GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 9 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

FORTUNE FROM OATS' MEAT. < Jfc was revealed at tho Marylebono Court, when a middle-aged woman was accused' of attempted suicide, that her husband had made a fortune by selling cats' meat. The husband had retired, it was stated, and had ordered a houso to be built for fcirc. '{ AMERICAN INDIAN'S EMINENCE. The United States Vice-President, Mr. Curtis/ still owns 160 acres of homestead property bv virtue of the fact "that lie is i member of the I\aw Indian tribe. Mr. Curtis is still listed at the Department'of the Interior as "an incompetent Indian," which means that he cannot dispose of his land without Government sanction. FATE OF FAMOUS YACHT. Sir Walter Runciman's famous yacht Sunbeam lias been sold for breaking up purposes. " Sunbeam, once tho property of the |ale Lord Brassev, holds the world's record- yacht milage of 530,000 miles. In 1905 the Sunbeam took part -in the Trans-Atlantic race for the Kaiser's Cup. During the war she was used as a hospital ship the Dardanelles. NEW NAMES FOR AMERICA. An effort is being made in America to find ihore discriminating names for the country and its inhabitants than tho United Slates of America and Americans. " Unista," mado up from the first letters ii the present title, has been proposed/and also "Unistans," signifying inhabitants of tho country. Both terms, however, seem to lack something of dignity as well as euphony. FAST- 1 / OF OVER TWO MONTHS. After fasting for 67 days at Barry Island South Wales, Billie Brown gave up recently. This was said to be due to the fact that- Sacco, who had been fasting at Blackpool, retired on the previous day. Wheh Brown was examined by doctors he was found to be very weak and his heart was beating feebly, although lie was in good spirits. Brown lost 551b. in weight during the fast. Sacco, who jstvled himself the world's champion faster, began his fast at Blackpool one j day after Brown. f CHARLES lI.'S HEADQUARTERS. There is a likelihood of Chevalier House, one of the many show places of Exeter, being.'sold to a multiple firm. Chevalier House is a quaint old building, occupying 6 prominent position in one of the main streets, and is much admired by visitors. The building is one of the most beautiful seventeenth century houses Exeter, vrhich is noted for its wealth of ancient houses. At one time it was the headcjuairers of King Charles 11. when Prince of Wales. The matter is being considered by the City Council, who will try to preserve the house from demolition. JACKDAW AS SHOP ASSISTANT. 'ln Brighton, England, there is a bird .which is a butcher's assistant. He is a jackdaw, and he gives willing help at the cashier's desk. Some customers pre6ent .their money to him, and ho takes it in his beak and hides it. The bird is particularly fond of bright half-crowns, and collects these with zest. He is so full of mischief that his owners are frequently driven to despair. But they are so fond of him that they will never part with him. He likes women customers. Sometimes, while they are waiting to be served, he will gently untie their shoelaces, and as they start to leave the sh6p their shoes fall off. (WONDERFUL CHILD COMPOSER. Little Ruth Gipps, the eight year-okl 'daughter of a Bexhill music teacher, has published her first musical composition. When Ruth was four years old she played on a concert platform, and astonished the audience with her remarkable technique. Since then she has made rapid strides under her' motlier'.s tuition, and her publisher prophesies a great niture for her. When lie was introduced to Rutli she \v£S playing on the sands in a bathing costume, making sand pies. Ruth's mother states that there is nothing of the prodigy" about Ruth. She comes of a musical family, her mothers six brothers and sisters all being in the profession. Ruth's first composition is entitled " The Fairy Shoemaker," and she not only composed it, but suggested the tlosign for the cover. A. TREE FOR EVERY DEAD SOLDIER. A fresh campaign has been started by the ' disabled ex-soldiers of France. Through their national union they Ha\P declared themselves protectors ot woods and roadside trees. During the war iey saw lovely trees reduced to charred and ugly stumps or skeletons, and even entire woods devastated by shell-fire, and liave •now declared their wish that something of the vernal beauty which Fiance has lost should be