GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18374, 14 April 1923, Page 6 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

FOUR LIVES FOR A HAT. A farm labourer named Bonnefemme, who recently murdered four members of a family named Ducasse, for whom he was working, in a village near Toulouse, was confronted with the bodies of his victims the farmer and his wife and the farmer's parents—as they lay in their coffins. Ha showed no regret, and declared that he had shot them all with a gun because he suspected one of them of having stolen his hat. ZEPPELIN LINERS. A number of prominent men have decided to form a company to operate, with Government co-operation, a dirigible airship line between New York and Chicago. The promoters include Mr. Marshall Field, Mr. William Wrigley, jun., .the "chewing-gum king," and Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, formerly Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency. The services of German Zeppelin experts will be utilised. DON FOUND HANGED. Mr. Harold Tetley Burt. Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, was found by a servant hanged at his rooms recently. Mr. Burt, who only a few months ago was elected a fellow of All Souls' Went to Oxford from Manchester, where he was a University lecturer. Mr. Burt is said to have been in good health and spirits when he retired the previous night. He was badly wounded during his service on the Western front. "THAT IS MY DADDY!" A poignant discovery was made by a Cirl on coming out of school at Reading. A man named Jenkins fell on the pavement near the Katesgrove Schools, injuring his head and dying immediately. Just as the people who had gathered around were surmising the identity of the dead man, one of a party of schoolgirls, who had joined the crowd exclaimed. "That is my daddy,' and burst into tears. FOX SWIMS OUT TO SEA. A fox started bv the Kent West Street Harriers on the high cliffs at Kingsdown near Deal, doubled on the hounds and raced down a rough track to" .the foreshore- He hesitated momentardy, then plunged into the water, and began frantically swimming seawards. ,; A number of the* hounds, unable to check their rapid pursuit, • fell over the cliffs to the rocks, 100 ft. below.' The- fox afterwards swam ashore and- took refuge in one of the war-time " pillboxes," where he was caught and killed. r" i/r ! LORRY r THAT., WALKS. ; A motor-lorry that " walks like ' a man " has been invented by a German for use in mountainous regions, accord--ing to a report received by the Washington Commerce Department. This lorry, which proceeds on four feet steered by Tan ordinary hand-wheel, has , a chassis set over two pairs, of footlike runners which move alternately. It has hauled a bad of six to*. eight tons from five to six miles an hour over rough roads. ji The lorry is equipped with, a 25 horse-power .engine. .;

\ J APPARITION IN WHITE. ' . Two '"Weymouth men, returning home ' at midnight, were startled 'by an apparition in white, which : ; walked out of a side street. 1 Investigating, they were as-, i tonished to find a young lady clad only in her night; attire. ti She had walked in her :?sleep a distance of 200 yds. from i her ' home. ;As ' the r men : approached her ■ she, ;;; fell .down some " stone steps leading to I the harbour, and 1 a few yards farther - would' have taken her into \ the water. The: girl's : fall awakened her to semi-con-sciousness, but she was so distressed that • she, had to be carried to her home, from she had not been missed. ; ' 7 ; '. POSTAGE STAMP " KING." Mr. Arthur Hind, ;., the owner vof the rarest stamp. in the world, ; has arrived in Bradford from America. 'This specimen hitched £7600 at the Paris auction last year, and may be shown at the London international stamp exhibition in May. Mr. Hind, who is an American, is '. about 60 years of age, and of British 'i birth. His collection is already the fore- '•}. most in America, and' may develop into '" the finest \ in the, world. He has : beeen ■:5a collector, for more than 30 years, but only .recently has bought standard rarities. A matchless .pair, of Id'and :2d : "Post Office" Mauritius on one envelope, for which Mr. Hind paid the record price lof £11,000. came from the de l'Argen*'HereY collection. ', } "'" ' PIG'S EYE FOR BOY. r -Considerable interest has been aroused An the medical world of America by an amazing ?-. operation performed at Peterson, New Jersey, by Dr. Edward ■B. 'Morgan,' in an effort to restore the sight of an /eighteen-year-old .1 youth who was blinded as the result of a fireworks explosion during the last Fourth of July* celebrations. In an V operation lasting - nearly fifty minutes tiarts of the eyeball of a six-months-old pig were ■grafted,: on ; to . the j boy's ' eye,; -after > which " .four stitches were put in. > The • animal's - crys--I talline lens was not : transferred, and Dr.. -.Morgan explained that the defect would be made up by the: use of ; eyeglasses. He expected to be able to tell; whether or not the ■ operation had been a success in ■ ten days' time.» ■ : fl*Y''']': ':.** -.TT"-'-. ""^

