GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 31 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

PRECAUTION AGAINST LOVE. Stranger stories come ticking over the tape machines than romantic novelists in- t vont. A young inspector of tho Customs 1 House' at Kobe, Japan, recently eloped | with tho wife of a millionaire. j To discourage the others, tho officials of the Customs House* have ordered that all tho young men in tho service must havo their heads completely phaved. Girls • will not fall in lovo with men with bald j heads, they argue. MEDALS FOR ROYAL SERVANTS. The King and Queen completed their 20th yoar of Sovereignty last month. In commemoration of tho occasion His Majesty presented long-service to tho old servants entitled to tho distinction, assembled at Buckingham Palaco from tho various royal houses. This long-service medal was, in the first instance, suggested by tho Prince Con- , sort, and it has been bestowed ever since. For many tho presentation was a sad ono, meaning severance with tho service of the royal master. After 60 years of ago members of tho loyal domestic staff retire on a pension. JULIUS CAESAR ON A BICYCLE. When 500 students from tho Brighton technical and art schools held their annual " rag " in aid of the Children's Hospital recently girls took a prominent part, boarding omnibuses and tramway-cars and levying duty on the passengers. A bullfight, with students disguised as bulls, matadors, picadors, and toreadors, attracted a largo crowd. A special feature of the " rag " was a choral cabaret and a mock historical episode, showing Julius Caesar riding a bicycle and meoting Boadicea, The climax of tho scene was a battle, in which soot, flour, and vegetables were used as missiles. . < MAN WHO KNEW 65 LANGUAGES. > Tho German Foreign Offica. has lost through death a language "phenomenon," Emil Krebs, who was officially certified to understand 45 languages perfectly and 20 adequately. By the time he was 25 this man spoko all the languages of Europe, and was then sent to China, where ho remained many years learning Asiatic tongues, which he successfully mastered, so that he was tho one European in China who understood practically all dialects' of tho country. Krebs used to say that when ono knew 25 languages it was no longer very difficult to learn the 26th. BOYS' BROADCASTING RUSE. The high school boys of the; little town of Habelschwerdt, Switzerland, are credited, with a fine achievement in " applied physics." In order to listen-in at the proceedings of the masters' board, and thus get to know their friends and enemies,' they fixed up a microphone in a disused stove, and conducted the wire up tha chimney to the attic. The meeting they were mostly interested in was the one held just beforo Easter, when their promotions to tho upper froms were settled. Unfortunately, a few days beforo that dato the central heating apparatus of tho school went wrong, and the. stove had to bo heated. This led to the .discovery, of their " broadcasting " outfit-; > » / CHICAGO'S BIG FAIR. ; Wbon General Dawes visited tho Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1925 he > was much impressed by tho organisation of that great show. He has now captured Lieut.-Colonel Sir Henry Gole, the manager, to assist in organising tho big Progress Fair in Chicago in 1933, which is under the presidency of his brother, Mr. Rufus Dawes. Sir Henry Cole's salary at Chicago will be five times the amount which ho now receives at tho Department of Overseas Trade, where he has been responsible for British Trade Fairs and other exhibitions. For 25 years ho served in tho Indian Army, and draws a pension. He is an example of an Army man turned business organiser, and with such that, although 60 years of age, ho is invited to assist in organising the biggest fair ever held in America. NEW TELEGRAPHY SYSTEM. A new system of telegraphy for London has been' suggested by which messages tapped out on a key-board, hke a typewriter keyboard, in a private offico will bo transmitted and automatically reprinted in the office of another subscriber. If the now system i 3 installed a subscriber wishing to telegraph by it presses a button to call the exchange, and dials tho number of the subscriber to whom he wishes to telegraph, in the samo way as an automatic telephone is dialled. When tho exchange signals that tho connection has been made, both subscribers can typewrite to each other. Their messages will be telegraphed and Te-typed