GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19508, 11 December 1926, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

FIGHTING THE FOG DANGERS. A now kind of glass of a deep orange colour is intended as a third colour for railway signals. The idea is to have a distant railway signal that can bo readily distinguished "by the driver on the footplate of an engine. Light passing through this glass has good penetration in foggy nir and when modified in colour by the fog tends to resemble the red (danger) light. SIXTEEN HISTORIC ISLANDS. The Turks and Caicoi Islands, which were recently swept by a tornado, have never had anything to do with Turkey. They owe their name to a, species of cactus whose resemblance to a turbanned head happened to strike the original discoverers.

Uninhabited until 1678, when the Bermudians began to visit them in search of salt, the islands—of which there are sixteen —were long a boE<e of contention between Britain and Spain before becoming finally British at the end of the eighteenth century. SURVIVAL OF THE CURFEW. Curfew is still rung in the Lanarkshire village of Leadhills, perhaps the last place in Scotland where the " knell of parting day" is tolled. The great landowner at Leadhills is Lord Linlithgow, who has some excellent grouse moors there, which very heavy bags. Leadhills is also famous for another curiosity, a church and manse in one building, and the church is said to bo the highest in Scotland. This structure, which serves a double purpose, was an ancient residence" of the Earls of Hopetoun, now Marquises of Linlithgow. THE PING-PONG CRYPT. An innovation has been introduced at St.-Luke's Church, Norwood, where the crypt has been converted for use as a young men's social club. In the time of the air raids, this crypt was much used as a shelter. Now billiards, ping-pong, chess, draughts, etc., replace the coffins which once wero piled in the underground chamber. St. Luke's is one of four South London " " Waterloo" churches, dedicated to the four evangelists, the others being St. Matthew's, Brixton; St. Mark's, Kennjngton, and St. John's Waterloo Road. TWO LAMPS OF MEMORY. Most allusions to the Lamp of Remembrance relate to the light which burns continuously in Toe H Chapel in All Hallows. But it seems there is another, arid it is ,to be found at Scotland Yard. In appearance it somewhat resembles an ordinary street lamp of the' older type, but the glass is opaque, so as to give a glow rather than a flame effect. Since its installation and first lighting this lamp has never been put out, and the intention is that it never shall be! It burns in memory of those men of the " Yard" who wero killer! in the war, and has ail inscription to that effect. ANTIQUITY OF BARUM. Barnstaple, or Barum, the capita.j oi North Devon, has lately .held its annual fair, which,, like the. town itself, goes back to the mists of antiquity. ■ Its municipal charter is said to be older than, that of Exeter, and the bridge across the River Taw dates from 1274. The Barnstaple Grammar School, now housed in modern premises, was what is now a quaint old chantry in the churchyard, and John Gay of " Beggar's Opera" fame, was one of its pupils. Tradition has it that " J.G." carved on one of the desks are the poet's initials executed by .himself. SCRAPPING A GIANT TELESCOPE. A giaut telescope made in the middle ■of last century is to be scrapped, not because after 75 years there is a larger one to take its place, but because it is too unwieldy. . It is the telescope with which Sir William Peck discovered Jupiter's fifth moon. It was built for the Russian Government, but the Crimean War prevented its delivery. It was shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and then went into private hands. It was Sir William Peck who secured it for the Edinburgh Observatory, where it is now to give way to smaller and more convenient telescopes. PEARLS AND POUNDS. Pearl fishing in Scottish rivers is still carried on, despite the fact that Yio really big money is made at it in these days. 'The Ugie and the Ythan are the popular rivers for this " industry." The largest pearl that has been produced from either of them during the recent season was valued at £ls.

