General News Items

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20650, 23 August 1930, Page 7 (Supplement)

General News Items

ROMAN SHRINE UNEARTHED. Workmen repairing the old Roman highway in Saarburg, Germany, recently unearthed a Roman place of worship. Its' walla, which are about a hundred yards long, surround the remains of an altar. The finds include coins from the timo of Emperor Constantine, and shards of late Roman pottery. SPIRIT OP A NEW RUSSIA. In seeking a young . woman whoso features would not only be beautiful but symbolise the spirit of a now Russia, the Soviet Government appointed the leading artists and sculptors in the country to search for her. Aftor studying hundreds of possibilities, Agnes Mosjoukin, a Moscow girl, was finally chosen for tho honour of gracing the legal tender of her country. HOW TO TAKE A CENSUS. During the taking of tho last census of the population of Albania, no one was 1 permitted to loavo his houso without a special pass, and all cafes, restaurants, etc., were closed. Tho population has hitherto been given as 833,000, but during the census whereon that figure was based many people in some cases wholo villages, remained unregistered. It is expected that tho recent census will reveal in existence a population of about 1,000,000.

BAVARIA'S MOUNTAIN RAILWAY. The formal dedication on July 8, of the Bavarian railway up the Zugspitzc, Germany's highest mountain, marks tho completion of a notable engineering feat. The line is not, like most mountain railways, a cable suspension way, but a cog-wheel railway,on regular tracks for a distance of about 1 3-5 miles. Only a stretch of some 400 yards at tho summit is negotiated by a suspension way. The work was completed ita a remarkably brief time. TELEPHONES FOR THE BLIND. No sooner have people become accustomed to the automatic telephone,* where, on a ring with holes for letters and figures, they find the wanted number for themselves, than nnother invention comes in sight. This is tho automatic telephone for tne blind which tho Paris Post Office has designed, * Over the ordinary disc another ring is fittod, with numbers and letters in Braille. The blind person can easily slip it over tho disc, and then is able to find letters and numbers with as much ease as thoso who are blest with sight can. HOUSING OP BRITISH FAMILIES. It is said that of the families of Great Britain, which number over nine millions, two and a half millions are now living in houses which they cither own, or are subscribing for through building societies. This is a very great achievement for the building society movement, which has mado tremendous progress since the war. One reason is that people are increasingly living a little way out of town and exchanging uncomfortable apartments in cities for little homes where green fields and are either around them or close at hand. VETERAN POSTMAN'S GUIDE. Because so many persons were unable to find addresses they were seeking in two suburbs on tho outskirts of Tokio, Ryuji Hirooka, veteran postman, has volunteered his services as guide. He has printed cards announcing this fact and every day when his regular work is done .goes to the station. One day 110 had 45 customers during three hours. The postman's services are given entirely gratis. Tho streets and house numbers of these two suburbs aro extremely complicated and Mr. Hirooka noticed that strangers hail groat difficulty in locating the addresses they were seeking. \ ... AVIATION IN JAPAN.

University students in eight educational institutions in Japan have formally launched tho Japan Students' Federation of Aviation for the purpose of encouraging and increasing civilian aviation in that .country. The inaugural meeting was attended' by tho Minister of Communications and other high Government officials. The new federation will co-operate with the Aviation Bureau of the Ministry of Communications and with the Aviation Department of the Asahi Shimbun, one of tho principal Tokio newspapers. Members will be taught how to fly, and a. yearly flying meeting will be held. Tho federation has already thrco aeroplanes at its disposal. . DOLLARS AND WORKS OF ART. It is said (hat last year Americans spent £50,000,000 on works of art of ono kind and another. No price seems too'high for an American millionaire to pay for English or other European art treasures. Jf £50,000 will not buy a picturo of the first rank, then £IOO,OOO, or even more will be paid just as willingly. Among tho less wealthy, who cannot afford to buy old masters, etchings and old prints aro in great demand, and it is becoming a habit among university and college students to buy prints regularly out of their allowances. The American demand for art treasures and curios of all kindp is sending up tho prices of these things enormously all over tho world. UNEMPLOYED IN FRANCE. Jt is estimated that there aro not more than 10,000 men and women out of work in all Franco, so it may bo said that tho situation of tho salaried worker is safo and stable there. Even tho down-and-outs, who have to sleep under the bridges by day and on a bench in a park by day, can find an honest job if they will take it. llouso porters aro glad to engage these peoplo in winter to stoke the furnace, and let them sleep beside it on a heap of coal into the bargain. They aro as happy as cats in a warm corner, but are freo from regret when tho job is done. Then they return to tho placid supinoness, and apparently pick up a meal easily enough, in ono way or another. FROZEN SHIP ON A LAKE. , Winter has been a bitter season on tho Great Lakes of North America. One of tho blizzards froze a ship on Lake Michigan to tho likeness of an ico cako in a confectioner's shop. Thoro was nothing sweet in tho oxperionco to tho sailors on board. Tho lako ships steam from port to'port and along tho waterways between tho lakes in short journeys of a day or two. >. This ship was marooned on tho lake for more than a week. A 60-milo an hour galo lashed her, but as tho waves broko over her from stem to stern tho water fro/.o to hull and deck, to deck-houso and look-out tower. Tho lights went out, tho fires in tho stoves find engine room were extinguished, the ventilators were choked with ice. The crew were helpless; they had to wait, unable to get steerage way on their ship, after the storm had subsided, until help approached in a tug, When the tug roached them their provisions had been exhausted and they were nearly starving.