- ' BABE COINS FOUND. -;\ <"■''(■ An :--interesting communication has been made toi'> the Academy of -Inscriptions ";" concerning" the discovery at Arras (of a quantity v : of ancient gold coins. In '. a mass of ; clay which ■ was: being " dug for a brick 1 works,'-'a v vase - was found ~.. containing: 160 gold pieces, 1 nine of which each weighed. 52 grammes. All the pieces are of the time of Constantino the Great. One, ,: in: particular, is exceedingly rare ; it represents the entry of the Emperor Constantius': Chlbrusr,, father of Constan tine the Great,, into London. The coin depicts London "as it then was, with its towers, ramparts, and gates. Before the town is the Emperor on horseback on his right is a kneeling woman, personifying the submission of the city; on his left is shown the boat which carried Constantus across the Channel. This coin, which bears the mark of the mint at Treves, then the capital of Gaul, is not . included in any French collection, and several of the other coins are also unique in France. '.: > DYING CHILD'S FORTITUDE. Fortitude on the part of a child of six such as is rarely known in cases per- ...._ sons of riper years was revealed at an inquest at West Byfleet on a girl named Joan Webb. She was, playing on the footpaTT with others, and 'as a motor lorry passed ; she ran backwards into the roadway. The wing of the front mudguard caugTit'her and throwing her under the back wheel, which passed over the lower portion of the body, inflicted such injuries that she lived'only two hours. The girl was fully conscious until the end. and after asking for a drink she asked her mother if she might say her prayers in bed. Prior to doing so her father, who 'is a clerk at Waterloo, entered the room, and she greeted him with ' Hullo, Daddy, I'm all right." To her '■ moth*"-, she added, "I'm not going to cry. ""Tammy, or else I won't get better.'' Joan said her prayers, and as she said "God bless Mammie and Daddy," ■»'she /passed away. In returning-a verdict of accidental death* the jury exonerated the;,d,river from blame.

TOY BALLOON DEATH. Marie Matsieu, a three-year-old girl, who was left alone in a room in the Rue Clapeyron, Paris, was given a balloon to play with.' She took the balloon near the fire. A loud explosion was followed by a fire, which burnt the apartments out. The child was burned to death. A public warning has now been issued, that toy balloons are filled with inflammable gas. RAID BY WILD BOARS. Twenty wild boars attacked a farm owned By M. Duoourg at Lillebonne, in Normandy. About sunset a farm hand heard a "galloping noise. Then he saw 20 wild TToara approaching the farmyard at top speed, tearing up plots of cabbage and lettuce on their way. Seven of the boars were shot by the farmer and another man. and (Tie others escaped back to the woods. WHY SHE FAILED. A burglar, who had only a few more months to complete his sentence in the prison at Soleure, was permitted by the governor of the prison to marry his fiancee as a reward for good behaviour. Shortly before the bride-to-be was due to arrive the governor received a telegram stating that she had been arrested the day before for theft, and was in prison at Bienne awaiting trial. SCHOOLBOYS POISONED. A schoolboy died at Mountain Ash, and another child was taken ill, after eating the contents of a small can. During lessons William Acteson produced the can, and poured the contents, which appeared to be sugar and cocoa, into his hand. He ate most of it, end gave some to a friend, John Evans. Shortly afterwards both became ill, Acteson died a few hours later, but Evans recovered. The police have taken charge of the can and the remainder of its contents. EARTH SWALLOWS HORSE. While ploughing a field at Crawfordston Farm, Annanbank, Ayrshire, a ploughman was amazed to see the ground suddenly open beneath one of his horses and the animals disappear from view. The plough became jammed across the mouth of the hole, and the horse, suspended by the harness, was strangled by its collar. The man and the other horse narrowly escaped falling into the hole also. The accident was the result of a subsidence in underground pit workings. TRADE IN DAUGHTERS. " There has been a suspicion for some time that parents of white girh in Gateshead have been Trading their daughters with foreign seamen," remarked Mr. Commissioner Radcliffe, K.C., at Durham Assizes, in sentencing Richard D6reen, a Hindu seaman, to six, months for abducting Isabella Brumwell; aged 15 years, and assaulting her at Sheffield. Another girl named Chamach, of similar age, was also mentioned, but the accusation against' Doreeri. respecting her was withdrawn. ;''. ""•

