GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19221, 9 January 1926, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

NEW TERROR FOR BARBERS. The father of a girl who had her hair bobbed in Dijon (France), is suing the barber on the ground that the girl is a minor and that her hair, being her father's property, should not be removed without his permission. Tho hairdressers' trade union is defending the barber. A HAIR-BRUSH SLUMP. "There is no doubt that bobbing and shingling have reduced the demand for hair-brushes," said Mr. A. Frischer, a witness at the Board of Trade inquiry in London into the request of the brush industry for a protective duty on foreign goods. Mr. W. J. Willcock (presiding) : The inference is that those who bob their hair don't brush it? Mr. Frischer: Yes, I am informed that hairdressers are telling women with bobbed or shingled hair not to brush it or they will go bald. BRIBE NEARLY WEDS BEST MAN. A best man was almost married to the brido in Toronto. The parties were Polish, and they stood in the wrong places. The minister put the crucial question to the best man, who nodded assent, but the ceremony was suddenly interrupted by an elderjy man, who rushed down the aisle exclaiming in broken English, "Stop! You are not marrying the right man! He is not the bridegroom." Tho minister promptly began the servico again. STAG HUNTED OUT TO SEA. A stag which had been hotly chased by tho Mid-Kent Hunt through Dymchurch ran to the seashore just above Hythe Knock and swam three miles out to sea. Some of the hunt put ont in a boat, but owing to tho rough weather had to return. The stag drifted three rnil.3S, and was next seen near Hythe Oaks, where it reached shore. Hounds were prompt, but the stag was more so, and made a successful dash for the open country. It is assumed that it found its way back to Lenham. SACRED SILENCE BROKEN. A woman who failed to stop her motorcar during the two minutes silence at Kjngswood, near Bristol, was fined ss. She is Miss Louisa Rawlings, and she wis summoned under a pre-war Act for not stopping when a policeman signalled to her to do so. A police constable said that when everything else was stationary Miss Rawlings drove past, ignoring his signal. Miss Rawlings informed the court that she was a conscientious objector during the war, and did not. believe in its commemoration. "I am bound,' she said, to do as my conscience commands me. A FAITHFUL TERRIER. Efforts to remove a dog from the knee of his dead master, who was drowned when his motor-car plunged into a swollen river, were described at an inquest, at Dolgelley, on Mr. George Garnett Higham, aged aeventy, of Oswestry, and his wife, Mrs. Sarah Ann Higham, aged seventy-five. Mr. and Mrs. Higham were found drowned in the motor-car, which overturned in the river at Drwsynant. Mr. Gwilym Richards, a motor-engineer, stated that when attempts were made io take the dog, an English terrier, from its master's knee the dog fought to remain. " \ man threw his cap over the terrier s head," said Mr. Richards, " and this enabled us to remove Mr. and Mrs. Higharn." KITTEN SAVES SIX LIVES. "When fire broke out at the Red Lion public house, Covent Garden, the alarm was given by a kitten, whose mewing aroused the landlord, Mr. R. Koss. The family of six, including baby twins, escaped in their night attire. "I should describe the kitten's alarm a3 a scream," Mr. Koss stated subsequently. "It was this that aroused rno, and when I went to the kitchen I was met with a sheet of flame. "I cot my wife and four children out on to the street, and then I blew a police whistle. "I am certain we owe our lives to the kitten, which, I am sorry ta say, perished in the flames. While the firemen were fighting the fire I tried to get in. o save the animal, but it was too la.e. FORTUNE FOR SECRETARY. Tho will of Mr. James Chapman, a Sheffield tool manufacturer, who died worth £40.146, contains a generous bequest "for long and faithful service to Mav Baum, who was his secretary for twenty years. He left her £sooo, his household furniture, his motor-car, tho use of his residence, and the income from £SOOO. She is appointed one ot tne executors of the will. . Miss Baum began as a bookkeeper m Mr. Chapman's firm, and s'acceeded her sister Mrs. Laidlaw, of Glasgow, as his secretary When the business was converted into a eompany she - .ppotntcd secretary, and two years ago she was jnade a director. , There are also bequests of £2JO cacti to four men employees of the residue of the estate is divided among certain Sheffield chanties. MILLIONAIRE CHARTERS SHIP. \ millionaire ship-owner chartered a cross-channel steamer to take himself, his v.