The Ythan, delivered up the great pearl of the Scottish Crown. It was in 1750 that an Aberdeen merchant found a pearl in this river, and asked _ £IOO Scots money for it. An Englishman bought i.t and gave him £IOO English money. The vendor was a Mr. Tower, whose price asked was the equivalent of £8 6s Bd., in Saxon money. HUMAN FACE IN A RUBY. A Burmese ruby, not very large, but of fabulous value, and considered to be unique, is owned by a man in Bengal. Inside the gem, deep down behind a scarlet cloud, appears the tiny image of a man, dressed in white, with a dark brown face and deep bVown eyes. He is wearing a white turban, while the rest of his body is covered by a garment of white silk.

The director of the Geological Department, to whqm the stone was submitted, stated that it was a flawless ruby, and declared the portrait was a freak of Nature without parallel in his experience. There is no crack in the stone that would show how the portrait came to be inside. BURIED BIBLICAL HISTORY. Near the sito of the ancient of Mizpah, in Palestine, a party of scientists recently discovered a great pit into which they thinl- the bodies of Gedaliah and his fofloweis were thrown, as related in the bibTlcai story. A number of rock tombs containing a mass oi early pottery were also found, and the scientists confidently expect to unearth, among the relics of this 2500-vear-old city, records telling the full story of the Egyptian campaigns in Palestine. The historic crim>* associated with the ancient city took place when Ishmael came to the colony and was welcomed by the Babylonian governor with a great feast, in, the middle of which he suddenly rose and killed Gedaliah and his friends, afterwards throwing their bodies into a pit. BRITAIN'S ALIEN ANIMALS. Very few of the animals best known in Britain are British in origin. Indeed, with the possible exception of the fox, the badger, the otter, the hare, and the red deer, there are to-day, few, if any, survivors of animals native to this country. The rabbit, for example, was not known in Britain in early Christian days. It is believed to have originated in Spain; very old coins have been found in that country imprinted with the figure of a rabbit. Rats are foreign to British shores, though they are now too firmly established the r e. The English black rat came from the Continent eight centuries ago. '

Both the fallow and roe deer came to England from abroad, the first from Norway, the second from Asia. The pheasant found its way there in Roman times. The partridge, or> the other hand, is perliaps the most British of all game birds.

GREAT ANGLING RECORD. A great angling record is possessed by Mr. Robbert Butter, a Perth (Scotland) veteran, who—now in his 80th year—has caught 19,000 trout with his rod, besides 103 salmon and many pike, grilse, sea trout and percn. For 32 years Mr. Butter has fished every season on Loch Leven, and possesses 140 prizes won in competitions. Despite his four-score years, he aims at completing his 20,000 trout yet. —J AMERICAN MEAT EATERS. Beef eating apparently is losing some of its popularity in United States. Whereas in 1907 the average annual beef consumption per head was 77.51b., United States Department of Agriculture figures show that it fell in 1925 to 62.1ib.

The consumption of pork per head remained the same, while the figures for veal rose from 7.41b. 18 years ago to 8.71b. in 1925. Per head consumption of all meat was 159.11b. in 1907 and 143.61b. last year. A HIGH POSTAGE RECORD. What is believed to be a new record for high postage paid on a single parcel was established, at Philadelphia a few weeks ago when a package was sent to San' Francisco by mail bearing £3O worth of postage stamps. Postal regulations prohibited local clerks divulging any description of the package, its contents, or recipient, but the package was nearly covered with cancelled stamps. The air mail postage across America is 16s a pound. A DAUGHTER AND A PIPE. Captain Enos, well known in South Wales shipping circles, had a remarkable experience at Aberstwyth. He heard cries of " Help!" from the sea front, and plunged into the water fully clothed. To his great surprise he found that the bather in difficulties was his own daughter. The father brought his daughter safely ashore, but then found he had lost his pipe. To the amazement of the crowd he cooly returned to the water and swam after his favourite briar. ORIGIN OF THE DOLLAR SIGN, Notwithstanding the interesting theory that capital U, standing for United, sup-er-imposed on capital S, for States,, was the origin of the dollar mark, there is more evidence in favour of tracing' it to the early days in Southern North America, when much of "the trading was done on a basis oi dollars and reales.

