GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19031, 30 May 1925, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

A RELIC OF LORD NELSON. A man in Washington bought a pnilful of odds and ends from a marine .store dealer, and turned out of it a small tortni,so.shell box inlaid in silver. He cleaned it and (died it with tobaeeo. On turning the box over the new ow.ner - noticed the inscription: "To my beloved Emma." It, had been presented by Lord Nelson to Lady, ,Hamil'/,n. The writing was scratched as ii someone had sought to strike out the inscription. EXPENSIVE FUNERALS. The expense to (iennany of President Ebert 's funeral—£lo,ooo-* seems heavy enough, but was moderate, compared witii the cost of burying the old Emperor William I. in 1888, when the city of Berlin spent £86,000 and the Imperial Treasu'ry more than £IOO,OOO on the obsequies. The funeral expenses of King Edward were returned at £40,500, and those of Queen Victoria at £35,000. The most expensive State funeral in England was that of the Duke, of Wellington, in 1852, which cost the nation £IOO.OOO. ITALY'S HOLY YEAR STAMP. Italy's latest stamp issues present a striking contrast of ancient and modern. On the. one hand one gets an interesting addition to the stumps of religious interest in the series issued in connection with Holy Year. To these stamps will be added shortly a set commemorating the seventh centenary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi. The modern element is represented in the issue, of ordinary postage stamps of double the usual size, on which half the space is devoted to trade advertisements. J FOILING THE ROBBERS. To stop the robberies of valuable, securities from messenger boys in Wall Street, New York, the National Surety Company has decided to replace the boys by rail-way-men who arc off duty during ofiico hours. These men will be equipped with " steel waistcoats," containing inside pockets, in which the securities wilt be carried. ■» These vests, locked when the messenger starts out, will not only furnish a safe place in which to carry the securities, but will do a{vay with the. bags now used, which tell the " crooks" so plain the identity of the person carrying one. " HAMLET " AND THE GHOST. The famous castle of Kronborg, in Helsingoer (Elsinore), Denmark, the traditional scene of Shakespeare's " Hamlet," is to be vacated by the military detachment after being used for many years as a barracks, and extensive repairs will be carried out. Kronborg, a magnificent Gothic structure, /Occupies a commanding position at the northern end of the Sound between Denmark and Sweden. What is known as the " Flag Battery," is the " Platform before the Castle," where the ghost makes his appearance in the play. One of the turrets of the castlo is used as a lighthouse. IMMENSE RAILWAY COMBINE. A great railway consolidation representing a capital of £*.">00,000,000 and involving 15.000 miles of tracks was brought a step' nearer consummation recently, when the stockholders of the Erie railroad voted, to join the proposed "Nickel Plate " system, which seeks to establish a new trunk lino between the eastern coast and Chicago. The, five railway systems to bo joined are the. Erie, (Chesapeake, and Ohio, Hock- j ing' Valley, Pore Marquette,_ and New York. Chicago, and St. Louis Railway Company, known as the " Nickel Plate." 'Hie latter railway, with 1700 miles of track, operating in six States, is the one which is absorbing the other four. DEARTH OF SERVANTS. " Large, houses in Sussex are being shut Up because the owners cannot get servants," said Mr. H. M. Killick, a wellknown agriculturist of Bedingham, near Lewes.,at a, recent meeting of the Brighton, Hove, and Mid-Sussex Employment Committee. " My wife and I," Mr. Killick added, " have/to do all the housework because it is impossible to get, any sort of help, although unemployed girls are walking about the ' village." The committee discussed possible means of inducing women and girls to enter domestic service, but did not reach any decision. Major Pearce said in the whole of Brighton it would be impossible to "ot, twenty girls to enter upon a course of training for domestic service. « FINEST ROAD IN ENGLAND." " The finest road in England, and proof against the necessity of repairs, even under the. heaviest traffic, for fifty years"— that is/ the description of the new Great West Road. Arrangements are in hand for the opening ceremony to be performed by the/King in June. The road will have taken four and ahalf years of intensive and scientific workto make ,at< a total cost of £1,000,000 —an average of £125,000 a mile, or over £7O