-;?e and a servant from Southampton to Je sev They were the sole passengers in'board. "The journey inc.ludmg a special train from Harroga e to Southampton, is said to have cost a.t leas£.oo The millionaire is Sir Rober, P. Houston, head of the Houston line ot steamers, who retired from Parliament a Liverpool constituency for thirty-two vcors Si' Robert has been ill for some time, and he has gone to Jersey to escape il,o had weather and to recuperate. ills voyage was made in the G.W.R. steamer UK Holier, a new and luxuriously equipped vessel, which was sent from Weymouth to Southampton to meet the party. Last December Sir R. P. Houston sinprised his many friends by marrying Lady Bvron widow of the mirth Lord Byion. She was one of the first five women to ic.ce.ive the honour of Dame of the Older of the British Empire for war work. THRILLING BEACHY HEAD CLIMB. Petty Officer Hartfield, of the Beachy Head signal station, recently succeeded, after a thrilling climb oi 150 ft., in recovering a woman's body that was seon lying on a ledge of the cliff face the previous day, when all t<p ieac.li it had failed. Ike dead woman s identity was not known. A rocket apparatus was erected on top of the cliff, in order to fire a line across the body to the beach. The first two .shots failed but the third, fired from fifty yards to windward, was successful. A rope was then hauled down the cliff. tf art field* had brought a fencer's helmet wit. him, but at the last minute decided to wear a policeman's helmet to ward oft falling stones He grasped the rope, and in four minutes went hand over hand 150 ft. up it., to where the body lay. He sat on the ledge with stones* falling all round him and tied the body to the rope, the cud of which he had drawn up. lie then lowered it to the beach, afterwards sliding down the rope himself. The body was carried three miles in pelting rain ovor t',io rocks,'io the ambulance station.

TALLY-HO! I'ox-hunting is an expensive business, and always has been, yet some have managed to pursue it with remarkable economy. John Elwes, the celebrated miser, kept a kennel of hounds and a stable of hunters, reputed to bo the best in the kingdom, on an annual outlay of £3OO. And there is on record the case of a certain Mr. Osbaldiston—not the famous squire of that name—who, about a century ago, kept two hi.nters and a dozen hounds, free of all debt, out of a meagre salary of £6O a year as an attorney's clerk. MOST ECONOMICAL MAN. The distinction of being England's most economical man can be claimed by a man over seventy years of age, * who, when boarding a train at Chorley, Lancashire, dropped a piece of cheese on the line. " hen he alighted, two stations away, the man asked officials to telephone down the line for his cheese to be sent along. J.he piece, weighing one ounce, was retrieved, put in an envelope, and despatched by the next passenger train. The owner met the train and received the precious morsel from the guard. lie smilingly denied that there was any trace of Scottish blood in his family. CLUB FOR LONELY WOMEN. A residential club for elderly women who would otherwise lead lonely lives is being built near Sunningciale, and will be opened next spring. When it is ready 100 wcraen over liity-tive will be able to take up residence there. Lady Bertha JJawkins, Woman of the Bedchamber to the yueeu, and one of the workers lor the club, said to an interviewer: "The club is intended for those who have an income oi between £SO and £IOO a year. They will each pay 6s 6d a week for a room and 10s for board." The club will be run on the lines of other women's clubs, and will provide most of the usual amenities. FIRE IN ELECTRIC WORKS. The branch works of the General Electric Company at West Bromwich were totally destroyed by (ire owing to the fusing of an electric wire in the enamelling shop. Tho wire broke on fusing and 'fell into a vat containing inflammable liquid used in tube manufacture. Immediately the whole department was a mass of flames, and soon the entire works, which cover an area of about 200 square yards, were ablaze. The flames, fanned Jby the wind, quickly ignited a stack of 100 tons of coal which was piled in the works yard. White hot girders and roofing material collapsed like matchwood and fell into this furnace. Three hundred men