GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19376, 10 July 1926, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

THE CASTLE OF " HAMLET." Hamlet's town, Elsinore, which will shortly be celebrating its 500 th year as a township, is justly proud of its castle of Kronberg, round a lowly door in which some " Hamlet " scenes are said to be laid. Kronberg Castle used to demand toll of all passing ships, and enforce the demand with round shot. That scene of innumerable real tragedies may well have been that of the ideal tragedy of Shakespeare's vision: SCIENCE HELPS MIRACLES. In a recent utterance the Pope stated that the Church did not fear scientific investigation with regard to miracles, but that on the contrary science helped in many cases to establish miracles. .\ 11 the miraculous healings at Lourdes, said the Pope, <* ere not accepted by the Church until they had been minutely examined by scientists. His Holiness further stated that 110 miracles would in future be accepted until they had been investigated from a scientific point view. ALCOHOL IN THE WORKS. The substitution of alcohol for petrol in the internal combustion engine is generally believed to be a very modern idea. As a fact, however, the alcohol engine was invented over 100 years ago by Edmund Cviit wright, who is famous, of course, as the inventor of tho power-loom. Another of Cartwnght'x patents was a rope making machine. It is interesting to recall that this inventor, who was born 143 years ago, would have passed his life rs an obscure country parson but for a mere accident. LONDON'S BIG " WASH." The average citizen certainly does not realise in any adequate degree the multifarious ways in which the authorities safeguard the public health, says a London paper. The matter of cleansing is in itself of the utmost importance, and yet how many have the sliglitest idea of what this means ? Perhaps it will open the eyes of the said average citizen to learn that in the City of London last year, the water used for" street cleaning purposes aggregated 22.054.625 gallons. CURIOUS STRIKE COINCIDENCE. A former Y.A.D. in the war hospital at Arras was riding during the strike beside an airman, who was driving a bus. His thermos for tea attracted her attention, and looking closely at it, she recognised a certain mark. " Thief," the woman cried to the astonished driver. " that is my thermos which I left behind at Arras in 1915. On the other side of the ex-V.A.D., on the box, was a constable. " Shall I arrest him?" he asked. However, amid much merriment, the matter was arranged without recourse to the law. UNDER SIX KINGS. Southport is about to celebrate the 130 th year of the building society movement, * which began at Birmingham in 1796. Apart from that centre the first building society appears to have been the Greenwich Society, founded in 1809, To-day three houses in every ten are owned by their occupiers. The " Liberator" organiser, J. S. Balfour, of unhappy memory, was M.P. for Bum'ey. Since that time, the movement, which lias flourished under six'-sovereigns, has spread widely. To-day itij assets are estimated at £160,000,000. A STORY FOR MOTORISTS. For several weeks recently, according to the New England papers, an unwelcome and mysterious experience befell a large number of motorists in Massachusetts. They found themselves suffering from an inordinate proportion of flat tyres, due to punctures by tacks. A careful (investigation finally traced the mischief of a certain stretch of road near North Grafton. Further inquiries then made the cause of the trouble quite clear. Last winter, when the streets were slippery, tho local authorities sprinkled ashes over them, end some of these ashes had been taken from a shoe-factory. LURE OF THE NOOSE. In-the College of Surgeons', Museum, Lincoln's Inn, is preserved the skeleton of a man whose death attracted more spectators to Tyburn than have ever assembled to witness a Cup' final. This was the notorious Jonathan Wild, the Thomas Peach urn. of Gay's " Beggar's Opera," and the " villain who had ten maxims and six wives" of Fielding. Mr. Percy Rudolph Broemel, F.R.S.A., who tells this story in his new book, " The History and Romance of Mayfair," adds that the next biggest " draw" of the kind was the hanging of Jack Sheppard, who paid his penalty in the presence of 200,000 people. SAILORS AND CHIP POTATOES. Fleet Orders recently issued tell how sailors should and should not fry chip potatoes. A fire occurred recently