u yard.. It is 120 feet wide, and is constructed as follows: A foundation of 12 inches of broken pieces of concrete, brick, and stone; above that nine inches of reinforced concrete; arid above that two inches of compressed natural rock asphalt. All sewers, water mains, and cables are at the side of the road, so that there is no datiger of any sinking or damage or uncvenriess owing to overgreat pressure. SEA-POWER ON THE CHEAP. The Naval estimates for the time of the Armada were about £56,000 a year. The cost of building the largest ship in the N'avv in 1561 was £3788, and her stone shot cost sixpence each. The pay of an admiral was £3 6s 8(1 a month, and that of'a sailor 10s a month. The heaviest anchor weighed just over a ton. To-day, the Naval estimates are £60,000,000, and it, costs something like four or five millions to build a battleship of the Hood class. This class of ship can fire a shot weighing as much as an anchor did in the Armada days! These shots cost many hundreds of pounds against the stone' shot at, sixpence. An admiral's pay to-day runs into two or three thousand a. year, with allowances, according to seniority and duty, and that of a sailor is more than an admiral's was in the'days of Elizabeth. THE GRAND JURIES. Grand Juries have been much discussed and /criticised, many holding that, they are no longer necessary when cases are carefully considered by police court magistral es before being sent for trial, for their only duty is to decide whether there is at first sight, sufficient suspicion afainsi a prisoner to make it advisable to have him tried by judge and petty jury. In one of London's oinof courts (lie grand jury is passing away. At the London Sessions—not to be confused with the /'Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court the chairman told the members of the Grand Jury recently that they were one of the last Grand Juries that would ever sit, there, us the institution, which has existed from early days, is to pass uwa/ this year, so far as London Sessions are concerned. The present. London Sessions House, opened 7 in 192], is on the Surrey side of the river, near Borough High Street, on the site of the old Horsemonger Lane Jail which, was closed in 1377. It; was the terrible scene witnessed outside this prison by Dickens in 1849, when the Man, ning? were hanged, that i<:d him to advocate (he abolition of public executions. J /

A LINK WITH WATERLOO. 1 A Border country blacksmith who, as an apprentice, used to shoe a horse which had done duty as a charger at the Battle , of Waterloo, died recently. 1 ho aged smith, Mr. William J'aterson, within two years ago was performing similar service for a horse which had seen active service in France, so that his work formed a unique link between the ' Napoleonic Wars and the Great War. SPRING-CLEANING IN JAPAN. Tn Japan, spring-cleaning, or, more accurately, spring and autumn cleaning—for it takes place twice a year—is a matter regulated by the police. The Oriental counterpart of the Western sanitary authority issues orders to the residents in certain streets that on a given date they must "spring-clean" their I houses. On an appointed day a squad of police, armed with swords, draw a cordon round the specified quarters to see I that the official orders are carried out. HIGH HONOUR FOR SCOUT. i Patrol-leader J. W. S. Man', of Aberdeen, who was the scout selected bv Sir Ernest, Shaekletoii to accompany him as cabin-boy on the Quest during the 1922 Antarctic expedition, received at the Aberdeen University spring graduation, by special decree, the degrees of M.A. and B.Sc., which he would not have ordinarily gained until June. I'll is unusual course was taken in order that Marr might act as assistant biologist with the Algarsson North Pole Expedition this month, MALTA'S ORDER OF NOBILITY. Malta, which recently welcomed the King and Queen, has an order of nobility all its own, bearing titles of great antiquity, of which its members are justlv proud. These titles have been recognised by the British Government since the island became part of the Empire, and a noble of Malta takes precedence at, the English Court next after a Baron of Ireland. , The premier title in the island is the Barony of Diar-il-Bniet, which dates from 1350, nearly two centuries before Charles \ . made over Malta to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. GREAT PRESENCE OF MIND. Among the minor celebrities of Christchurch, Oxford, now about to celebrate its quartet-centenary, was Dean Smith, known to his generation as "Presence-of-mind-Smith." The story goes that when an undergraduate he one day went boating