GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18647, 1 March 1924, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

— — — i KILLED by cigarettes. Alfred Capon, aged twenty-two, a faf ford labourer, who was found dead in was killed by excessive cigarette !;m f dfctor staled at the inquest that he warned Capon against the habit. Death « from anemia, accelerated- by cxces*fe smoking and inhaling.

SIX IN ONE BED. « Two zirls in this,city, more than fourteen vca£ old, sleep in the same bed as heir "father and mother and two small t! ' c 5 r „ " said Captain James Griff iths, 'f 1 acting of the Cardiff guardians. - Many people here are making £6 a week Jffit from their houses by letting rooms. 5,0 houses are rented at 25s a wee • . " Tn another house in Cardiff a man, his . ( ; and seven children live in one room, V Med " There arc several cases of a flav of'six li v i"g in one smaU room -" harsh first sentence. "11l these days a man would not be i -tn five years for his first se ff n^e Lf> said the' Recorder of Folkestone 'when he sentenced George Fori, tlVd eiehtv, to twelve months' imprisonSft for obtaining money and jewellery ■ SJ means of worthless cheques. 'Ford had been convicted m the names ' 0 f Kawlinson, Clarke Jard.ne, Haynes, and Dawson. His first sentence was five .years in 1884. ' gambling losses and gains. Heavv losses and ' gains marked New Year play at the Nice Casino and at Monte Carlo. * Mr. John Factor London, created a "sensation at Nice by losing about £5000 in the course of the evening aD tain Ernie Chadwick, one of the foremost English aviators during the war, won £5000 at Nice ana at Monte Carlo, starting with £20. A well-known -Rumanian banker won £12,000 at the Nice Casino one evening. took OPIUM FOE 40 years. ' For 40 years a Nottinghamshire miner, James Harvey, aged 62, took medicine which was a mixture of tincture of opium and henbane. It was stated at the invest on the man that he drank between two and three pints a week. a medical witness expressed surprise that a person should be able to get such , large quantities of opium. ' t verdict of death from heart failure caused by chronic opium poisoning was recorded. _____ A FATHER'S GRATITUDE.

4. verdict of "Accidental death was recorded -at a Southwark inquest on Mr. Alfred Ball, aged thirty-three, a civil engineer, of Sidcup, who, while removing awireless aerial from a tree in his garden, fell to the ground, and received an injury •which caused his death at Guy s Hospital. Mr. Ball's father stated that in order to show his gratitude for what the hospital authorities did for his son he would subscribe two guineas a year to the institution for the next ten years.. £-_

BL'ffNDER CORRECTED. { Three girl bank clerks going home from 1 a party on Christmas morning complained i ox the conduct of a man in a. Birmingham i churchyard, and George Ray was arrested, and identified by them. After he had been charged and twice remanded two of the girls rushed into the prosecuting solicitor's office in tears, and said they had made a mistake. The man of whom they had complained in the churchyard had annoyed them again. , When Ray appeared in court for the third time he was. discharged. ■ - WINDFALL OF £20,000.

Mr. John Innes and his sister, Mrs. English, of Greenock, have received news from ; Now York that they will inherit more than £20,000' from the estate of their: brother, Mr. Kobert Innes, a Scottish pioneer who spent fifty years in America. . Mr. Innes is a joiner, sixty-four years old, Mrs. English is a widow with one 'daughter. Robert Innes was the eldest of a family of three. He sailed for Quebec in 1871, and worked afterwards in Detroit and, Grand Rapids.

CHESS FOR WOMEN".

The skill displayed by Miss I. Menchik, ' a Russian girl of 16, in the Hastings chess tournament, has revived" interest in the possibilities of chess as a. game for women. . ■, • Mrs. E. Ijlolloway, ex-woman champion of England, stated that she considered the number of women players was slowly increasing. For middle-aged and elderly people there is no better pantime for occupation and mental exercise, but, she added, it is liable so to intrigue young people as to make them forget their household and other duties. Women are often quicker than men to sun* up a position on the board. ,

FORTUNE FOR ORPHANS.

