GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18197, 16 September 1922, Page 6 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

TRAGEDY AT A TRIAL. During a case at Catania, Sicily, a woman named C6%cctta Scioto, having lost her case, fired a revolver, killing the man whom she alleged to be her betrayer. The two brothers of the man then killed the woman with revolver shots. Counsel and officials were wounded by the shots. " LOOK AFTER MY PUP." Through the explosion of a gun which he was using for scaring birds, a boy of Spalding, England, named Eric Thomson, had his thumb blown out of the socket. He was rushed to hospital on the back of a motor bicycle, a distance of six miles. Ho then "fainted, but before losing consciousness, requested his companions to " look after my pup!" TO FLY THE PACIFIC. Arrangements are being made for an attempt "by British airmen to fly the Pacific from America to Australia. This will be by far the most ambitious undertaking in* distance flying ever attempted. Hie longest stretch of the Pacific which would have to bo flown is about 2240 miles, and the shortest 2000 miles. A prize of iUO.GOO was offered some time ago by an American for the first flight from America to Sydney. BRIDGE BUDLT IN 26 HOURS. Sixtv men. working at top speed, have dismantled a 75-ton bridge ami erected a new one in tho short space of 26 hours. The bridge spans the Midland and Great .Northern joint line near Counter Drain Station, Lincolnshire. The men started to dismantle tho old bridge at three o'clock in the morning, and by five o'clock next morning the new structure of steel on concrete pillars was in position. While the gang was working their meals were brought to them by train. GOLFER FINDS BOMBS. While searching for golf balls near Bromlev. Kent, a golfer found three bombs. They "ere about 200 yards from a railway junction, and had been there, apparently, for some weeks. Close by is a railway arch They were handed to the police, and a further search of the vicinity was made but no other explosives were discovered. Near the spot where the bombs were found there was an encounter a year ago between the police ami Sinn Feiners, resulting in the capture of four men. HAPPIEST VILLAGE. Navestock, Essex, claims to be the happiest village in England. When, at A fete last vear, a gammon of bacon was offered to" the happiest married couple in the parish, every married couple claimed it. and the judges threw up their task. At this year's fete, there was a great number of entries. The prize went to Mr. and Mrs. George Penfold. the youngest couple competing. Mr. Penfold scored heavily oy denyine that he visited the local inn, but proving that he was not a " Pussyfoot " because he worked at a brewery. « COCAINE KING " ARRESTED. Known as the " Greek Cocaine King " in the underworld of seven capitate, with domiciles in Paris.- Londqn»v.and Berlin. Demetrius Melekisi, aged- 41,* a Greek, was arrested recently near Strasbourg. His capture was followed by the arrest of more than a dozen of his satellites —mostly Greeks. Melekisi, whose overcoat was filled -with the drug, carried a list of some hundreds of his sub-agents, and other documents, showing a turnover in the sale of cocaine (which he purchased mainly in Germany), totalling mere than £4000 monthly. , a E ssi '■% A DEADLY DRINK. A sad story of an actress who fell a victim to the drinking of methylated spirits was told at Westminster recently. It was related that while playing in pantomime at Cardiff another actress induced her to drink the spirit. A craving was 6et up, and her husband, a Swiss, named Eichenberger, tried to break her of the habit- The woman, however, expressed her determination to get the spirit. Methylated spirit could be got for fivepenoe for half a pint, while a similar quantity of whisky .would cost as many ■hillings. Medical evidence showed that the woman died from chronic alcoholism. GELIGNITE IN AN OVEN.