with a companion, and returned alone. His companion, the Dean explained, had fallen into the river, and clung to the side of the boat, threatening to capsize il. "Neither of us could swim," said Smith; "and if I had not. with great presence of mind, hit him on the head with the boathook, both of us * might have been drowned." CHEAP TRAVELLING. Remarkable as is the offer of the Atlantic Transport Company of a trip from Great Britain to America and back, all a week's entertainment in New York, all for £SO, it compares very unfavourably with what was possible in economic voyaging 20 years ago. During the great Atlantic rate war of 1904 a Ixindon journalist made the journey from Liverpool to New York via Grimsby and Hamburg—including all rail fares and two days' board and lodging in the Hamburg-Arnerika compoundfor £2. Returning by the White Star liner Cedric, he paid £3 for the journey, including food, etc., from New York to London, making the round trip.for just £5. HISTORY OF THE STEEPLECHASE. Steeplechasing is little more than 100 years old. 'I he earliest steeplechase took place in Ireland, two Irish gentlemen racing over 4Jj miles of stiff country between Butteyant Church arid the St. Leger Church spire. Forty years later the second great steeplechase was run, Sir Gilbert, Heat-hcote, Lord Forester, and Mr. Needham contesting their historic race over the fields and itedges of Leicestershire for a stake of 300 guineas. Thirty-six years before the first Grand National was run Mr. Day, of Wyrnondham, and two of his friends rode eight miles through the roughest country for a sweepstake of 100 guineas. These races were actually the forerunners of the Grand National. SUBMERGED SOVEREIGNS. The Bank of England has its own water supply. One artesian well 400 ft. deep, 1 gives a supply of 7000 gallons an hour. As a direct consequence of the high cost of water in London the bank authorities, in 1910, placed a contract to sink another well. This renders the bank independent of the public supply of water. One curious use to which this water is put is not generally known-—the bullion department- is nightly submerged iri several feet of water by the action of machinery. The same machinery is so adjusted that if, during the day or night, a dishonest official should take even one from a pile of a thousand sovereigns, the whole pile would instantly sink and a pool of water take its place. " CHAMBER OF HORRORS." The burning of Tussaud's does not leave Londoners entirely without a waxworks show, for there are still the wax effigies of kings and queens in Westminster Abbey, which have been described as " a very grimy and antiquated Chamber of Horrors." There are fragments, not for general exhibition, going back to Queen Phillippa, and the origin of the effigies was the carrying in the funeral procession nff a wax effigy for the public to gape at. Those that remain are not usually flattering, notably the hag-ridden effigy of Queen Elizabeth, a restoration in 1760 of the original figure carried at her funeral. Charles 11. also is not quite the Charles of romantic presentment. Most of them, no doubt, were from casts taken after death. TRAINS TAKING THE LIFT. At the Whitechapel hoist on the London and North-Eastern Railway, a giant , lift, which can carry two goods trucks at j a time, makes over 2100 journey in a week. 1 The main tailwav line here runs on a i level with the roofs of the houses, and j the business of the hoist is to lower • trucks to railways running through East | London. A whole train of 15 trucks cari , be shunted in this way from one line I to another in about half an hour. | The t rucks are run on to the floor of j the lift, which can raise or lower 35 tons, arid is worked by hydraulic machinery. A pressure of 7001b. to the square inch is controlled by- levers to regulate the movement of the lift. In this way it travels 36 miles in a week. HOW CANADA GOT ITS NAME. There is ari interesting legend concerning the manner in which Canada got its name. Spanish adventurers were the first, so far as is known, to visit the American shores in search of booty. In the north they found the country disappointing. The soil was sterile and unyielding. The Spaniards were heard by the natives to make frequent use of the expression "Aca nada," meaning "It, Is barren." It was noted that, after giving expression to their dissatisfaction they invariably departed to another place! When the French explorers arrived on the scene, the inhabitants gathered on the shore and yelled "Aca nada," hoping to drive them* awav. The French took this to be the name'of the country, and they 1 called it Canada.