GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18949, 21 February 1925, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

firemen rescue oat. A prompt, response to what might be described as a "cat call" was made by Aberdeen Fire Brigade recently. Their •jjd was sought to rescue a eat. which for two (lavs had remained stranded on the roof of a four-storey tenement. By means of ah escape the fire master brought down the errant pussy, which was removed to more comfortable quarter?. Perched in its precarious position, the cat had resisted all attempts to entice it, to come down. TOOTH 10FT. LONG. A tooth, 10ft. long, of some antediluvian animal yet unknown, has been discovered in-dramatic: fashion at Cepramo, Italy. Bv striking the tooth with bis pick, a man quarrying for gravel in a tunnel 25ft. below* the level of the ground made the discovery. This is not the first time I bat. traces of prehistoric animals have been found in this district. This tooth, which at, its base is 19in. across, will be taken to a Rome museum, where an endeavour to "reconstruct" the creature to which it belonged will be -made. JUDGE OBEYS CHILD. Addressing the Cambridge Law Society, Mr. Justice M,Cardie told an amusing storv of "the chubbiest, brightest child you ever saw," who was shown into his room at the Law Courts. The parents were lighting over the custodv of the child, and one of them swore that it, war, weak, ailing and no.rvoib. but. hav-nc shaken bands, the bov pointed to his wig, and told him to put it on. The judge obeyed. "fie then ore; ever! me," the Judge continued. "td lift, him on to my shoulder so thai he. might look <-ut of the window into the courtyard, and 1 did so." HIGH ART HALF-PRICE. The municipality, despite protesis and petitions for an alleviation of the present amusement tax. have, decided ;hat. as from January 1. the tax shall be fixed at 15 per cent, of takings, except in the case of classical performances. These are to pay 10 per cent. A committee of three is to decide which piavs are to lie regarded as "high art" arri which not. The Association of Theatre Managers, infuriated with this decision, threatened to close all their theatres oti January 1 p.nrl to reopen them only when the. municipal council had substantially reduced the tax. CHILD TAUGHT TO STEAL. A mother, who was said to have taught her child-—a girl of five -to steal, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, at the London Sessions recently. Alice Marria.ce, aged 36. pleaded guilty to stealing a handbag, a £1 note, and other articles, from two women. The prosecuting counsel said the child was seen putting her hand into perambulators left outside shops. She took a handbag to her mother, who was standing close by. A police officer approached, and the woman exclaimed, " Naughty child," and commenced to scold her. Marriage was searched, and on her were found another handbag, six purses, and two wallets. One of these contained 19 £1 notes and eight 10s notes. BURGLAR IN A TRANCE. While in a slate of coma owing to drugtaking, a young man named William Auid carried out, a number of burglaries. At Dumfries he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. It was stated that only articles of a trifling value had been taken. When questioned Auld appeared to know nothing about the burglaries, but when taken round the houses by the. police he remembered he had been at the places before and what he had done. At cme time he had V.-ei n a medical student at the Scottish University, hut later went, on to the variety stage. While there he was said to have used his medical knowledge to obtain cocaine. The man had been in /a menial home. "FAREWELL" IN A BLIZZARD. " Farewell " messages written 11 years ago by the captain of the motor ketch Fort Churchill when he had abandoned all hopes of saving his vessel, which was caught in a blizzard at Port Perrique Bay. on t-ho Labrador coast, have just been found. Captain .T. P. Moore enclosed the messages in a bottle, which was thrown overboard. but afterwards it was found possible to beach the ketch, and the captain and crew were saved. The skipper is now the landlord of the King's Head Hot eh at Falmouth, England, arid he has received news from the Hudson Bay Company to the, effect 'hat the bottle with the. messages had been washed up on an island at Labrador, and had been forwarded, to them. TYPING BY WIRELESS. A demons! rat ion was given recently at Berlin of typewriting by wireless, the. invention of an Italian. At one end of the hall was a sending set, consisting of a typewriter, which operates a wireless transmitter which transmits the message, in two frequencies for each letter sent or key of the typewriter pressed. At the other end of the hall was a receiving set, consisting of a special form of wireless receiver which was connected to the typewriting tape machine. For each of the two frequencies received a selector, tuned to these two frequencies, operates the same letter in the. tape machine as the key did in the typewriting machine at the sending station. Messages were transmitted successfully, and it was stated that messages bad been transmitted several miles by the same apparaf us. " PROCESSION OF DEATH." 