restored to her. Tliese ex-warriors suggest that on every anniversary of the Armistice there should be not simply a ceremony at the local war memorials, accompanied by wreaths of flowers which quickly fade, but an organised planting of new trees. a fresh tree be planted for each one of our dead." That is their ideal. Should thev! realise it, then Franco will soon be "enriched by 1,500,000 young trees to take the place of tboso which were destroyed by the war. j STUDENTS' GREAT ADVENTURE. Three American students from Cornell [University, whose ages range from to 23, landed at Cannes recently, after crossing tho Atlantic in a sailing boat 4511, long, f/the Carlsark, lent to them by one cf the Vanderbilts. The students started on June 20, after taking part in a regatta near IScw lork, Avitli the idea of undertaking a cruise to Newfoundland. After being three days at sea, Carl L. Weagant, aged 21, who ■was /in command, revealed to his astonished companions that they were liea ing for Europe! . , Oil August 3 the adventurers reached the, Azores, where they cabled to then parents that they were on their way to France. A fortnight later they were at Gibraltar, and after a few days rest leKumed their journey to the I'rench coas . The three students intended visiting I a lis and London, and afterwards sailing home in the Carlsark. THE WORLD'S BUSIEST MAN. Sir William Waterlow, the recently installed Lord Mayor of London, is probably the world's busiest man. The imposing list of other, offices which he has assumed bv becoming Lord Mayor includes Admiral of the Port of London, chairman of the Court of Aldermen and the Court of Commoii Council, chief magistrate of the city, head of the City Lieutenancy, a trustee of St Paul's Cathedral, and Chief Commissioner at the Central Criminal Court. The number of banquets the Lord Mayor may have to attend may be as many as 410". and in order to do this in the 365 day's available he often has to leave directly after one dinner and arrive in time for the conclusion of another. His time/; during the day is occupied with luncheons at the Mansion House, presiding at charity meetings, laying foundationstones, and distributing prizes. Indeed, such is the demand upon his time, it is necessary for him to be at his ofhee at / 9 o'clock,* in order to deal with his huge post-bag.

BRIDE DEFIES SUPERSTITION.

Miss Phyllis Francis, of Cardiff, Wales, has defied superstition by being married on a Friday, the 13th of the month, and dressed in a frilled pale-green gown with a palo-green veil. On her return from the honeymoon the bride resided in a houso bearing the number " 13." MOTOR-CARS USED FOR POACHING. At a meeting of tho Merionethshire Fishery Board a few weeks ago attention was drawn to the need for moro bailiffs to protect the rivers from poachers. It was stated that salmon, pools in the Mawddach River had been gapped by poaching, cyclists carrying away whole sackfuls. Tho poachers had now taken to using motor-cars. CABMAN'S LOVE FOR HORSE. " Sly poor old Billie. Only a truo lover of horses knows what .a wrench it was to part with him. 1 can see him looking at mo now." This note, written to tho coroner of Smethwick, England, by an old cabman, before placing his head in a gas oven, was read at the inquest. Tho widow said at the inquest there was no work for cabmen nowadays and her husband had to sell his horse. RUSSIANS AND THEIR FISTS. According to Dr. Leibovitch, of the Moscow Institute of Criminology, 2,000,000 Russians indulge in a fight with fists every year. Of this number 35 per cent, are neighbours, 15 per cent, husbands and wives, 6 per cent, former husbands and former wives, 7 per cent, other relatives, 6 per cent, friends, 5 per cent, acquaintances, and 26 per cent. " perfect strangers." The statistics of the annual bomb fights are not issued. QUAINT RAILWAY STATION. There is a railway station in Essex which has no name, no station master, no porter, no tickets, no ticket office, only one platform, and a waiting-room about 12ft. long. This Alice-in-Wonderland station, which is so shv that it oven refuses to be named is at Feering, on the " Crab and Winkle lino," as the Tollesbury and Ivelvedon Branch Railway is irreverently known. The station has eight trains a day, and sometimes as many as 40 passengers. SIGHTLESS AND DEAF LONDONERS. There are in London about 150 people who can neither hear nor see. Some of these are dumb also. There arc more than 4000 people who are