GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 7 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

POLITICS AND GOLF. Politicians should brush up on their golf, if they would bo successful like Sir. K, M. Folda, who won tho position of city treasurer of a district in Nebraska, United States. When tho ballots failed to produce a winner at the' recent election because Mr. Folda rnd Joseph M. Rogers were tied with 371 votes each, they agreed to let a 36-holo golf match decide tho issue. Mr. Folda won on the twenty-ninth hole. TUNES FROM A SIREN. Residents in the town of Tennessee, United States, along tho Southern Railway, have long complained bitterly of being awakened at all hours of tho night by tho shrill whistling of locomotives as they approach stations and crossings. Tho people were awakened on a recent evening at intervals, as usual, but wera startled to hear snatches of popular tunes coming from tho siren of a very largo engine. This is an attempt by obliging railway officials to mitigate the necessary nuisance of the engine's warning blasts. BULL FIGHTER'S EARNINGS. Marcial Lalanda, one of Spain's moat successful bull fighters, earns about £4OO a fight. Last year ho gave 36 fights. Thore are six bulls to a fight, and they aro sold on the ranch for roughly £4OO. Horses aro protected by a sort of mattress which hangs over their chests, forelegs and bodies, but does not actually prevent tho horses from being woundtfd. Tho horse contractor furnishes horses for a fixed sum, generally £6O. There must bo six horses on hand for each bull which has to bo killed. A really fine picador may go through the entire day on the samo horse. QUESTION OF INCHES. A lawsuit was recently pending between a son and hi 3 mother in tho Gothenburg County, which turns on tho point whether English measurements aro valid in Sweden. Before tho plaintiff's father died, he sold his farm to his son, except for a forest, where tho trees at breast height measured 3in. or more. The plaintiff argues that Swedish inches are meant, while tho defendant, his mother, claims them to be English. She has called in a number of witnesses, who state that English inches aro generally used in tho county, owing to tho great industrial influence of England in this part of Sweden about 200 years ago. FLOOD OF ANCIENT TIMES. Evidence of a great flood, probably the source of the account in tho Book of Genesis, has been found at Kisli as well a3 at Ur of the Gialdees; says Dr. Georgo Duncan, of an American university, an authority on Biblical archeology. The mound known as Beit-Misrim, which is being excavated by Xenia Theological Seminary, probably represents a Canaan itc royal city conquered by Joshua and mentioned in the Bible as Kiriath-Sepher, in tho opinion of Dr. Duncan. Evidence of worship of the sun and worship of tlie serpent has been found at various cities of Biblical lands now being excavated, ho points out. FAMOUS LONDON RESIDENCE. Landsdowue- House, in Berkeley Square, one of London's finest eighteenth century residences, is to be converted in to a social resort, where plays are to be tried. The purchasers are tho directors of the Brunton Club. The building is to bo modernised, and a theatre to seat 800 people i 3 to be erected in the grounds. Tho painted ceilings, panelling and mantelpieces, regarded as among the richest existing examples of tho work of tho famous architects Robert Adam and his brothers, who built the house in 1768, are to be preserved intact. The house belonged originally to the Marquis of Bute, one of the Ministers of King George HI., who sold it somo years later to Earl Shelburno who became Lord Lansdowne.

TOLL OF THE HUNGRY SEAS. About 10.000 persons annually visit Highland L?ght on the tip end of C'apc Cod, America. According to the keeper Mr. Fred Tibbetts, who has had chargo of the station for seventeen years, receiving visitors and answerings questions aro more wearing than the duties Uncle Sam imposes. It was in 1797 that , the United States Government bought this reservation and began construction of the first Highland Light. The constant battering of tho seas against the cliffs at Truro, and erosion of tile sand dunes by the wind, and weather, have taken surprising toll. Tho original deed showed the conveyance of 10 acres of land. To-day there remain loss than four acres. At tho brink of the cliffs are wooden benches and seats for visitors. Every other year it becomes necessary to move these back several feet. LORDS OP THE LEVEL. If one wove asked if conditions in Holland, where land below sea-level is only saved from inundation by a system of dikes and incessant vigilance, wore repeated anywhere in England he would probably say " No." but he would be wrong. Rornney Marsh, in Kent, lies several feet below sea-level, and requires, very careful watching. At present it gets it from an authority knows as tho Lords of the Level—to give the full title, the Lord Commissioners, Bailiffs, and Jurats of the Level of Romney Marsh. This body, with its quaint, old-world name, has done its work quietly and efficiently ever since the days of Henry Ifr, who gave it its charter. Now, however, under tho Government's now land drainage scheme, it is to bo swept away, and replaced by a prosiac catchment board. BRITAIN'S OLDEST INDUSTRY. Ton thousand years ago our ancestors mado arrow heads, spear heads, and knives of flint at Brandon, on the borders of Suffolk and Norfolk. Flint-knapping is still carried on at Brandon. The town became famous for the quality of its flint in the Stone Age, and as long as tho army was armed with flint-locks, Brandon was tho chief source of supply. Workers there aro still engaged in making them, for flint-lock guns ore still in use in West Africa, the Hudson Bay Territory, and other remote parts of the world. All tho Hints aro made by hand. Usually two men work together. One takes a iump of flint, and. resting it upon his padded thigh, beats it with little, hammers so. that it falls apart it little slips, which ho drops in,a pail of water. The other sits at a table in front of a tiny anvil armed with a chisel shaped like a hammer. 1 Ho fakes the flints and chips and trims them with his chisel until they are oblong and perfectly rectangtdar, with their narrow' ends lined clown to edges.