Alfred Botterill, an engineer, was killed and several of his family injured bv an explosion of gelignite at a cottage at West Haddon, Northamptonshire. Botterill had put the explosive in the oven to dry before using it for blasting. He and his family were at tea when the stuff exploded. Two rooms of the cottage were ■wrecked. Botterill, who was sitting at tea, was terribly injured, and was dying on arrival at Northampton Hospital- Hig son Bernard was also badly injured. His grand-daughter was crushed under the fallme debris, and was not expected to recover. Another grandchild escaped witli a cut. Mrs. Botterill, who was just entering'the room with food, was blown backwards, but escaped injury. BURGLAR'S DUAL LIFE. How a Bradford man Jed a dual existence a 6 workman and housebreaker was describ&d at Leeds Assizes recently, when James \V. Woffenden, was sentenced to three years' penal servitude for housebreaking. Woffenden admitted 40 such offences, and also pleaded guilty to 17 larceny offences. The police said there had been difficulty in apprehending him, because at the time the offences were committed he was working as a respectable man. He would feign illness in order to leave work, and then go and break into houses, frequently when the owners were asleep. His fellow workmen, believing him to be really ill. had made collections among themselves for him and his wife. BOY IN LION'S CAGE. Louis Juge, aged 19, who during the day ekes out a scant living as a newspaper cyclist and at night becomes a lion tamer, almost lost both jobs recently, when his bicycle threw its rider ' into the midst of four lions. Juge was ' bilhd to appear at a menagerie and to ! ride a bicycle on the top of the lions' j cage. He had cycled over the iron bars ' when the machine skidded and slipped « between. Three of the bars snapped 1 under the weight of the performer and ' the rider fell on top of the bicycle. The \ fall of Jur:e in the lions' midst caused. { a stampede of the spectators as well as j of the lions, the last-named moving to ' a corner. Dashing to the other end of ' fhe cage, the cyclist sprang through the J gap and attendants rapidly placed iron rafters over the cage to prevent the ani- ' mals escaping. ' PREHISTORIC EARTHQUAKE. Three-toed foot-prints eighteen inches long and hip-bones and vertebrae of huge mastodons that roamed the earth millions of years ago, reveal in the Stik Valley in Northern British Columbia, a prehistoric earthquake. The Indians have always ' given the valley a wide berth, declaring < that it was haunted. A white man has 1 spent almost a year, with two pack dogs, < investigating the fastness. The Stik • Biver has cut a deep passage through the i soft rock,, exposing the mammoth bones. ' These are not fossilised and they appear i to be hip bones and spinal sections of Bomo tremendously large mastodons. The < three-toed footprints are found clearly de- i fined in sandstone and shale. The high < ■walls pi the valley and the manner /in which the valley in closed in at each end by huge rock walls indicate that the pre liictoric earthquake caught the mammoths while they ; wero feeding or sleeping beside ' the stream and that they were drowned as the wators slowly filled the valley bot- j

WHEN THE DUMB SPOKE. A boy who had been dumb for 16 years was stated at Brentford, England, Police Court to have regained his speech suddenly one night. He became very abusive to his parents and a doctor was sent for; the boy was certified to be insane. MEXICAN BANDIT'S THREAT. Mr. Shaw, the U.S. Consul at Tampico. has advised the State Department that » Mexican bandit named Gorazave has threatened to blow up .ill the oil-pipe lines and public stations in the lampieo district unless he receives an immediate pavment of a large sum. Gorazaye is making his headquarter* at Pecera Camp, near ihe La Corona Oil Company s works. WOLF LOOSE IN A TRAIN. There was considerable alarm and excitement at Matlock Bath, Midland 'Station, on the arrival of the Manchester train ore dav. In the guard's van were two wolves from Matlock Bath Zoo, and when the guard opened the door ho was faced by one of the animals, which had escaped' from its cage recently. It was twenty minutes before the train could proceed. ' The wolf was safely recaptured. SHOT FROM STAGE. At a theatre in Roubaix. a young woman was supposed to be killed by the villain of the piece. The actor used his own revolver, and, not supposing it was loaded, fired at his "victim." Actors and I audience were shocked when there was a | : real report. The actress was not hurt, but I 1 a M. Benaud. who was showing people to their seats, was shot in the head. It was j not expected that he would recover. GREEN HONEY. The recent wet and cold weather in j England has had a detrimental effect on honey. At the Royal Show at Cambridge the entries were only half the usual mini- j ber. Honey came in abundantly up to a month before, but after that scarcely any j had been gathered. Also, because of the j great irregularity in the blossoming of j flowers owing to the weather, there was a •good deal of greenish and other queercoloured honey. The source from which j the bees had "gathered it was difficult to j tell.. SAVED SEVENTEEN OHDLDREN. ' A Wandsworth (London) man the other day gallantly leapt into the Thames and saved a child from drowning. