GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14531, 19 November 1910, Page 5 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

STOAT IN A BEDROOM. Seeing a stoat in the High-street at Witham, Essex, two dogs chased it into a house and upstairs into the bedroom, where they killed it, after a fierce fight, in which both dogs were badly bitten. ft - A FEMALE POLICEMAN. Miss Eleanor Canny, of Kansas City, has been sworn in as a policeman. She is superintendent of the school playgrounds, and she feels that she needs the police " badge" to increase her authority. She is the first policewoman in the United States. - 1 "-.■■■■ —- " . j; taxi-cabs; as gun-carriages: j TAXI-CABS' AS GUN-CARRIAGES, : - As the result of trials which .have been made recently, the . Army Council has de- j cided, as a tentative measure, to adopt the taxi-cab as the motor vehicle to be author- , ised by the Territorial Force regulations for . tha carriage of machine guns of Territorial : cyclist battalions. KAISER'S GIFT TO LORD ROBERTS, The Voissiche Zeitung announces that Field-Marshal Lord Roberts has received ; from the Emperor William a gift of a mag- | nificient rococo vase made at the Imperial porcelain factory. On the front is a portrait ; of His Majesty, while on the reverse side is a reproduction of the Imperial castle in Berlin. , BANK NOTES FROM THE SEA. When .the Yarmouth steam fishing boat ! Ocean Spray was sunk in a collision off Lerwick £30 in hank notes was in the cabin. A diver has just recovered the notes.. They were almost reduced to pulp, but they were separated with great care, and then dried, with the result that their condition -remained sufficiently good for the , bank, to honour them. • T A FOWL'S FAST. A case of a fowl living 20 days without food is reported from Stanford, near Hythe. A Buff Orpington cock belonging to a resident named Franks had been missing for three weeks, and was discovered wedged in the wooden foundation on which a hay-, stack has been constructed-. The bird was terribly emaciated, but has now recovered, and is crowing as lustily as ever. KITTEN AS OUT-PATIENT. An out-patient at the Poplar Hospital for Accidents is Tiddles, a dark-grey kitten, six weeks old. Tiddles had the; misfortune to dip into a copper of boiling water. It was promptly taken to the' hospital by one of its guardians; a little girl, and on its arrival was subjected to the usual routine," the fact that its name was Tiddles and that it lived in a basket being entered in. the putpatients' ledger. Tiddles was tenderly massaged - with olive oil, and was ' pronounced to be well enough rto return to its home. ; ' ; "

, • BAT AND HEN FIGHT. > A story, of a fight between a hen and a rat comes from the village of Dinnington, Somerset. Much; excitement was observed among the poultry of Parsonage Farm, and on a farm . hand going to ascertain the pause of the trouble he saw an old hen holding. a monster rat by the throat, while her chickens were scattered right and through fear, of the enemy. The brave mother continued to hold the intruder till it had been killed with a milking stool, and in spite of serious injuries to her throat, caused by being' bitten by the rat, she , would not be induced to leave it foil quite i satisfied that no further danger was to be feared, from it. " YAWN 'AT A DEATH SENTENCE. Mr. J. H. P. Murray, who has jyst returned to England after six years' work as Lieutenant-Governor of New' Guinea, has been - -interviewed . concerning his ( work among the fierce and strange people in that island. " The. Papuan," he says, " does not regard the taking . of . human life 'as an offence, and has not the slightest fear of death. I have known a native, when charged with murder, . fall fast asleep within five minutes of the beginning of the trial. As judge, I have sentenced a man to death while ho yawningly reminded me that he was tired of the whole legal formality." As linguists they have few equals,, "Nearly every tribe has its own language, and many ostites can speak or eight langy&gee. " ■ . : :x-..r ■, v..^, V.; : .■■.. : v-, : .V : : >;S>