ENGLAND'S FOUNDER. Lord Desborough claims that the great mound oir Taplow Hill, near his river residence, was the burial place of Ella, King of the South Saxons, who organised the Saxon invasion of 'Britain. Bone 3 removed from the site have recently been examined. "I attach much historic importance to the discoveries."; he stated recently. "Ella was really the founder of Angleland, and greater tribute could be paid to his memory ; than to lay him at rest on the most conspicuous summit everlooking the scene of his victories." GIRL'S TERRD3LE FATE. Through.; her clothes catching in the wheel of an engine, Olive Annie Moore, the 13-year-old daughter of a farmer of .jYarnscombe, North Devon, was .cameo. round the wheel at a great rate and sustained a fractured skull. Her 10-year-old sister was a terrified;witness. It was stated at the inquest : ; ths;t her father, whp had just finished cutting chaff in a loft, sent Olive downstairs to turn off the petroli from the engine, and in leaning over to do ithis her apron was caught. The jury returned : a -verdict of accidental death," and exonerated the father from blame. \ < ; ■;;■: OX AS BANKER. $ In 1913, when . twenty gold pieces (£1) were no rarity, a peasant named Krain, of Overtath, near Cologne, received one in change from a pedlar, the Central News says. - The coin fell into a heap of potato peelings and could not be found. It was assumed it had been stolen. The peelings were used to feed, the cattle. The peasant's oldest ox was recently killed, and in its stomach was found the missing coin. Herr Krain hurried to the post office and changed the gold piece into 150.000 paper marks, the greatest amount of money he had ever, had in his life. > - - - KILLED BY BAD TEETH. Blood poisoning caused by bad teeth and gums was the only theory put forward at the inquest at Nottingham -on Emma Chapman, who died suddenly after a doctor had prescribed a.medicine and gargle for a sore ' throat. A doctor said he could not •'■, find any.- cause of death. The arms and hands were red. as if the woman had died from* gas poisoning, but there was; no gas in the room in which she died. The'city analyst found a small quantity of ; quinine in the stomach. A verdict that , death '. was due to - blood poisoning was returned. The coroner said he knew cases where bad; teeth i and gums had caused blood poisoning, and it was possible that this was a similar case. , . '■;.,.'.. '"'•,.■"

SOWERS OP WILD OATS. Seven girls fainted in a. flutter of excitement at Raven Hill Road Church, Belfast, when the eloquent Pastor Nicholson denounced young people who prefer gaiety to goodness. Unconverted young women, he said, dance four nights a week, go to theatres and picture houses on the other nights, and only think of church ;on Sundays. " I would rather my daughter kept company with the worst of women than with women of this type." He warned young men that they could not sow wild oe.ts without reaping a ■ harvest of pain and aches in later life. " I am troubled' with rheumatism," he confessed; " as a result of my own evil doings in younger days. I have lived in sin, gambled, and was often drunk, and at times now my pain is terrible." THIEVES RAID A SCHOOL. Following" the recent burglary at St. Paul's School, Hammersmith, London, when a number of silver trophies were stolen, Fulham Central Schools have been broken into and valuable sports shields taken. The* school caretaker discovered on his rounds that a door had been forced, and going into the lower hall found that two glass cases containing silver football and swimming shields had been smashed and the contents stolen. The Lipton Sports Trophy, value 100 guineas, one of the most valuable of its kind in the country, was, however, apparently overlooked. The school war memorial, consisting of a glass case on which were inscribed the names of old scholars who, fell in the war, was wantonly broken. The intruders got into the school through a top window, which they reached by a ladder. Apparently they had no torch, for matches were strewn about wherever damage was done. •-