GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18571, 1 December 1923, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

_______ __ I Rupee's BANK ACCOUNT. i'> A man who died in the Lambeth &«tfaians' infirmary had a Post Office i p'avings Bank account for £154. It, was "decided to claim some of the money for \Zj maintenance and burial. Wmj§ '; — 8 WOMAN DOCTOR CUBES QUEEN. Queen Marie of Rumania has successfullv submitted to a surgical operation j.;'.. "the hands of a distinguished woman aoctor, Mme. Martho Trangu Reiner. ®HPlatter was assisted by two Court Imperialists, % ■'. CAT 300 YEARS OLD.

* . A mummified cat was discovered during y, 0 demolition of t ! >a Citadel at Plymouth I built by Charles 12. It is believed to have been there since the erection of the I building 300 years ago. 'Sr Other finds included coins dating from J4OO onwards. "••

BURGLARS IN A CHURCH. 'A case of sacrilege at the parish church •is reported from Warsop, Notts. The church was decorated for the hardest festival, and bunches of grapes hanging over the alter were taken. "-•'An historical stained-glass window in ♦he vestry, which contained some of the finest examples of heraldic glass in Notts, was shattered, and a cross was thrown down on to the chancel floor.

CUT Orr BY RISING TIDE. t When picking pebbles on th« coast of 'Sandy Bav. Devon, two women living at Comix? "Martin had a narrow escape from -drowning. . ... ... „ A fast-flowing spring tide cut them off from the shore, and gradually forced them up the cliffs. Their screams were heard by two men, ant" after much difficulty, owing to heavy seas, they were rescued by a boat.

MAN DIES IN THEATRE. ; Mrs. Yonng, of Streatham, near Lon'don, was entering a theatre with her husband, when he told her to go on because he felt ill. She took her seat, hut when her husband did not appear she returned to the entrance, and found him there dying. # It way stated at the inquest that Mr. Young heart was twice the normal size and weight. A verdict of " Death from natural causes" was returned.

HONEYMOON TRAGEDY. The day alter she was married. Mrs. Jane Humphrey become a tfidow, her husband being seized with a sudden and fatal illness. Subsequently the woman appeared at Wiltesden Polite Court, London, charged ■with stealing linen, and it was said she had never recovered from the shock of her honeymoon tragedy. Since then she had been despondent and incapable of managing her own affairs. She was bound over.

ARMED LADS RAID A SHOP. Two boy;; attempted to raid a jeweller's shop on Essex Quay, Dublin. They asked to bo shown a cheap watch, and while this was being done by the solitary assistant they produced two revolvers and held up the 'assistant. • One of them began to empty the till and the other was stuffing his pockets -with watches from the window when the shopkeeper appeared. The bovs dashed out, followed by the shopkeeper and his assistant, and escaped.

% SONG INSPIRED BY CAT FIGHT. \ P A cat fight in "the stilly night" has frequently inspired a wealth of language. Mr. Emmet Adams, composer of "The Bells of St. Mary." and " God Send Yon Back to Me," confesses that such a battle inspired his latest song, "Who Threw Cold Water on the Tom Cat's Back? C* One night there was a cat fight in. the street outside his flat lasting for several hoars, an-'< only ended by a douch of water thrown from an upper window. Next morning Mr. Adams sat down at the piano, and in ten minutes composed his new melody.

%, DARING THEFT OF LIQUOR. Nearly £2000 worth of whisky and wine was stolen from a warehouse at Hay's Wharf, Tooley Street, London, early one morning. ' The burglarly was carried out m a faring manner. The thieves, after forcing the outer gates, broke off the padlock of the inner door, and backed a van into the warehouse. . ' They loaded the vehicle with three hogshead and two quarter casks of overproof Scotch whisky and a quarter-cask of port. The men drovii away without being detected.

