GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20252, 11 May 1929, Page 9 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

THE OLD WHIGS AND TORIES. Tho first organisations corresponding to the'political' parties of to-day were the Whigs and Tories, which sprang up i n England toward the end of fho seventeenth century. Tho name "Whig" came from tho word " whigkamore, ' sometimes used by the Scots to describo cattlo thieves, while 1o call a man a Tory in the old days was equivalent to calling him an Irish outlaw. MICROBES THAT EAT STOKE. A London botanist, Dr. Buchanan, has 'discovered microbes which feed on stone. Tho germs have been artificially cultured and are of various types. They attack stone castles, cathedrals, and monuments, ' and infect buildings as other germs do tho human body. Having found the disease it is surmised that it may be easy to find the cure and so prevent tho decay of beautiful buildings. A TON AND A HALF MIRROR. A huge mirror which took nearly a year to cool down has been made in America for a large reflecting telescope. Weighing more than a ton and a half, it is 69 inches in diameter and 10 inches thick. Discs of glass of this great size are •very difficult to get free from defects, and after tho molten glass is poured into the mould it has to be kept hot by electric heaters and cooled down over a period of many months. HELPING AN AIR PILOT. A United States air mail pilot, encountered a dense fog outside St. Louis. Finding an opening which was clear he circled in this space waiting for daylight. Hearing the continuous hum of motors overhead, farmers rushed out with lanterns to see if the plane was in distress. One farmer cranked up his car and drove in circles around his hayfield, using his headlights to flood the ground, and the airman landed safely with the mail. LANGUAGES AND TELEPHONES. The International Standard Electric Company of London recently, announced that tests had shown that the French language is " able to carry {lie* largest average number of ideas during a one-minute telephone conversation." English coming next, followed by German, and then Italian. In intelligibility over the telephone, however, the order is exactly reversed, Italian being most readily understood, then German, English, and French. EX-KAISER AND HORSESHOE. No wonder, say tho superstitious, that the former Kaiser has lost his luck. The latest photograph of him—feeding the ducks—shows him standing with a horseshoe over the door. But the ends on the horseshoe are pointing downwards. This is always said to mean that the good luck runs out. It is most important, according to the credulous, that the horseshoe should be hung up in the form of a capital U. Otherwise it is thought better not to hang the horseshoe at all. PISH AND NAVAL MIGHT. Lenten observances may seem to have little, nowadays, to do with the maintenance of the Navy, but in Elizabeth's time the connection was clearly recognised. The fishing Beet, was then the chief source of supply of men and ships for fighting England's battles. The Queen and her Ministers, finding the neglect of " Fish Days" consequent on the Reformation, was having effect on the fishermen, passed a law enacting that the sale and consumption of animal flesh during Lent, and on certain days throughout the year, should be punished by a heavy fine. The preamble of the Act expressly stated that its object was to subsidise'the fishing fleet.• that it might be kept fit for the Queen's service. " ICE-ROAD" ACROSS THE DANUBE. In order to avoid scrambling over dangerous blocks of ice in crossing the frozen Danube, the .inhabitants of the village of Langenzersdorf have constructed an ice-road across the river to the historic town of Klosterneuburg, on the other Shore. The road was carefully levelled out and covered with sand to prevent slipping. Thus ? fine pathway, more than two yards wide and nearly one-third of a mile long, lvis been opened for the benefit of the population on both sides of the Danube. Soldiers have tested the road and have found, it perfectly safe. Users of this ice-road are charged a toll of one farthing. GREAT STAMP FORGERIES. Spurious stamps of a catalogue value running into millions of pounds have been destroyed as a result Oi the purchase by the Geneva Philatelic Unic of the stock of a firm of stamp dealers. The firm i$ alleged to have inundated the world with worthless imitations, which are so clever that they could be j detected only by the most expert eye. I Specimens of them arc to be found in most general collections. Ihe loss to stamp collectors during the 25 years the firm has been in existence is incalculable. To assist collectors to detect the forgeries the Geneva Philatelic Union has issued an album of facsimiles of some of the most important counterfeits. All the facsimiles are cancelled with indelible ink. A THIRTY-YEAR-OLD KILT. Patriotic Scotsmen in Scotland are reviving an old-tiinc plea to make popular tlie kilt on the ground of comfort and economy. A peer, writing to the British press, claims to have worn the same kilt off and on for 30 years, and he declares it looks as fresh as ever! Other contributors assert that the kilt will outlast many paiis of trousers. The. chief objections of opponents arc confined to the difficulty of finding suitable headgear—straw hats, derbies, silk hats, and felts being declared unadaptable for tlie purpose. No one seems to have arisen in defence of the bonnet, the appropriate head dress with the Highland garb, yet it conies nearest in scantiness of material to the fashion in which youths are trying to interest their elders of going without head covering at all. OPERATIC FOUNTAINS. Illuminated fountains are as popular tebroad as fireworks displays, and now inventive man has gone a step further, Says a London writer. At Aachen, in Germany, near the Belgian frontier, a new fountain, lit from underneath, accompanies the orchestra, and the music is interpreted by the coloured jets, which rise and fall in rhythm with the violins end brasses. Tho inventor is Willy Jungbecker, an tofficer in the former German navy. Ho derived the idea from playing a gramophone in a U-boat. The music dramas of Wagner lend themselves best to this aquatic treatment. Take " Das RLeingold." Each motif is given a colour. The Rhine maidens' music is yellow. "Wotan is royal purple. Siegfried is blue, Loke is red, Erda is green. So, as the orchestra weaves the musical fabric, the tnan at the switchboard follows by playing the colours and regulating the sprays Svith the crescendo of tho score.