1 wenty-t v. 11 thousand persons were killed and 678.000 injured in the streets and highways of the United States during last year. This was the announcement, made at ,i conference held in Washington between various poli e authorities and representative-; of motor-ear and insurance companies. It. Wa pointed out thijl the loss of life was; largely through reckless driving, and that fhe casualties now amount yearly to one-third of the total losses of the American Army in the Orear War. Mr. Hoover, Secretary for Commerce, W'bfi opened the ninference, expressed the belief that the fatalities are destined to increase in the future faster than the number of motor-cars unless eomprehen- 1 sive measure.-, are adopted to halt the procession ot death. One person in seven in the t.nited States now owns or drives a Inotor-rar, MAGIC? LETTERS. j Jin f a it/It y a telegraph operator lias 1 for pii'-i- nig up his own call out of a i heritable babel of (hiking :s welj !;m:wn. 1 An old telegrapi ist may be sound asleep ) beside his ill.-1 Monent, with the sounder working all the time, but the instant his 1 Own call comes he will awaken in a trice. . '-lea was lately made use of in 'in 1 inj;r>int>i.i., effort )<> save the iii'e of a te'e- t graphs : ji British ( olmnhia. He had l Jain in a trance f >r a \wk, and all effort:: 1 to roils,•: him had tailed. At last a tele- v "''apli t;c|;rr was brought to the sick- I loom, and I'N. the patient's private call, 1 was sounded. t Suddenly tin. telegraphist opened his 1 ♦yes and smiled a. little. The instrument 1 then suggested 'bat the patient should until,• some milk, rr.d again he responded. ' taking the first nourishment lie had had I for six days. s Iho latest rrail report was that the t doe.tcrs were cheered with high hopes for c tfie man's recovery. r

NURSES IN DAMP COTTAGES. Ihe Lord Mayor of London has issued an appeal for £50,000 to build new quarters for the nurses of the Metropolitan Hospital, Kingsland Road. In a letter to The Daily Chronicle, the Lord Mayor points out that the nursing staff are now housed in old and dilapidated cottages adjacent to the hospital. The condition of these cottages is deplorable, as, besides being very damp and unsuitable for the purpose, they are beyond repair. HISTORIC WELSH INN. Mr. Samuel Johnson, proprietor of the Royal Hotel, Llangollen, the halfway house in the old coaching days between Dublin and Westminster, died in December, 79. ° 1 lie hotel was one of the oldest iri Wales, and was visited by the Duke of Wellington, Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, and Tennyson. Daniel O'Connell, it is stated, often spent the night there. Mr. Johnson was a well-known sportsman arid athlete. PERFUMED LOTTERY PRIZES. hor offences under the Lottery Act of 1823, Edward Ernest Lane, alias Joe Hanks, of Reading, was recently fined £24 at the local police court. Inside perfumed envelopes, which Lane sold at 3d each, were the names of football clubs, and the purchaser of the envelope, which contained the, names of the two clubs that scored the biggest, number of goals, was awarded £ls. The defence was that there was no charge for the coupon, and that the 3d was paid for the scented envelope, but the police stated that the envelopes cost only one-fifth of a penny. 