automatically. When, the communications are finished another button is pressed which ends tho • connection. The introduction of tho system will offer the advantages of quick ' transmission, tho ability to send messages at any time, and the complete Becrccy that tho direct office-to-offico connection will afford. A PRESIDENT REMEMBERS. Ono evening, 30 years ago, some French and foreign students were merry in a famous safe in the Latin Quartier of Paris, when a voung foreign student entered and asked if someone would lend him 25 ; francs (then worth £1). A young Frenchman, who has since becom® ft wellknown journalist, said: "Yon want 25 francs? Well, here are 50. Pay me back when you can." The foreigner thanked him, and asked him for his name, saying, " i will never forget it." Ail that was forgotten by the journalist until recently, when —50 years after the Joan—the journalist received a case of 3000 cigars from Havana. A letter ex-' plained that the parcel was from General Machado, President of the Republic of ' Cuba. " You probably no longer remember tho student whom you obliged ono evening/'/ wrote the President. Ag ! have become a groat journalist, so I have : become President of my country, and am ' sending you these cigars by way of thank- ' ing you for an act that saved mo long ago." l; ■ ! "AYES" AND THE "NOES." I 1 Every division in the British House of Commons costs £l2. On the whole, divi- ' sions do not occur unnecessarily. i.no ' samo cannot always bo said of questions. 1 Each costs on an avorago a guinea to ' answer. However, tho daily number ' rarely exceeds about 120—which, when one ' remembers that each M.P. is entitled to 1 put .down three, a day, is a mercy, sinco it would work out at about ,!2000. , Only an hour, as a rulo, :is allotted to questions, so if tho whole 610 members did suddenly insist on exorcising their rights, it is difficult to conjecture what 5 might happen. However, as this particular form of energy does not appeal to I everyone, it seems unlikely that such a contingency will arise. There arc a few members who ". have their threo" every day—Commander Keni worthy, Mr. Day, and Major Graham Pole arc tho champions—somo who ask a parf ticularly pertinent question on rare occat sions—and the rest, who never ask any . at all,.

NEGROES AND THEIE TEETH. Another popular idea has been hit on the head. Many people have always believed that negroos have bettor teeth than white people. It now appears that this is an optical illusion. Owing to the black surrounding them, negroes' teeth look bettor; but in fact they aro no better than the teeth of whito people. Recognising this fact, Mr. Georgo Eastman has just given £400,000 to the Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee, to train negro dentists. I ORIGIN OF BURGLARY INSURANCE. Lloyd's Insurance Corporation lately celebrated tho jubilee of one of its inost. prominent and interesting members, Mr. C. E. Heath, inventor.of burglary, earthquake, hurricane, smallpox, and twin insurance. Mr. Heath's first burglary insurance policy was a joke. He entered into a contract with a friend whose house had been burgled and who asked whether the risk coula not be covered. The rate then fixed has remained the same for private houses ever since. u INEFFICIENT " COMMUNIBTS. The Swiss Communists have received a severo rebuke from their masters at Moscow- They are lectured for incapable and inefficient management. _ Though there are 900,000 workmen in Switzerland, and more than half the population owo their livings to industry ,_ the Communists havo not yet succeeded in' getting a firm footing among tho labouring classes. The deeper cause of tho criticism is the failure of the defaulters to cause any serious disturbances on March 30, which was,to bo "their" day, and for whoso arrangement they had been provided with Russian funds. PIG-STRENGTHENED OIDER. An old Hertfordshire enstom produces somo of the most potent cider in England. Tho practice was to kill and dress a pig, and then hang it in a barrel of cider with the whole body immersed, and only the legs above the liquid. After a month or two tho acid in tho cider " ato" the flesh away, leaving only tho four legs. The barrel "was then bunged and kept for a year before being tapped. As the cost of making cider in this way was heavy, only one such barrel of the liquor was made on the majority of farms. On special occasions, when th® drink was circulated, half a glass was sufficient to send away even the most