A large sum for the benefit of poor orphans, with preference to thoise of Army and Navy officers killed in the war, was left in the will of Mr. Joel Herbert Seavcrns, of Pimlico, London, who died in November. After making various bequests amount-, in;; to some £12,000, two-thirds of the . residi l " of the estate (£65,845) to his wife and one-third to his sister for life, Mr. Seavcrns directed that on the death of his wife and sister the ultimate residue . should be held in trust for (or) towards the education and care of poor orphans, giving preference to males over females, He authorised the trustees to expend not only the income, but the capital.

tiIBLE FOR CHILDREN.

r H_i<> vice-chancellor of Cambridge University states that, a schools Bible is to be published, following 011 the report of an advisory Committee to the Cambridge education authority. It- is intended that the children's Bible shall (.m it pa sages which are considered omit pa sages which are considered ' ii'revelant or unsuitable, and the, book v be about two-thirds the size of the prr,-,5nt- Bible. The work of selection will probably be undertaken bv three members of the advisory committee—Dr. Nairne, Regius Profcsor of Theology: Sir Arthur QuillerC'nnrh. the novelist and professor of English literature: and Br. T. li. Glover. Fellow and Classical Lecturer of St. John's College.

SEVEN RUNAWAY HORSES.

Breaking loose from a field in which they were crazing, seven horses of the Ist 2nd Lif ( Guards, quartered at Windsor, galloped madly through the town one afternoon at a time when shopping at its height, I'rom tlie Maidenhead road they swept along \ ictoria Street, having been presented from entering Peascod Street, the busiest thoroughfare in the town. Afterwards the >" made for the High Street, was thronged. but again were header; off into Bark Street, a wide, quiet tn o1 o'.. giifrilf. r The through the gates of the bong Walk, down which they loped at top speed and went on for nearly 2 miles, ■finally entering Windsor Great Park by «e double gates. A search party evenually succeeded in fretting them all back xr' n ° arraCKS at Windsor. Is one of the animals was injured nor rod any seem the worse for the five or six iii" gallop. No person was injured, • there -were many narrow escapes. ■ a-'i orses galloped in single file in the : iS xi e tbe road for the greater part i-v:,,-,:■ " "ie way. ? ■ /

I 9,000,000 'PHONE CALLS.

At the staff dinner of the London phone service at the Holborn "Restaurant,' the chairman, Mr. W. A. Valentine, controller of the London telephone service, said it was estimated that, in about 15 years '1,000,000 telephones would be working in London. lJuring a recent busy week there were more than 9,000,000 calls. £1800 DAMAGE BY MOUSE. Engineers at the Aberdeen electricity station estimate at £1800 the extent of the damage as the. result of a breakdown caused by a mouse. The mouse got into one of the hightension cubicles and created a short circuit lighting, heating, and power services were 'shut off for 15 minutes* The charred remains of the mouse were afterwards found. ALONE WITH DEAD MAN. When some men employed at a brewery in London went to work one morning they found the gatekeeper, George Duncanson, 34, a one-legged man, lying dead on the floor of his hut, while in a corner lay a young woman, Margaret Simpson, unconscious. She was taken to the Fulham Infirmary. It is believed that! Daricanson died from heart failure and that the shock of his death caused the woman to faint. AN UNCOMMON DISEASE. In an appeal at Surrey Quarter Sessions by Arthur Cecil Burton, a veterinary surgeon, against a sentence of 21 days' imprisonment in the second division for being drunk in charge of a motor-car, ;it ■ was stated that since an accident while — • riding in a steeplechase, in which his skull was fractured, he had attacks of ! Meniere's disease. This is ' uncommon , affliction of the nerves which produces , loss of control. The conviction was squashed. TWINS DIE AT 41. Twin brothers, Robert and Samuel Bland* died at Northampton within a > few days of each other, aged 41. Pneu-. i monia" was the cause of death in each case, i and they were buried in the same grave. When they were boys the two were so 1 much alike that they were obliged to wear differently coloured ties for pur--3 poses of identification, and even then mis--1 takes were frequently made- During the war they saw active service in France 3 with their father and five brothers. 5 Both of them were married but neither left any children. « THE DREADFUL PIANO.

