General News Items

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21698, 13 January 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

General News Items

LIVINC3TONE AT THE LOOM Hyde, England said good-bye to a link with Livingstone recently, when Mr:;. Mary B'rownlea Young died, aged Mrs. Young's parents knew Livingstone well, for as a boy he worked in a cotton mill at the next loom to her father. / ONE TAKEN, THE OTHER LEFT For 60 years John Millard wove carpets in a Kidderminster factory. He lately died at/ the loom he began to mind as a boy. The first to run to Mr. Millard's' assistance when he collapsed was his brother Tom, Avho has worked for the gjme firm for 50 years. f MARRIAGE by telephone Mr. Bertil Clason, a Swedish engineer, of Flint, Michigan, United States, ■and Miss Sonja Carlzon, sitting in her home in Stockholm, were lately married by Trans-Atlantic telephone. The ceremony was .performed by Judge I. D. Watt, of Detroit. / The necessary witnesses listened in at either end of the telephone through extra ear-pieces. After the ceremony the newly-married couple were able to exchange a few /words before the expiry of the six-minute call. BISHOP'S OLD GAITERS The story of a bishop whoso gaiters were zip fastened because, so it is said, he was too lazy to use buttons was told by tho Marchioness of Reading at a meeting of the Personal Service League in Manchester recently. Lady Reading said that the bishop had sent an old pair of gaiters to the league with a challenge to make something useful out of them. " We took the gaiters and made a little girl's jumper, with a zip fastener down the front," she said. I PERFECT RADIO RECEPTION A man walked into a radio store at Charlotte, North Carolina, carrying a radio which \yas fitted with a shortwave adapter, under his arm. He said he wanted to sell it. He put the set down and started to tune it up to give the radio dealer an idea of its splendid reception. The reception was perfect—so perfect, in fact, that the man caught his breath, dashed out to the street and was not seen again. The broadcast was a police description of the receiving set which had been stolen only a short time before. Within a few minutes the radio was returned to its owner. REDUCING COWS IN HOLLAND Holland is to reduce her stock of cattle by about 200,000 cows. The aim is to lessen the production of milk and butter, do that the peasants may obtain higher prices for their dairy produce. The buying-up of cattle, on behalf of the Government, has already begun. It is being effected by special committees. The cows are divided into four classes, the prices to be paid being according to quality. The peasants have to comply with the decisions of the committees, whose judgments are final. Some of the cows bought by the Government are destined for export; others will be killed and sold as tinned meat at reduced prices to the unemployed. Cows which prove to be unfit for consumption will be destroyed-

REMARKABLE FAMILY RECORD Two brothers who married two sisters at Lille, France, on February 1, 1830, have to-day 835 living descendants, according to a story published in a French newspaper. The two brothers were Auguste'and Alfred Deseamps and their wives, Marie Ange and Clemence Danel. Auguste and Marie Ange have 405 descendants and Alfred and x Clemence have 430. At a mass in honour of their ancestors, 142 members of the first group were present. The family record shows an average of five children to every marriage, and what is most remarkable is that these two sturdy families have managed to maintain and /improve to a remarkable extent in all their branches, both their social position and their patrimony.

" BACK-TO-BACK " HOUSES j The "Back-to-Back" House has long been the despair of the housing reformer in England. It exists in the provinces by the thousands. As its name implies, it is built in pairs, the fronts facing two roads, so that the back of one house is also the back of another. There is no passage of air through either house. Such houses are usually very old, and, apart from their peculiar formation, are often quite out of date as habitations. The Corporation of Leicester recently j made an order for the demolition of two " back-to-back " houses, and the matter was, taken to the County Court, where Judge; Haydon quashed the order. In doing so ho said that in his opinion the corporation should have agreed to the owner's offer to convert the two houses into one. The composite house so formed, he thought, would bo fit for the occupation of persons of the working class. ROMANCE* IN THE AIR It is some time now since a young American couple added a spice of originality to what is perhaps a rather ordinary ceremony by getting married in the air. Jn England there are difficulties in the way of aerial matrimony. But two young Brooklands aviators found recently that the privacy of flying provided excellent opportunities for /' arranging the preliminaries. They are Flving Officer W. H. Wefcton and Miss Eileen Agnes Grice. Both are keen aviators, Mr. v Wetton boing a member of several Civil Aviation Clubs.

.The couple found themselves in the air together over Brooklands, and to the roar of the engine Mr. Wetton explained what was in his mind, add,n Si it is understood, a rider to the effect that ail inverted spin was extremely unpleasant! Whether because P'.or in spite of these cave-man tactics, "iss Grice capitulated, and the engagement annoiuiceniont appeared a few "ays later. //

