GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14157, 4 September 1909, Page 5 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

SMALLPOX MI CHOP, E. Ihe microbe of smallpox, it is claim??!, has been discovered in the course of bacteriological researches carried mil at, the Oswaldo Crux Institute, Rio dc Janeiro. It is said to be of animal origin. QUAINT COMPENSATION. j A noting •woman named Schmidt, whoso I hatpin injured a man's eye while she was I alighting from a tram-car in Vienna, causi ing him to low the sight of it, has offered, ! to marry him, and he has accepted her j offer. ! ~~ j APPEAL IN" THE NEXT WOULD, j Three Chinamen convicted of piracy in i .Johoiv water* on April 9 have lxv» senj tenced to death at Singapore i hot a point of jurisdiction was reserved for the Court of Appeal. One of the prisoners declared that he would take his case to the court of the next v id. A PENSION FOR LADY WYLLIE. Mr. Swift MacX'-iIl has asked the UnderSecretary* for India in «he House of Coml mons whether tin- Indian (iovenimes,' will, in accordance with the precedent of the pension cor.!erred on the widow of the Karl Mayo. confer a pension on the widow of Sir Cmzon Wyilie. WARLIKE LOBSTERS. Attempts to introduce lobsters to the Paj cific coast have failed, says a Consular report. Owing to their pugnacious t<>ruU'm*i<ui they arrived at their destination in a mangled condition. Plugs were pi,iced between the claws to prevent fighting in the last, consignment, hut the lobsters were planted in the Pacific with the plugs still there, and died miserably. STORY OF SPIES IN A WARSHIP. While two visitors were being shown over the battleship Bellerophon at South End, their movements gave rise to suspicion, and they were stopped in the act of entering the engine-room by themselves. One was carrying a camera, and there being reason to suspect that they were, foreign spies, they were by order of the otSieer in command taken ashore in the ship's boat, escorted by a tile- of marines. £3 AN OUNCE FOR A *)00. Princess Toussotm, an Egyptian, sold to Mr. A. G. underbill, the well-known rU.Jlionairo and owner of the Venture" and " Viking*' coaches, her Pekinese, dog Elsworthy Khedive at a. price which works out at over £3 per ounce. The dog weighs between 71b and 81b. These minute dogs, the sacred dogs of China, are at pre en* most valuable, and for Champion Uhu-erU of Alderbourne, Mrs. Ashlon Cross recently refused £1500. GRAVE HOSPITAL SCANDAL. A shocking ease of white slave, radii which has just come to light at Szabadka, has caused the greatest sensation in Hungary. The nurses of the large Marie Valerie Hospital in that town have for «ik years past systematically sold young fema.'r, patients who were penniless, and had no near relatives, after their recovery. From correspondence found it appears, that the nurses had a clientele throughout Hungary and also abroad, and that they employed many agents in their degrading enterprise. There have been numerous arrests.

'I'lll-, SUEZ CANAL. The jubilee of the Suez Canal, work on which commenced in. 1859, look place on April 25. The canal was opened for traffic in 1869, and at that dale the depth of water was 26ft. The present, depth is about o2£ft-, and improvement!* arc now going on which will bring it to 34ft. The original width was 71ft on the bottom, and this has been gradually increased, until at present She bottom width is In 1870 there passed through the canal 486 .ships, whose gross tonnage was 654,914. Last year 3795 ships used the canal, and their total tonnage was over 19,000,000 tons. HANSOMS FOR 25*. How very bad arc the times which have overtaken the cabman was illustrated at an auctioneer's establishment in the Kdgwa.ro Road, London, when the cabs, horses," harness, and other appurtenances of a cab proprietor's business were sold, Several hansom cabs in good condition went for 25s each, while £6 10s was the top price. Fourwheelers realised more—from £4 5s to ten guineas. Cab horses, of which_ about ]'/!) were offered, fetched from about seven guineas to eighteen and a-half guineas ; sets of harness from 30s to about £5 10;?; a batch of five horse-collars realised 2s 6d ; a bundle of ten nosebags Is, and a chaffcutting machine (which originally cost £45; made £ 15s.

HOW YORKSHIREMEN PICK WIVES. Miss Eva H. Jones declared at a meeting of the iaealth Congress at Leeds that the workingmen in the West Riding of Yorkshire choose their wives with a view of their earning capacity, just as, ."he added, many men" in the higher walkx of life choose their' wives with an eye to their income, "In the woollen trade," said Miss Jones, " there are no fewer than 22,000 single and nearly 6000 married women, and of these more than 2000 are employed in the wool-comb-ing industry, which is undoubtedly most injurious to the health of the workers. I do not think that, generally speaking, a, high infantile mortality is attributable to women's employment, and any attempt to limit the wage-earning of married women would probably lead to worse evils than the present ones. A larger wage implies'. greater home comfort and better bousing,"

J LIVING WITH BROKEN NECK. | A man who has lived for years and may j live for another decade with his neck i broken was mentioned at a Southwards in- | quest on the body of Edwin George I«tdd, a probationer fireman, who fell from a lad- ; der at the fire brigade headquarters and | broke his neck. Deceased, it was explained, was in training for the brigade, but at the time of his accident he was not engaged in practice. He fell 16ft, and died three days later at Guy's Hospital. The Coroner j (to a lire brigade witness): Do you have j many accidents at headquarters? Witness: Oh, no; not fatal accident*. There ' is one man who fell 60ft some years ago | and he is walking about the streets of i London now. The Coroner (to the doctor): You had a ,case at Guy's of a broken neck some years ago, I believe, and the man lived." The Doctor: Yes, and he is still alive, and likely to live for ten years yet. He ba<=. to have medical attendance day and night, but he is quite cheerful. He [reads the newspapers and does knitting.

I RACE ROUND THE WORLD. J Four American schoolboy* have been I chosen by the New York American to enj gage with their masters in a record-making ! race round the world. Two set off from ! New York westwards, and two started j eastwards. The latter party reached LouI don in trouble, owing to two or three ! hours' delay. Their liner, the Kroit--1 prinzessin Cecil ie, . was due in Ply* ! mouth at three o'clock in the j morning. A special Just train was j chartered to rush them on to London, and v. ! they hoped to eclipse all records. But toy; : ; ; i beset the liner, which did not arrive till ". ■: I six, and these three lost hours cost, them '<{ ';t week. Had they been able to ! leave Plymouth at " 4.30 they could i: have caught, the Continental espies at Charing Cross, and travelling via Ostem!, reached -Moscow on the Wednesday with an hour to spare, and there caught the Trans-Siberian express, ■ .-'*.' which only runs once a week. ' But the programme is upset, -and for th« ( *| rest of the week the disconsolate! record- 1 makers were forced to cool their heels in . London. . 'I