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN GERMANY The German Minister of Education has agreed to the request of a number of directors of higher schools to place English foremost in foreign language instruction. Hitherto French has taken precedence of modern languages in tho German scholastic curriculum, it being considered by the authorities that that language presents grammatical advantages that English lacks. NAPOLEON'S COST TO FRANCE. A famous French scientist, Professor Charles Richet, has passed away. He lived a long and busy life and was a great friend of humanity. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in tho year before the war. He wrote poetry and plays, and was a prominent advocate of arbitration between nations. It was Professor Richet who declared that Napoleon's lust for power cost France eight million lives. A TEN POUNDER FROG. The largest frog in the world and the smallest have been added to tho exhibits of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The two specimens are reproductions of rare species, the large one found in French West Africa, the tiny one in Cuba. The pygmy frog weighs about one twenty-thousandth as much as the giant frog. It takes nearly 150 of the small variety to make an ounce. The giant, on the other hand, weighs about 101b. UTILITY OF THE GARDEN. The owners of over 700 country houses in Britain threw their gardens open to the public at a small charge during the six summer months of last year, and in this way nearly £7OOO was ejected to help the funds of the Queen's Institute of District Nursing. Nearly £7OO was collected in this way in Surrey Gardens; next came Dorsetshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire with over £SOO each; and next came Hertfordshire and Kent with over £4OO. The King's gardens at Sandringham brought in over £7OO. CROWS' NEST OF GOLF BALLS. There is a golf course near Paris where the members who play have chosen for a badge the design of a crow flying with a golf ball held in its beak. The adoption of this strange device was forced on them in this manner: At a full drive's length from the sixth tee there are almost invariably waiting a pair of sentinel crows. They share their duties. The crow nearer whom tho ball falls seizes it and makes off, followed by its mate. On one occasion a nest was discovered in which lay 23 golf balls, but other hiding places have been more cleverly guarded. THE SALE OF ASPIRIN. | It was recently announced in the Bri- | tisli House of Commons that the question of the sale of aspirin through automatic machines had been referred to the committee on the Poisons and Pharmacy Acts. The committee is unlikely to recommend any restriction upon automatic machines, if only for the reason that persons likely to take this drug to excess can in any event obtain unlimited supplies across the chemist's counter. If | the committee make recommendations at | all it will be in regard to the whole 1 question of the sale of aspirin. 1 AN ANTI-LITTER LEAGUE. i There can be little excuse for a man | who lives at Kew Gardens throwing I orange peel on Merrow Downs. Kew 1 Gardens is the home of beauty, and the | famous Downs are among tho most | majestic natural spectacles in the world. | Yet it was Ernest Wybery Shaw, of Kew | Gardens, who had the misfortune to be | the first man summoned by the Surrey | Anti-Litter League. gj It was stated that Mr. Shaw left orange if peel on Merrow Downs. The chairman n dismissed the case as it was the first a prosecution of the kind, but he said g future offenders would be severely dealt a with. 1 SALE' OF VALUABLE ANTIQUES. 1 The high pxice of £5500 was given at | the Schiller sale in Berlin recently for three pieces of Phoenician jewellery of the eighth or seventh century B.C. I They consisted of a heavy finger ring j and two crowns composed of ornamented | plates. The lot was bought for Paris. , A large neck ornament, with pendants of framed coins, fetched £2400. For a heavy golden belt buckle with the head of Alexander the Great, and dated the j third century of this era, the Berlin Museum paid* £IOSO after a brisk competition with Paris. The other prices did not rise to so high a level. a, THE MEN OF THE TREES. \ The association known as The Men of the Trees was first started among African tribesmen in Kenya, by Mr. R. St. Barbe Baker, Assistant Conservator of Forests, with the aim of promoting the planting and care of trees. There it has been very successful. The association is a tree-planting | brotherhood, seeking' to enhance the j natural beauties of our country; and, further,-it has the fine ideal of prompting ■ people to think constructively of the future and our successors. In a quiet j| way the association, whose chairman, is | Sir Francis Younghusband, has been do- | ing excellent work. V. A MODERN HERCULES. | Those strong, silent cave-men, whose | exploits make feminine novelette readers | sigh, have at last been put to shame. | A man was filmed in London recently, H whose smallest feats are enough to make | all the cavemen retire humiliated. Mr. Saxnn Brown, of Clerkenwell, K claims tc Lie the 12st " strong man " | champion of the world. Ho can break | steel chains with his teeth, pull against | two cart-horses, snap horseshoes in half I with his hands, tilt taxi-cabs with one P push, let motor-cars run over his chest, | and can pull with his teeth a charabanc 3 full of people, weighing anything up to 1 three tons two hundredweights. If And Mr. Brown will allow six strong j men to tie a rope round his neck and I try to strangle him by tugging at the g ends. P A COMPLIMENT TO EINSTEIN. 8 Professor Einstein has received a | charming birthday present. It is the HL news that a forest is to be planted in Palestine and named after him. Einstein is a great believer in the Jewish revival in Palestine, where energetic Zionists are making the desert to blossom as the rose. It is said that the planting of forests and vineyards is bringing back the rain to Palestine. When conquerors laid the orchards and vineyards waste centuries ago the clouds ceased to be drawn to the country, which grew parched and barren. The Zionists have named one of their new forests Herzl, after the founder of the movement, and one after the Earl of Balfour, a staunch friend. It seems right that a third plantation should be given to the Jew who has filled every man of science in tho world with admiration and bew r ilderment.