There being eight reales to the dollar, they were denoted by a cancelled figure 8, or the eight was sometimes placed between two slanting lines: /8/. A GRE/.2 "PEACE BRIDGE." The international " peace bridge" between FoVt Erie in Canada and Buffalo in the United States is to bo opened on May 24 next to commemorate the century and more of peace between the two countries. It is proposed to invite the .Prince of Wales and President Coolidge to open the bridge. Hie building of the approaches to the bridge was destroyed the forts at Bufialo and Fort Erie which played a part in the last war in 1812. NEW YORK'S FOREIGN PRESS. New York'i Jewish newspaper, Forward, has 110,227 circulation. The two chief foreign tongues 'in New York city are Italian and Hebrew. New York city's foreign press also includes Arabic, Armenian, Bohemian, Croatian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Servian,? Slovakian, Slovencian, Spanish, and Swedish, besides other periodicals and papers of smaller circulation in lesser used ■ tongues .

WORLD'S SMALLEST TELEPHONE.

Designed to afford communication with 43 entombed miners who were brought to safety at Ironwood, Michigan, the Oliver Mining Company possesses what is believed to be the smallest telephone in the world. The instrument is smaller than a'watch, but somewhat thicker than the drill pipe which it was lowered into while rescue crews were drilling through the 400 ft of solid rocK to release the imprisoned men. The telephone is lfita. long, gof an inch wide, and thick. ARTISTIC AND GENTLE " DUN." Collecting overdue accounts is ever a tactful business, calling successively for courtesy, firmness-and menaces, but the following contribution from an American source is believed to be the last word in " diplomatic effrontery," Dear Sira, —"We once lost a very good customer through not reminding him that be owed us an account. It has been a lesson to us, and we resolved to avoid such indiscretions in the future, "We hope to continue to deserve" your business, but, in case we risk losing your support we courteously desire to direct your attention to the enclosed statement of account, which so far appears to have escaped your notice. OLD BACHELOR'S .CONFESSION. " You see me her© an old bachelor, disappointed in all his amorous affairSj now on the point of giving up what to him is a very mysterious branch of human affairs," said Sir Robert Horne, M.P., in an after-luncheon speech in London recently. The chairman had referred to Sir Robert's many activities, political and industrial, and " in the drawing room surrounded by clusters of beauties." Sir Robert protested that this last " activity " of his existed only in the imagination of the chairman, but he admitted that it was a state to which he had aspired all his life—although he had been unsuccessful. Sir Robert will visit New Zealand shortly. MAILBAG WITH A HISTORY. In the museum of the General Post Office in London, there are many curious exhibits. One of these is a time-worn mailbag, over 100 years old, and was taken by an armed," footpad one evening in 1798 from the postboy who was carrying the mails between York and Seiby. A reward of £2OO was offered for the apprehension of the robber, but no trace of him or the mailbag was found until nearly 80 years later. The discovery then came about in a most singular manner.

In 1876 an old wayside inn was being demolished at Churchhill, near Selby, and in the rafters the workmen found, among other things, the long-lost mailbag, it having evidently been hidden there by the highwayman of 1798, , after being despoiled of its contents. WARS OF THE HOSES. Three coffins, one of which contains the skeleton of what is believed to have been a soldier killed in battle during the Wars of the Roses, have been uncovered by an archaeologist in the ruins of Beaulieu Abbey, in the heart of the New Forest'. Mr. B. G. Lampard Vachell, of Pembroke College. Cambridge, and his assistant made the discovery when digging on the site of the old church. The two coffins on the outside were of stone, and contained skeletons of two men. The middle one was of wood. It' lay 7ft. 6in. below the surface. " This coffin," said Mr. Vachell, "is made of oak, and it has weathered the centuries well. It is 6ft. 6in. long and Ift. 4in. wide. The middle coffin was certainly used for the burial of a man of great stature. He must have been 6ft. 3in. in height, and his other measurements were proportionate."