deaf and dumb, the largest aggregation in the world. These facts are given in the 88th annual report, of the Royal Association in Aid of the Deaf and Dumb. The afflictions of the blind-deaf, it is pointed out, are not easily realised. They are cut. off from music, ordinary conversation, and the sight of everything. Tlfey cannot master Braille, and therefore are unable either to read or write. TERMS USED ON SHIPS. " On a ship there is any quantity of ropes. But not one of them is called a v rope. They are stays, painters, halyards, sheets. A floor isn't a floor—it's a deck. Perfectly good walls of rooms are called bulkheads. There's no right nor left; only starboard and port. There's another mystic side in a ship called the weather-beam. A flight of stairs is a companion-way. " There are a thousand other nautical terms invented merely to confuse the landsman. Sir. W. J. Lock makes one of his characters observe in the novel " Ancestor Jorieo." In any case, the invention has succeeded beyond the in- | ventor's hopes. WHEN WOMEN ARE JUDGES. " Political power in this country has passed from men to women as a result of the extension of the franchise," said the Leicester Recorder, Mr. G. Wight-man Powers, when addressing the grand jury at the Quarter Sessions recently. " It is the first time," Mr. Powers confinued, " that a great country and .a great Empire has been under the sway of females, and no doubt the result will be seen in years to come, but it is too early to prophesy what will be the consequences." Mr. Powers said he anticipated that in the domain of law there would be changes, and it was probable that women would occupy high judicial positions. "We trust," he added, " that if that is the case it will lead to the better administration of justice in our courts," APPEAL FOR THE BOW BELL§. The condition of the famous bells of St. Mary-le-Bow Church, which is such that they cdnnot be rung, was the subject of a short discussion at a recent meeting of the London City Corporation." The matter arose on the presentation by the Lord Mayor of a letter from Alderman Sir Louis Newton, on behalf cf the rector and churchwardens of tho church, asking for the assistance of tho corporation in raising the funds necessary to carry out urgent repairs to the fabric, organ and bells. Mr. Deputy Ellis said " Bow Bells" were not only known to every citizen of London, but they were known all over the world. Their historic association with Diclr Whittingloii endeared them to every British man and woman, and the court should do all in its power to see that they were repaired. | The letter was referred to a committee. JAMES WATT'S WORKSHOP. It is not generally known that the contents of the garret workshop of James Watt are in the Science Museum at South Kensington. The garret was used by Watt in his house in Birmingham, and was shut up for thirty years after his death. Various descriptions of the opening of the garret, in 1853, are given in a pamphlet issued by tho Museum. Samuel Smiles, who was of the party, recorded that " The ashes of the last fire were in the grate, the last bit of coal was in the scuttle. . . . Many objects lay about or in the drawers, indicating the pursuits which had been interrupted by death. . . . On the shelves are minerals and chemicals in pots and jars, on which tho dust of nearly half a century has settled. The moist substances have long since dried up, the putty has been turned to stone and tho paste to dust. On tho shelf we came across a dish in which lies a bunch of withered grapes." BAILIFFS' STRANGE CAPTURES. The airship which was recently threatened with seizure for debt in America would have provided some of the British bailiffs with the sort of work they enjoy. Members of the fraternity have mado somo strange " captures " in tho course of their duties. One famous case occurred two years ago when tho Hackney High Bailiff seized a London County Council tramcar. His own idea was still more spectacular—he wanted to seize a fire-engine, but he was told the tramcar would do. On a previous occasion the same bauift was instructed to distrain on the French and British Exhibition at Shepherd's Bush for non-payment of rates. He was then acting for the borough of Hammersmith. He seized the " Flip-Flap,' _ a favourite amusement. But it was a difficult thing to remove, so he put his assistants in charge of the turnstiles and carried on until he thought he had taken enough money to «*ver thtt debt.