30,000 PATENTS IN 1924. An indication of improved trade ahead is afforded bv last, year's record of ihe. British Patent Office, which shows that the. patent applications numbered more than ,30,000. This figure is, however, 1,000 less than that for 1923. Wireless developments still hold pride of place in the records. Depression in engineering and shipbuilding has influenced patents in those industries, but inventive genius in the motor industry has undoubtedly resulted in an all-British car which can face the world's competition. There have been many clever domestic patents, a considerable number of them from women. LONG LIFE RECIPE. One of the most, cheerful men in London. Dr. O. Forrest Browne. Bishop of Bristol for 17 years, recently celebrated his 91st birthday. Dr. Browne stili carries his 6ft. figure, with the uprightness of a man 20 years his junior, and his voice is as richly toned as it was --10 years ago. One of the greatest aids to living long and happily. Dr. Browne declares, is the habit, of being optimistic and acting kindly. "If everyone tried to be cheerful, life would be brightened considerably," he said. Dr. Browne drew up the examination papers set before the first women who entered Newnham and Girton. GRAY'S ELEGY SOLD FOR £1550. A first edition of Gray's Elegy, which was sold for 15s, and later realised £1550, was referred to at Portmadoc, Wales, County Court recently. About a year ago Robert Owen, a quarry clerk, of Croesor, Merionethshire, unaware of its value, sold the book to a firm of booksellers for 15s. They, in turn, if, is understood, sold it for £470 to j Sotheby's, London, where, later, it rca- i lised £1550. Owen entered a claim against the booksellers, but the latter declared their agent was unaware, at the time of the purchase, that, it was a first edition. It was stated that the matter had been settled by the payment of a sum accept- j able to Owen. CATS LIKE DOGS. A smoke-blue Persian cat was recently exhibited for the first time in England at the championship show of the National Cat- Club, at the Crystal Palace. One of the exhibits had a white neck and face, a red right eye and a blue left eye. Siamese cats are. the. fashion of the moment, said Mrs. Marion Cran, the novelist, who was a judge. "They are more like dogs than cats." she added. " Thcv answer to a whistle, and are extraordinarily faithful. They also talk to you." Extremely handsome animals, with dense blue eyes, the Siamese cats, which are bred in the palace of the kings of Siant, and arc attended by Buddhist priests, fetch, from 5 to 50 guineas. ONE THOUSAND MILLION HERRINGS It, is not. generally known that the British export, trade in herrings, at an average value of £3 a barrel, is worth £2,500,000. " This is no inconsiderable sum to set-to the credit, of Scottish and English fishermen," writes the chairman of Mac-Fisheries, Ltd. Vast quantities of fish, estimated at 1.000.000.000, were landed on the East Coast during the autumn herring fishery. Thanks to the increasing demand for British-caught and cured herrings on the Continent, the. fish curers of Yarmouth and Lowestoft have been able to pickle no'fewer than 850,000 barrels, each containing. 25011). net, weight, of fish. Of this great quantity, 500.000 barrels have already been exported, and the balance is awaiting shipment. A FAMOUS CANOE. From 3ft. of Thames (London) mud, where it lay neglected for eight years, the, famous canoe of an Alaskan chieftain has been rescued. This canoe, the. Tilikum (which means "friend''), was bought from >ts Indian owner by a. Canadian, ( 'apt;'.in \ oss, who fitted it. with three masts in 1901, and sailed it. from Vancouver (British Columbia) to Australia and New Zealand, then to the Cape of Good Hope, and from there across the Atlantic to Brazil, and by the Azores to England, where he lectured on his voyage, which took over three years and covered 40.000 miles. Though various people travelled with ,'aptain Yoss, there were never mote than wo in the boat at any time. The Tilikum ,vas purchased in 1916 by its present iwners. who intended to sail it, on the iver; but they found it, unsuitable, and aid it up at Canvey Island, and apparently forgot about it until recently. A BOYHOOD CLASSIC. What would Robert Louis Stevenson lave thought, when be was writing "The tea Cook," renamed "Treasure Island ' iy mi editorial inspiration, which apicared serially in a boys' paper, and ■ ttrafted no literary notice whatsoever, ould he have foreseen the day when a day founded on his slory would thrill ;reat, audiences in the greatest, city in the vorld ? "A hundred pounds. A hundred jinging, tingling, golden-minted quids. Is not his wonderful. It, is dreadful to be a reat big man and not be, able to buy iread." That was what .Stevenson wrote .■hen the book rights of his serial were ought by a well-known firm of pub ishers. It, is to the credit of this firm hat they supplemented this payment in iter years, although they were not i-gally bound to do so. Judged by the sales in its first year, Treasure Island" was almost a failure, n these days, when a "best-seller" will oil by the hundred thousand in a year, ho fivo thousand copies which were sold f Stevenson's masterpiece sound very altry.