inveterate toper with uncontrollable legs. A PLAGUE OF RATS. Although modern Budapest is far removed in timo and space from the " Hamlin town " of Browning's poem, there is nothing which would be* now more welcome to its city council than the appearance of a Pied Piper. The rats are said to be streaming out of Russia, into Hungary and other neighbouring countries. It was stated that the Minister of Welfare had recently instructed the council that the city must get rid of its rats 'before June. It was proposed to organise a " rat week," in which all owners of buildings, whether private or public, were required to exterminate their rats or risk a fine. It was also proposed to rebuild gradually the sowers of the city, sa that rats would in future be unablo to lodge in them. HERO'S FREEDOM AT TUCKSHOP. Freedom of the tuckshop, a holiday, and a recommendation of the Royal Humane Society's award are the honours « showered upon a boy in Ireland, Willie Smith, aged 10, a pupil of Belvedere College, in recognition of his bravery in saving a little girl, aged three and a-half, from drowning. So proud were the college authorities of Willie that one of the masters personally conducted him to the tuckshop. While there Willie remembered that some of his school mates were doomed to a brief period of " C.8.," and, exercising tho privilege of a hero, be secured a remission of tho punishment. On his way to play football, tho boy saw the girl in the Royal Canal, and as she struggled when ho went to the rescue he had to itun her with blows on the head before ho got her safely out of tho water. A " PILGRIM FATHER n CHURCH. Money is being collected in the United , States for the renovation of Scrooby I Church, near Sheffield, so that Americans may be able to visit the church of William Brewster, the Yorkshire Pilgrim Father, and be proud of it. More than £4OO has already been sent to the vicar from America. The original 12th century font of the church is in tho possession of a Chicago Church, and repeated attempts have been made by the Scrooby parishioners to re- i cover it. Hundreds of Americans visit tho , church each year, and many ornaments j and other articles from inside the chnrch i have gone across the Atlantic. " We repeatedly receive sums from all ] over the United States," the vicar says. " Thoy come from Glen. Ridge and Now Jersey particularly, where Mrs. Frank Talbot is raising an appeal among. Congregationalists. We still, need another £3OO to complete the work." . WEALTHY WOMAN'S STRANGE VOW Forty years . ago, • Mrs. Mary Wickham, living at Tipton, near Cedar Rapids, lowa, went to bed vowing that she would never get up again as long as she lived. A fow weeks ago she diod, at the age of 75, having kept her vow religiously. Soveral explanations havo been advanced to account for this strange vow. The most credible suggests that Mrs. Wickham went to tho United States from i England to .marry Mr. Wickham, sen., but that instead she married the son. In revenge, Wickham, sen., married the housemaid, which so piqued Mrs. Wickham, jun., that she decided to take to her bed. , Mrs. Wickham's husband carod for her devotedly until ho died many years ago. Since that time the widow had beon attended by a married couple who live in her home. . Mrs. Wickham was a wealthy woman who could afford to indulgo in her whim. Until her last illness she enjoyed good health, although becauso of her inactive life, her knee joints refused to function somo years ago. RULE OF THE ROAD. As far back as one .can trace thero seems to havo been somo form of traffic control; and it is probablo that the ► Rontons were tho first to instal Bonio really definite rule. Tho reason why » this rule differs in various countries is ■ also obscure. 1 Somo people imagine that the United 1 Kingdom is the only country in Europe • where traffic keeps to tho loft. This is not so; in Italy, also, the left tho [ side used. Thero is, however, a differi once. Either because tho Italian police- • man is not such a martinet as his British i conferere or becauso the Italian does not . worry about such mattors, it is a fact > that traffic in laly goes anywhero it i wishes. Therefore, ono need not bo surprised, if ho is driving in an Italian city, to find liiipself first on the left, then on . tho right., and again in the centre of , the road. 1 Tho United Statos, 'Franco, Germany, . and Belguim aro among tho many coun- , tries in which traffic is controlled on the • jight side of tho road.