HO WORK FOE LAMFIiIGETEES. The days of the lamp-lighter are past in Berlin, if such an official, indeed, was ever known there, and a centralised lighting system, is now in operation. A tower for street-lighting control rises high above the roofs, and oilers a splendid view over the city. From this tower the beginning and end of the street-lighting is controlled by pressing a button. COOK'S TASTE AND SMELL. Because a cook lost in an accident her senses of taste and smell, a jury in a New York Court awarded her £4500. Now is a good time to put in a plea for scientific cooks—meaning cooks who go by tbo recipes in the book. In Franco, where cookery is an arb ranking with music or landscape painting, chefs scorn to season to- taste. They shudder at leaving " taste " to the individual caprice of a.cook's palate. They weigh out suit, pepper and what not by the milligram as carefully as chemists. SPORT THROUGH THE AGES. A committee of artists has been formed in Vienna by the sculptor, Mario Petrucci, with a view to connecting the construction of the Stadium in the Prater with a Triumphal Arch of Sports. All kinds of sports and their historic development, from the games of primeval races to Lindberg's crossing of the Atlantic, will bo shown in stone. All tho Vienna artists have promised to take a hand in this immense work. Tho municipality is to finance the scheme, and intends to raise the means by slightly increasing tho charges on all tickets for football and other sports displays, A FORTUNATE THIRTEEN. A gift of 500,000 cameras to American children whoso twelfth birthdays fall in 1930 will celebrato for Mr. George Eastman, chairman of tho board of Eastman Kodak Company, tho fiftieth anniversary of award of his first patent, which set him on the track of making photography the simple process it is known to-day. Tho gifts, golden coloured to mark the 1 golden anniversary, will be distributed to all 12-year-old children who apply at dealers, accompanied by parents or guardians, throughout the land. The anniversary date, April 13, marked the turn of the half century since Mr. Eastman at 25 years of age, invented a process for making photographic dry plates. AVIATION OF THE FUTURE. The poet who -vrrote of winged trains, " vaulting tho clouds where once men rode on iron rails." should 3hak6 hands with Captain Frank M. Hawkes. For when Captain Hawkes pulled the trigger that released his glider tow cable and circled leisurely down upon Van Cortlandt Park, New York, ho afforded tho United States a glimpse of what may be part of the aerial transport system of the future. Picture tho air express train—a locomotive plane, heavily powered, soaring along at 200 miles an hour or more. Behind it stretch a string of cars, cabin gliders connected by cables. The rear glider pilot merely cuts himself off from tho tram and circles down to the airport as the express continues. "WONDERS OF NATURE. Tho idea of encouraging children to love growing things by teaching them the many wonders of flowers and plants in school work gardens, whero the children themselves may sow, plant and cultivate under expert guidance, is spreading in the Netherlands. Authorities are taking an increasingly active interest in this matter, and this accounts for the proposal to arrange for a central school garden in the east quarter of the city to give an opportunity to 1500 pupils to learn the characteristics of the principal kinds of trees, shrubs, fixed plants, herbs, vegetables, etc. A little brook flows across the grounds intended for the garden, rind this is to be dug out into a pond which will bo stocked with water fauna and water plants.

DECORATIONS AT LORD'S. Strange decorations arc to be seen on the centre cricket pitch of Lord's, England's premier cricket ground. Instead of stumps, a, gaunt scarecrow, complete with battered bowler hat, stands out against the green. At various times other ungainly objects are displayed near tho scarecrow, and a groundsman is constantly on the watch. Sea gulls are the invaders. These birds am exceedingly untidy picnickers, and leave old bones and other rubbish littered about. But the trouble doesn't end there. Tho chief groundsman of Lord's said recently that the birds were just like ducks, paddling about with their web feet, and that they soon began to wear the grass away, especially when they fought over their food. MOTOR-OAR FOR A KING. A Packard sedan limousine, recently delivered to King Alexandria of JugoSlavia, is said to bo one of the most elaborately equipped automobiles in Europe. The spaco under tho glass partition separating tho rear compartment from the driver's space is divided into a number of compartments. A large locker in the centre is fitted with a leather lunch kit. equipped with a complete silver and gold table service. In a double compartment at the right are thermos bottles for warm foods and a large toilet case. Thermos bottles for hot or cold liquids are fitted into a cabinet at the left of tho centre locker, and in the top of this spaco are ai first-aid kit and a large cigarette case. A built-in compartment for the King's sword extends across tho top of the three compartments, and the lid, which protects tho sword against dust, becomes a shelf when closed. Immediately in front of this is a tray to accommodate road maps. LUXURIOUS AIR YACHT. A threc-engined supennariho metal monoplane air yacht,- designed and constructed at tho works of Vickers, Limited, the first flying yacht to bo built in England, to the order of a private owner. The engines are three Siddeley-geared Jaguars, giving a cruising speed of 100 miles, with a top speed of 120 miles ii. hour. With full tanks and a minimum crow, 2000 miles can be covered without refuelling. The fuel and oil tanks are placed in the wing. • Normally six passengers, three crew and (iOOlb. of baggage allow a range of 650 miles, and in fills condition tho total weight of tho machine is 10£ tons. The total length of the machine is 66ft. 6in., with a wing span of 92ft-. Tho saloon and cabins are provided with sideboards, dressing tables, bookcases and wardrobes. There is electric light and a ventilating system.