much satisfaction among Welsh Methodists. 34R. CARNZOIE'S GIFTS : NEARLY £46,000,000.-

Mr. Carnegie's gifts to libraries and other educational institutions down to November 30 last are, according to the Library for February, as follows: England o-v.A Wales, £376,100; Ireland, £100,600,- Scotland, £2,479,250; Canada, 954,000 dollars (£190,800) ; Cuba, 252,000 dollars (£50,400) ; United States, 212,882,173 dollars (£42,576,434) , making a total of £45,773,584. And the giving still goes on. METHODS OF BUSINESS. The remarkable success of the courses of lectures arranged by the London Chamber of Commerce on the machinery and methods of business has far surpassed the hopes- of the organising committee. For a course on "Marine Insurance," which concluded lately, no fewer than 460 students were enrolled, and it is expected that a' succeeding course, dealing with "The Stock Exchange and Its Machinery," will attract an equally large number. THE OLDEST DOCTOR IN THE WOULD. This is assuredly Doctor Jean David, who on February 8 celebrated the 102 nd anniversary of his birth at MontpeF.ier. He lives there with his daughter and grandchildren, and enjoys remarkably good health for his great aye, his only iufirmity being failing eyesight. For 50 years he practised at Grabe'.s as a country doctor, visiting his Eatients daily on horseback. In his youth e witnessed the march of Wellington and the Peninsular army through Southern France after the battle oi Toulouse. His first serious illness— attack of typhoid —occurred when he was 63 years old. When he was 91 he was attacked by congestion of the lungs, but promptly recovered, whereas his wife, to whom he had been married 63 years, and who was subjected to \ similar illness, succumbed to it. A RECIPE FOR LONGEVITY. Asked the other day to give his recipe for longevity Dr. David replied:"Sobriety in all respects. The human body is a wonderful machine, whose organs should never be overtaxed. For my part I continue living much as I have always lived. I am only worried by one thing—the idleness to which failing eyesight has now condemned me." The venerable old gentleman speaks enthusiastically of the wonderful progress which he has seen achieved by medicine and surgery in the course of his career.

GREAT OCj lAN LINERS. The Shipping Gazette says it understands that the International Mercantile Marine Company has decided not to build any more big vessels like the White Stai line dteamers Cedrio and Celtic until improved port facilities enable the company to exorcise greater economy in working the vessels. The Gazette also says it believes the new White Star line steamer Arabic, of 15,800 tons, will represent the limit to which the combine is prepared to go under the present circumstances.