in the oil-fired galley of a fleet establishment, due to frying" oil boiling over the top of the frier, running down the fire box, and being ignited by the fuel burner. This, it is declared, was due to too much oil in the frier, and too great a quantity of potatoes being placed in the frier. Particular care, states the Fleet Order, should be taken that only the minimum quantity of frying oil is used. The frier should not be" filled to more than -jnethird of its capacity, and the food to be fried, especially articles that have been soaked in water—for example, chipped potatoes —should be added in small quantities only. AN EMPIRE BIRTHDAY, Empire Day, which coincides with Whit Monday, may be said this year to have celebrated the thirteenth anniversary of its birth, although in Britain, it has only had official Government recognition for ten years. The actual originator of the festival i of Empire was a Canadian school teacher, , Mrs. Clementina Fessenden, of Hamilton, Ontario, who suggested that the anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria should be kept as a holiday in the Dominion schools. This was in 1896. and two years later the suggestion was put into operation in Canada. In 1904 the veteran Earl of Meath inaugurated the Empire Day movement in Britain, but it was not until 1916 that the British Government was induced to recognise the day. QUEEN IN NEED OF MONEY. " Royal " Tunbridge Wells, which is annoyed by the statement that it cannot cull itself Royal Borough, owes everything to the discovery of the chalybeate spring about 1606 and the Royal and fashionable patronage which resulted. This Royal patronage had some awkward 1 moments in its earlier days, as for instance in May, 1663, when the doctors, ordered Charles ll.'s Queen to tho waters. She Mas quite ready to go, but when it came to the point, it was discovered that " neither she nor her officers had any money to pay the expenses of tiic journey." An appeal was made to the Lord Tieasurer, who replied that be had no money, but would endeavour to find £2OOO —" how far such a sum is able to defray Her Majesty in her journey for Tunbridge, your lordship is well able to judge." Eventually the Queen had to put off her visit from May till July.

A VALUABLE PAINTING. An important painting by Rembrandt, the " Lucretia" of 1666, painted three years before tho death of the master, has been sold to America by the art-dealing firm of Julius Bochler, in Munich. The painting was tho second depiction of the " Lucretia," being considered as much more effective in its broad paletteknife technique than the first depiction, that of the English Borden Collection. The price is said to exceed £30,000. IMMENSE RAILWAY WORKS. An official announcement issued by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company states that when the necessary alterations are complete the new works at Crewe will become the largest locomotive building and repairing establishment in the country, and will cover 160 acres. Among new machines that are being installed at the works is a 5-ton magnet which can pick up a truck load of pigiron. TRAGEDY OF " DEVIL'S BRIDGE." The body of Madame Jurievskaia, the beautiful Russian prima donna, who committed suicide from the Devil's Bridge, near Andermatt, in Switzerland, early in December last, has been recovered. Tho body, which was in a perfect state of preservation, having been frozen in the ice ; was found about a mile down the stream from the Devil's Bridge, in tho River Reuss. There was a razor slash on the left wrist, and the right.'side of the head was badly injured as the result of her jump into the river. STATUE ABOUT 200 FEET HIGH. The largest statue in Russia will be a j figure of the half-legendary popular hero, Stenka Razin, which will be carved out of rock in a cliff overlooking the Caspian Sea, near the great oil centre—Baku. The statue will be about 200 ft, high. Stenka Razin is a familiar figure in Russian song, story and painting. He was a sort of Robin Hood, an outlaw who won much sympathy from the common people, and led a peasant uprising against the nobles and landlords in the Lower Volga region in the seventeenth century. CHURCH RUN BY CHILDREN. A remarkable church, controlled and administered by children, has been established in Birmingham. The congregation,, which averages 140, is made up entirely of boys and girls between the ages of five and fifteen. When a member of the congregation reaches the age of ten he or