SAMPLE OP AMERICAN " HUSTLE." A good example of American " hustle " is seon in a building which has been completed in Wall Street, New York. As soon as the building that formerly occupied the site became empty last year the house-breakers got to work and in a month the building was completely destroyed. Exactly 33 weeks later a building 71 storeyii high had been built in the place it occupied. OLD MIOKLEGATE'S RECORD. St. Martin's Church in Micklegate, York, has been -keeping its 700 th anniversary. The original church dates from Saxon limes and was built of timber; it was associated with a second church, "of which the ruiins still exist. Although the parish has never had more than 400 pcoplo it has given York 28 lord mayors, 28 sheriffs, and three members of parliament. VENEZUELA'S HAPPY LOT. A new way of celebrating a national historic event has been adopted by Venezuela. That country, is to commemorate the 1001b anniversary of the establishment of its independence from Spanish rule, which took place under the loadership of Bolivar. The people have decided during tho year to pay off its entire national debt. Tho total sum involved is over £1,000,000. THE FIRST WOMAN PLUMBER? Women in Germany have entered a new trade. Frau Johanna Wagner, of Berlin, has been awarded tho title of j " master plumber" after a four days' examination, during which she had to display practical knowledge of most complicated work. It. is claimed that she is the first woman in tho world to achieve the distinction. She was trained by her husband, who is also a master plumber. COUPLE ADOPT 35 CHILDREN. A traffic officer in St. Louis recently died, after an exciting life. To be sure, his daily toil was monotonous—standing in one spot, hour after hour, in mechanical postures. But this routine was merely an economic necessity. The officer was childless, but he and his wife adopted and reared 35 children. At the timo of his death, some weeks ago, he was taking care of 20 children in his home. HALLS OP THE ANCIENTS. Three complete subterranean. halls, ranging from 600 ft. to 900 ft. in diameter, have just benn "discovered in the celebrated caves Of Cuma, near Naples. The halls wero discovered only after the removal of thousands of tons of oarth. The excavators traced an underground gallery a mile long and found that the interior of the Ilill of Curna, which is ten miles from Naples, overlooking the sea, consists of a maze of galleries and ancient halls resembling basillicas and wonderful shrines. A subterranean temple of Apollo was also discovered. MOVING A MANSION SIXTY MILES. Marley, a famous mansion near Exmouth, with sixty stately rooms, carved and painted ceilings, ancl a staircase of malachite and marble, is to make a move. But it is not going to America. Instead of that its new owner, who is an Englishwoman, Mrs. Cross, has borrowed an idea from tho Americans, who lately moved a cottage in tho Cotswolds across the Atlantic. Mrs. Cross is going to movo the mansion sixty miles to Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, where it will becomo the great schoolhouse of the Uphill School for Girls. A PARADISE OF ISLANDS. The Canadian Government has decided to add to tho wonderful series of National Parks perhaps the most wonderful of them all. Twenty-nine islands in the famous group known as the Ten Thousand Islands of Lake Huron are to form this unique park, the largest being Beau Soleil, of 2700 acres.

The other lakes, which average from twenty to fifty acres, are well wooded, with many springs and streams. With tho hundred square miles of timber land now being negotiated for in New Brunswick, the chain of National Parks will bo complcto across Canada. CLEANING THE KING'S CLOCKS. The job of cleaning King George's clocks is an immense one, for tho Royal clocks number nearly 1000. In Windsor Castle alone thero are 360 clocks, and in tho other Royal palaces and residences about 600 more. About 160 of these are at Buckingham Palace. Some of tho Royal timepieces am large, others extremely tiny, and many are very valuable. Tho King's clocks get two thorough overhauling;? a year—in spring and in autumn. Tho work of cleaning and putting them in order keeps about a dozen men busy for nearly two months. Tho mere task of winding them all is a considerable business in itself. Altering the entire collection twice a year, when daylight saving time begins and ends, provides work for several men. A LESSON IN HUMANITY. Amid the glitter, bustle, and hum of tho Avenue des Champs Elysees in Paris, recently, a miserably-clad old man was carrying a basket of monkey nuts in#tho direction of the Arc do Triomphe. Coming to n fashionablo cafo, brilliantly illuminated, its chairs and tables outside* all occupied by customers, he paused and unobtrusively proffered his nuts. Suddenly the manager of the cafo came forward' and with a violent stroke of his hand .flung the basket to the ground and scattered the nuts over tho pavement. Tho old man, small and weak, did not even daro to remonstrate. But in an instant there, was a stir around tho tables, a fumbling in pockets; hero a franc and there a franc, and even fivefranc notes were produced and handed to the old nut-soller as compensation for his loss and resentment at his treatment.Tho manager looked on meek, silent, and uncomfortable. PINE BERLIN ARCHITECTURE. All visitors to Berlin aro impressed by tho Gendurmon Markt, sometimes called the Schiller Platz, and, indeed, it contains tho finest architectural group in tho city. In the centre is tho handsome Schauspielhaus, tho State theatre, built by Schinkel early in tho nineteenth century, in front of which is Schiller's monument, by the famous sculptor, Begas. On either sido is a largo church, both dating from the beginning of last century; neither has been used for service for a number of years; they stand there as imposing monuments of a bygone day. One is called tho New Church and the other is still known as the French Church where services were held every other Sunday in that language until about 30 years ago. Not many people knew tho uso to which tho building had been put in recent years. It was a storeroom for tho scenery and other , stage requisites of tho near-by Schauspielhaus. It has become tho parish houso of the Reformed French Church,' the still /numerous Huguenot group.