When, at Cambridge, the Incorporated Society of Musicians were discussing " Harmony of Yesterday and To-day," Dr. Naylor. of Emmanuel College, canbridge, declared that a large number of modern combinations had been found by accident, all. due to "that dreadful in strument," he said, pointing to the piano. They could not go on with the equal temperament of the piano, in which not a single chord was in tune. Sir Hugh Allen said he imagined that much of the trouble they were suffering was due to the piano. Most of the curious sounds in modern music could have been produced with equal facility and with as much tone colour by the average housemaid.

A FASTIDIOUS DOG.

A dog that did not like postmen was the subject of a summons at Bromley Police Court. It was a wire-haired terrier, and its owner produced it in court and sat it on the front of the witness-box to show how well-behaved and good-tem-pered it was. The owner was summoned for allowing to be at large an unmuzzled, ferocious _ dog. _ ' : v; ■ ■ A postman gave evidence that the dog r attacked him and bit him near the ankle when he was delivering letters, and two other postmen . said that, the- dog had | rushed at them. A police sergeant said that when he called ,at the house the dog did not seem either dangerous or ferocious. The magistrate made an order for the dog to be kept under proper control,

' SUICIDE BY SUGGESTION. I

A conversation on suicide by a youth who was afterwards found dsad on the railway lino .was described at the inquest at Carshalton, Surrey, on Frederick Austin, 18. He was a friend of two other youths under 20 who had been found dead within the previous three weeks at the same spot. Emily White, a lodger at his home, said Austin spent all the previous evening talking to her about suicide. He referred to the cases of his friends and an old schoolmaster, who committed suicide on the line, and asked her if British engines had guards in front of their; ,as in America. v From- Austin's injuries, it was stated, he must have stood up in front of the train to meet his death. Ke t .ir'.'*.uC l a verdict «-,f suicide while "f unsound m.-nd, the coroner, Mr. F. J. Nightingale, said he did not lc i-jv/ what evil influence was at work to .cause youths to take their lives in this way. it seemed to be suicide by suggestion, and he hoped that it would be counteracted by some means or other.

DULL SCHOOL CHAPELS.

Dull and drab services in school chapels aroused a protest from Mr. S. H. Nicholson, organist of Westminster Abbey, at a session of the Educational Association's conference at. University College, London, the subject discussed being ' The Music in School Chapels." I It was forgotten, he said, that many boys were bored by being expected to shout incessant hymns, many of which were devoid of meaning or "interest to them. -As far as possible the music of the chapel should be put on the same basis as other out-of-school activities— artistic, literary, dramatic, and even games. Chapel choirs should be regarded as a definite school distinction, in the same way as the cricket or football team. Describing his experience when * organist in the "Lower School Chapel at • Eton, Mr. Nicholson said the boys ob- ! viously were bored to tears. They could • hardly be persuaded to sing a ; note, much less to sit still. "The whole thing was so utterly futile and ineffective," he added, " that I threw up the appointment m disgust." Since then the service had been brightened up. transformed indeed beyond recognition, and was now nearly ideal.

STRANGE MARRIAGE TANGLE.

A stranee rtiarria-ce tangle was brought, into the Divorce Court in London for solution. i Mrs. "Minnie Katherine Yeluyshes j petitionee for a decree of nullity of marriage on the ground that her husband, John Francis, was married in a false 1 name to the knowledge of both parties. She had already been divorced by the husband, and the King's Proctor had inL tervened and had the decree rescinded. Petitioner's counsel. Mr. Cotes Preedy. . said the parties were married in London on August 30. 1916. A recent examination of the banns bonk revealed that the banns were only published once before the t marriage " and twice afterwards. The Marriage Act said they ought to be pub- ; lished three times before the _ ceremony.. If that invalidated the marriage, ther« . was no need to go into the other point, said counsel. r Mr. Justice Horridge said be could not : deal with this new point until the peti- \ tion was amended. He had no sympathy ' with the parties as they had chosen to » marry in a false name. He gave leave to t, amend the petition and ordered the case to stand over. _ --