have been thrown out of work. VICAR LAUDS BEER. " Many public-houses did not produce much drunkenness, for in those days men drank honest beer, and not whisky to rot their vitals, nor ' Lloyd George's swipes' to distend their stomachs without warming their hearts," writes the Rev. E. J. G. Forso, Vicar of Southbourne, Bournemouth, in his parish magazine, commenting on the small number of public-houses in his parish to-day. " Some will say," he proceeds, "that those who drink beer, think beer. I don't myself (except on ho.iday), because since the war there has been no decent beer in England. But I will tell you who did drink beer—every day at breakfast, dinner, supper, and between whiles— Milton, Shakespeare, Spenser, John Bunyan, and Queen Elizabeth. "You may look with contempt on their thoughts if you like." LITTLE GIRL'S BRAVERY. The story of a remarkable act of devotion of which the heroine is a little nine-year-old girl is told in Paris. A fire broke out during the night in the chateau at Dienay, in tlie Cote d'Or. The owner, Babault, the former explorer, and his wife were holiday-making at Nice, and their daughter Renee was left in the chateau with her two younger brothers and a staff of servants. When tho little girl gave the alarm the first storey of the building was in flames. Immediately she roused her brothers, who were sleeping in a room adjoining hers, and afterwards rushed to the top of the chateau and warned the servants. All were able to leave the burning building safe. But for the presence of mind of this little girl fifteen persons would have perished in the flames. The story was duly reported, and she figures in the list of persons to whom rewards are given for acts of devotion. A LEGACY OF LOAVES. Tho church of Castleton, Derbyshire, is said to date from the Norman Conquest, and actually to have been built by Sir Walter Scott's hero, " Peveril of the Peak." Most of the gentry of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had their names carved on the pews, and a few added the title " gentleman." Inside the church hangs a Targe board on which is written a long list of strange legacies that have been left to it from time to time. Some of these take the form of gifts of woollen clothes and calico, to be distributed on St. Thomas' Day; 'another states that four threepenny loaves are to be given away every Sunday morning to the poorest parishioners attending service. An old bell-ringer left a legacy of nineteen shillings and sixpence to be given to the bell-ringers each year, on his buthday, on condition that a special peal is rung on that day. 1 MONEY MADE AND LOST. The story of how a young woman, littlo more than a schoolgirl, made £17,000 on the production of "Ihe Beggar's Opera at the Lyric Theatre, London, and then lost it all, has come to light. Miss Marian Wilson stated recently that when 19 she helped to start the production, in tho summer of 1920, with £7OO given to her by her father. The sum was intended to help her on a career, and her father said that if she did not "make good'' she would have to perform household duties at home. "Tho production was a great success, running for nearly four years," Miss Wilson recalled. "In September. 1921, when I was 20. I was so enthusiastic over its success'that I helped to start a season of British ballet at the Kingswnv Theatre. It was a complete failure, and in that snd other theatrical enterprises I lost nearly all the money that I was making on 'The Beggar's Opera.' "But 1 do not regret losing the money. I had a good run for it!" OVER-ZEALOUS POLICEMAN. An over-zealous policeman placed the magistrates in Nottingham Juvenile Court in a difficult position by charging a little girl of 11 with the theft of a purse containing £2 belonging to her own mother. The" parents, well-dressed people, indignantly disclaimed any desire to prosecute their child. The father explained that she had been under a specialist for sleepy sickness, and that the disease had left after effects. Inquiries addressed by the chairman of the Bench to the police officer as to how proceedings came to be instituted elicited the fact that he saw the child crying in the street and that she confessed to having taken the money. He then saw the mother, who said the money had been stolen. In reply to a further question the policemini admitted that the word used was " missed" and not "stolen.'' He also admitted that no complaint of theft had been made to the police. The Bench dismissed tho case.