she is put on the electoral roll and is eligible to vote for the church council, the wardens, and the sidesmen. The present wardens aru boys of thirteen and fourteen, and a boy or girl of about the same age reads the lessons each Sunday. AN EXPERT HOD CARRIER. Because he brought to the occupation of hodearrier a dexterity, finesse and attention to detail which was held to have raised it to a craft, Mr. Andrew. Erec will stand out before his companion workmen to receive the new accolade of labour—" the certificate of craftsmanship" of the New York Building Congress. In front of the hundreds of workmen employed on a new commercial structure, Mr. Erec will stand with 13 other craftsmen, each representing a distinctive trade in modern building. In the opinion of the committee of award, each has achieved at least the relative rank of artist in his activity. With Mr. • Erec, among others, will stand Louis Yoli, ordinary day labourer extraordinary; Salvatore Nunz'iatta, winner of "cum laude" in bricklaying; and, Harry Tress, glazier par excellence. THE BRAINIEST AGE. Statistics compiled by a group of expert psychologists reveal many interesting facts about the age at which' different types of men i-each their highest pitch of efficiency. The average age at which twenty of the greatest inventions were produced is 32. Wireless telegraphy, , the self-binding reaper, and the vacuum air. brake were largely developed by men in their twentysecond year. : The inventors of the steam turbine, and the steam engine were each in their thirtieth year when their efforts were crowned, with success,, while the inventor of the sewing machine was 26,' and the discoverer of the process of producing aluminium cheaply, 23'. Wilbur Wright, the pioneer aviator, conquered 'the. air when he was 38. Edison was 30 when he invented the incandescent lamp. ■ ' EFFECT OF MUSIC ON SNAKES. An interesting experiment to discover the effect of music oh snakes has been carried out at the Snake Park at Port Elizabeth. A violinist climbed into the grass area where the snakes are confined, and, closely watched by a little group of scientists, the experiment began. 1 Groups of cobras were raked out of their hatches, and on this hissing audience ' the fiddler tried the effect of his music. The swaying reptiles fixed the musician. with a stony glare, but were apparently unmoved by the strains of " I Miss my Swiss," while "If you knew Susie'," also left them cold. The plaintive notes of Chick, chick, chicken," pitched in a higher key, however, had immediate effect. The cobras were at once galvanised into action, lashing out at the musician and at Dne anther in mad fashion as long as the music continued. LAST DAYS OF FAMOUS MINE. Mines, like men—and gold mines, probably, more than most mines—have their allotted span. To-day South Africa is watching the last days of the old Robinson, one of the most romantic of all mines in the Union. The old mine, of course, is inseparably associated with the name of Sir J. B. Robinson, whose early schemes and pur- • chases on the reef were regarded as the speculations of a madman. The wits of the day were riotously funny at the expense of Robinson and his " cabbage patch."The Rothschild, expert from England is said to have declared as he was riding along the gold-bearing conglomerate that he would not trouble to dismount from his horse to examine the reef, as it was farcical to suppose that any gold could exist in such a formation. Yet the old Robinson alone lias yielded about 6.000,0000z. of gold. FROM SLAVERY TO FAME. Born in slavery in the United States, Professor Carver has become a worl 1famed specialist in the chemistry of agriculture. He has developed over a hundred products from the sweet potato, over a hundred and fifty uses for the peanut, extracted wonderful dyes from the clays of the southern soil, and demonstrated the uses of all sorts of waste materials. Professor Carver is one of the few Americans honoured by election to a Fellowship in tho Royal Society of England. Edison offered him" a few years ago a bigger salary than President Coolidgc gets to join him for five years in his laboratory at New Jersey. The head of a great dvestuffs firm offered the professor a blank cheque to §il in bis own figures for a salary, and at the same time promised to build and equip a laboratory of his own designing if he wouid take charge of it. The firm would have, paid him anything up to £25,000 a year. But the negro genius refused them all.