LEAP FROM SCAFFOLDING. Workmen employed in the erection of a billiard hall, in Darwen Street, Blackburn, had a narrow escape from death. A larire cornice stone gave way and crashed through the scaffolding on to the footpath, where a moment before shop assistants had been engaged in sweeping. A crane driver shouted a warning to two workmen, John Lee and John McVan, who jumped from the scaffolding and got clear. Both suffered from, shock, while Lee sustained severe scalp wounds and kn«e injurv, and McVan's forehead and left, side we're badly injured.

ADMIRAL FINED FOR SPEEDING.

'For driving a motor-car to the public Sanger or. Clarence Parade, Southsea, Admiral Sir Sydney Fremantle, Naval Commander-in-Chief * at Portsmouth, was fined £2. - Police evidence was £Jven that, when the admiral was told he was going at 25 miles per hour and that his speed was dangerous, he replied, "Twenty-five nines an hour dangerous? Ridiculous." Admiral Fremantle admitted in court that he may have driven at 25 milss an hour, hut he was an experienced driver, and did not consider the speed dangercos.

FOX-TROTS AT A FUNERAL. A jovial barber died at TJdine, in Italy. His last wish was that the funeral should be accompanied by a jazz band led by his friend, Piguar. This was done, and the band played the newest fox-trots, Neapolitan songs and Futurist music. The tunes were so 'gay that some of the couples watching kept time to the ttusio by dancing, much to the annoy* *oce of the relatives of the dead barber, the police, however, kept order by inducing the band to change the measure w the music, but they continued nlavW£ fox-trots to funeral measure until the cemetery was reached.

HEN TAKES TO MOTORING. A hen that lias taken to motoring, and •pparently enjoys a run, has been found On a farm in Kincardinshire. The farmer °*ns -i car, and he took it from its shed '•°?*. day in order to drive to a meeting •bout three miles from his home. unknown to him, the hen had perched 011 the back of the hood, and he was greatly surprised to find it calmly roosting there when he arrived at his destination. He hit it undisturbed, and at the Close of the meeting drove back to the «rm with the hen still perched on the fin?* ha not ruffled a feather all the time, |r l< » at the close of the journey made If Way to the henhouse.

MICROBE OF MEASLES.

It is reported to the French Academy of Science that two doctors whose names are not mentioned, have discovered the microbe which causes measles.

STAGE DRESS FOR SHROUD.

A famous French clown ; Cyerillo, who for 40 years had been amusing Paris children, died suddenly. In his will h* asked to be buried in his oldest "clown" costume.

FRENCH ENOCH ARDEN. A French soldier, reported missing during the war, returned to the home of his mother-in-law in France. On arrival he learned that his wife, having given him up as dead, had married again, and had two children by her second husband.

PHJLION GIRL KILLED. Nicholas Isles, aged thirty, a motorcyclist, and Miss Annie Jackson, aged twenty-two, his pillion passenger, were killed in a road accident, near Lancaster, England. It is alleged that they were run into by a heavy motor-lorry.

JUDGE FINES HIMSELF. Judge Edward W. Carroll set an example in law enforcement in Watertonn, New York, when ho confessed violating a city traffic ordinance, read himself a lecture on law obedience, pronounced a fine of ss, and paid it to himself as judge. The judge had parked his car too long in a business street.

TRAGIC GAS POI&ONING. Mrs. Maynard, a breeder of bull-dogs, of Goring-on-Thames, met with a tragic end. She placed her kettle on a gasring preparatory to making tea one morning, and when about to light the f;as with a match fell forward, striking ler head against the gas-ring. She fell to the ground unconscious, leaving the unlighted, and her death was brought about by gas poisoning.

PACK OF HOUNDS IN DANGER. When in full cry the Llangibby (Monmouthshire) Hounds got on the railway line near Usk. A train was approaching, and the master (Mr. E. Pernberton Steer) galloped towards the engine shouting to the driver to stop. The whip in the meantime tried to get the dogs off the rails. Luckily the driver grasped the situation, and brought the train to a standstill just in time.

FIREBALL IN NORFOLK. A fireball fell in Norfolk and narrowly missed an infants' school at Banham. A sharp storm was passing over the village at the time, when the ball of fire fell suddenly with a loud crash into the children's playground, and burst into flames. Considerable damage was done to the out-buildings, and the gate of the school hoise was shattered. Large pieces of wodd were thrown over twenty yards away into a neighbouring field.