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police thought the deed -worthy of recognition, and on making inquiries he found that the man has saved no fewer than 17 children from drowning. Th* hero is W. G. Rashbrook. He is an employee of the local gas company and he has twice been awarded the Boyal Humane Society's j certificate. It is undesstood that his gallantry has been brought to the notice of the Carnegie Fund. LONE YAOHT-BUDLDER. In the intervals of helping to " bunker " ocean-going vessels, E. Granlund. a Tyne-dock trimmer, has built during the last four years a yacht 36ft. long, with accommodation for eight passengers. He has no technical knowledge, and has worked single-handed. His yacht is of- eight tons. His " shipyard " is half a mile from the river, and special arrangements had been made to get her launched. It has cost under £300, but Mr. Granlund values the yacht at £1500. She has six watertight compartments, and is capable of, he claims, " weathering " any gale. LIVE LION AS GUEST. " There's a live lion on the way for you." This unusual telephone message to the Savoy Hotel, London, from Nine Elms Station, Vauxhall, caused considerable perplexity at the hotel. " But we can't put a lion up for the night," the hotel authorities replied. " Don't send it on to us. What on earth do we want with a lion ?" *' Can't help it, sir," replied the railway man. " It's addressed to you." Soon afterwards a guest who had not long arrived asked the management if they had heard anything of a l lion, as he -wanted to get it delivered to a London theatre where it is to figure in the cast. He wa3 told of the telephone conversation, and when the lion arrived UNIVERSITY AFLOAT.

UNIVERSITY AFLOAT. On a recent Atlantic voyage, the Cum ard liner Saxonia was, in a manner of speaking, a floating university. Lectures were given daily in the lounge and the library, the audience consisting' of 460 passengers travelling under the auspices of the Institute of International Education. There were classes in French and Italian, lectures on history, art, architecture, culture, and industries. Each group of students was under the leadership of experienced educators. There were chaperons, professors, and trained nurses. Among the passengers were American girl graduates, teachers, and instructors, representing over 100 universities and colleges from San Francisco to Maine. • QUEEREST WILL. A will neatly engraved on the back of a Naval identification disc of about the size of a half-cown Hums been filed in Somerset House. London. It is one of the most curious wills on record. It was made by William Skinner, plumber, of H.M.S. Indefatigable, who went down with that ship in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The"disc was recovered from the sea, and at first sight looked just the ordinary brass disc with the usual particulars deeply punched on if. On the other side, however, when cleaned up, were foupd minutely inscribed words, visible in a certain angle of light to the naked eye. and quite plain beneath a microscope. By this will be left everything he possessed —some £250—t0 " his darling wife." FORTUNE TO ESCAPE. M. Arkody Osipovieh Tziprinsky, a banker of Odessa and reputed to have once been one of the richest men in Bussia, recently arrived in New York. He stated it cost him 900,000,000,000 roubles to make his escape from his native country, including such items as:—Getting out of prison in Sebastopol in 1919, 2,000,000 roubles; securing release from same prison six months later, 250,000,000 roubles; bribing officer in service of General Wrangel, by whom he had been sentenced to death, 250.000.000 roubles; for the rescue of his wife from Odessa and her transportation to Constantinople, 200,000,000 roubles. In Turkey M. Tziprinsky pawned the jewels his wife had sent there at the beginning of_ the war and thus obtained the money with which to come to America. Before the war 900,000.000,000 roubles would have represented about £90,000,000,000. The rouble is to-day almost valueless. A GENERAL PINED. Found guilty of being drunk in cliarge of a motor-car at Chelsea, Major-Gen-eral Garnet Burk Hughes, D.5.0., was fined at Westminster 40s and 10 guineas costs. General Hughes is a son of Sir Sam Hughes, a former Canadian Minister of Defence, and he commanded the sth Canadian Division in the war. He denied the charge, and said there was nothing abnormal in the fact that he fell over the bonnet of the car in trying to start it. A witness for the defence was questioned about the " cocktails " he and General Hughes had at a club, and said that although they were composed of strong drink there was a great deal of ico in them. They Iwd sandwiches as well. Evidence of character was given by Lord Beaverbrook and Mr. L. C. M Amery, M.P. Notice of appeal ' was given.