BOY'S LEAP PROM TRAIN. A train from Strood to Maidstone was passing through Mailing Station at 45 miles en hour when a schoolboy was seen to -jump from it on to the platform. Onlookers were amazed to see him rise, dust himself down, gather together his scattered schoolbooks, and walk out of the station. He had a few cuts on the chin and his knees were scraped. He said he thought the train stopped at Mailing, and did not want to go on to Maidstone.

OVER 1,100,000 MOTORS IN BRITAIN.

Statistics issued by the Ministry of Transport in London show that the number of motor vehicles in Great Britain on August 31 was , approximately 1,105,000. This number included 384,000 - cars taxed on horse power, 430,000 cycles, and 173,000 commercial vehicles. The total sum paid in licenses between December 1, 1922, and August 31, 1923, was £12,662,023, but this figure is subject to some adjustment for refunds.

ASSAULT BY PARISH PRIEST. A queer scene occurred ■ in Caccieri Church, in Italy, when a 'woman who suffers occasionally from mental disturbances while at prayer felt a vigorous punch on the nape of the neck. Turning round she saw that her aggressor was the parish priest^who continued to punch and kick her with great violence for no apparent reason. After the two were separated the woman was sent to hospital and the boxing priest was charged and remanded.

THIEF MISSES HAUL OF JEWELS.

While searching an Eastbourne house a Burglar cast aside a woman's leather handbag. It contained diamond rings and Treasury notes worth thousands of pounds. Then, just as he was about to ransack a wardrobe, . containing more jewels valued at £7000, a servant came to the bedroom door and, finding it fastened, raised the alarm. The burglary took place at Staveley Court, the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Richard White, The thief escaped with property worth .'2500.

RUSSIAN PRINCE VANISHES. Prince Andire Messine Pouohkine, a Russian nobleman, disappeared from Paris with 15,000 francs belonging to his employers. The Prince took refuge in France after the Bolshevik revolution, and like many of his aristocratic compatriots, found himself compelled to seek work to earn his living. Pouchkinc found a modest post with a motor-car firm in the Champs-Elysees. A few days later he was told to cash a cheque for 15,000 francs. He went to the bank and failed to return.

POISONED BY MOTOR GASSIS. The danger of carbon-monoxide poisoning to unwary motorists was emphasised by the South Gloucestershire coroner at an inquest on Samuel Wesley Britton, of Fishponds, son of an ex-Lord Mayor of Bristol. Deceased, who was 40 years old, served in the war and had. suffered from neurasthenia. He was found seated in a motor-car with his head fallen upon his hands. The coroner, in returning a verdict of accidental death, said deceased was asphyxiated by carbon-monoxide from the exhaust gasses of the motor-engine of the car.

JAPANESE ARTIST'S DEATH. A certain amount of mystery surrounded the death of a Japanese artist, Ryvichi Kimura, whose body with the throat cut was found on the beach at Cap Martin, near Mentone. At first it was believed to be a case o* suicide, but after inquiries the police were inclined to the view that Kimura was murdered and that theft was the motive cf the crime. If he committed suicide he did so with great fortitude. He must have walked down to the beach, taken off his hat, overcoat, and. jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeves, and then cut his throat with a razor.

INCIDENTS OP THE INTERNATIONAL HORSE RACE IN NEW YORK ON OCTOBER 20.

Left: The rival horsemen at the scale. S. Donoghue (England) left, and Earl Sande (U.S.A.). Eight: " Making much" of Zev, the American _ horse, after, the victory over Papyrus. ; -Underwood and Keystone.

GUARDIANS OF THE SURF: MARANUI LIFE-SAVING CLUB OPEN THE SEASON AT LYALL BAY, WELLINGTON LAST •SATURDAY. ■■ ■ . ' ' * , L Members of the club. 2. A lady bather in the surf. 3. The new life-boat, officially launched. —Weekly New?. . . ~...'■'!.