LONDON'S TINIEST HOUSE A house which, it is said, Sir James jwrie had in mind when lie described the j an( j ]\] rs . Darling in Hie Little White Bird, is wedged between two tall mansions in Hyde Aark Place It has a tiny front door ftnd.its number is 10, like the Prime mil s^er ' s * n Downing Street! Wir i 0,,50 6ft wide and about j 't- long, and inside it contains a tiny entrance hall,/one room on the ground floor, and two more above. To got tip--oue to climb a narrow iron aauer. The front door not only has a hoVk ' a letterbox, yet ]• ' knocker nor boll. No one has ™ there for some time, but when . well-known doctor lived next door wi*k n^'s kept the house fresh-looking a green paint, curtains to its one feilT '' a,V ower "^ C)xes on the ' s a 'd that 60 years ago a maiden n JLI- W^? 0 H y ed at No. 9, built it for hi«i I I Miniature furniture was n L, to fit. But nurses who take their r Kensington Gardens, the linn • Peter. Pan, state that onco V IMe '. l - ( l l,cer old dwarf with a rim !! K a i' G ' vct ' there. He used to tairln? house °n the stroke of \\ValkJ Un himself in Broad

TRAMPS IN CONFERENCE The tramps of Durham County wore recently annoyed at tho decision of the Public Assistance Committee to centraliso all casual wards, a large percentage of which Mill bo closed, while others will bo remodelled. It was intended by the tramps to bring the matter up at the next annual conference of the " Tramps' Guild " to be held in Bath this year. DISRAELI'S DESKS IN MUSEUM Desks at which Benjamin Disraeli is believed to have sat when a boy are to bo preserved in the museum at Church End, near Walthamstow, London. They are to be taken from Essex Hall, an old Walthamstow manor house which is to be destroyed. In the early 19th century Essex Hall was turned into a school by the Rev. E. Coggan, and of this school Disraeli eventually became a pupil. The hall was built in the reign of Elizabeth on the site of a still more ancient building. DEWDROP RINGS A BELL The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Britain is used to strange things. Beside bells that ring when dew is being formed the workers have round them artificial fogs, horsehair, a lot of cotton, a bit of shining gold leaf, anything that will help them to measure moisture in the air. This is a most important thing for many industries to know, and a most difficult thing to find out accurately and quickly. This is only one side of a work that is constantly going on and which is all-important to success in industry. NEW IDEA FOR ROADS Ten years ago a portion of the main road at Cefu-Mawr in North Wales was paved with bricks, some being placed flat, others on edge. Those laid flat now show signs of wear, but those set on edge have withstood the traffic without any appreciable effect. So successful has the experiment proved that the East Denbighshire Development Organisation have hopes of a new lease of life for the brick industry of North Wales, and are doing their best to persuade the authorities to give the new method of paving a trial

TEN MILLION TEAPOTS A YEAR Teapots die young as a rule. That is why manufacturers at Burslem, Staffordshire, dubbed the world's teapot town, make ten millions of them every year. Of all crockery it is said that the teapot has the shortest life, owing to spout breakages, although firms are often asked to repair familysized brown- pots which have been in use for a quarter of a century and have got, according to their owners, thoroughly " seasoned." One-cup to forty-cup size " pots " are turned out, and the reason why so many teapot factories are established in the town is due, •it is stated, to the suitability of the clay found locally. AN OPPORTUNE STORM During a recent tropical storm on the eastern coast of the United States, water from the Atlantic Qcean made a deep channel at a spot where citizens of Ocean City had, petitioned to open such a' channel and for which Congress had voted an appropriation. Engineers had planned a waterway 10ft. deep and 200 ft. wide, but the storm did even better, breaking a channel loft, deep and 200 yards wide and doing the work several weeks before the man-made channel was to have been started. While the storm did £250,000 damage at that point, the immediate benefits which it brought are placed at double that amount. DRUMS " LOST " FOR 20 YEARS Treasured silver drum's and drum banners belonging to the Dorset (Queen's Own) Yeomanry Cavalry, which had been " lost " for nearly 20 years have just been found at Sherborne, Dorset. They have come to light in a strong-room at the home of Colonel J. E. H. Gooden, a Yeovil magistrate, following an appeal for knowledge of their whereabouts on behalf of the 94th (Queen's Own) Dorset Yeomanry Field Brigade Royal Artillery. The drums had apparently lain at the house since tho beginning of the war, when Colonel Gooden's father, who was honorary colonel of the regiment, took charge of them.

FRANCE'S CIGARETTE OUTPUT However Frenchmen may feel the pinch of hard times, there is one thing they are not disposed to give up, and that is tobacco. It appears from official figures that the output of the Government factories in 19.32 was only 1.6 per cent, less than in 1931. Another feature of the accounts is the constantly increasing demand for cigarettes. The goods turned out by the factories are divided into six classes—smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco, snuff, cigars, cigarillos and cigarettes—and only the last named showed an increase. In weight they represent one-third of the total output; in quantity they reach the impressive total of 18,427,000,000, which is nearly five times as great as the pre-war consumption.

HAPPY HOUSEHOLDERS For the second half-year in succession Penryn, Cornwall has not required to levy any borough rate, as quay dues and income from municipal property have been sufficient to meet all expenses. Even in the United States where local taxation has risen steeply in recent years, there are one or two places in a similiar happy position, and in oik! of them the town treasurer announced recently that lie had money which ho said he did not know what to do with.

Another American town, which derived a big income during the oil boom from wells which had been brought in on municipal property, solved a. suniliar problem by paying dividends to its ratepayers, who got cheques instead of demand notes.

For a long time the luckiest householders in Britain were thoso of Barn by Dun in Yorkshire. They had to pay a small parish rate in lf).'l2—but it was the first for about forty yonrs.

PIGEONS THAT FORM QUEUES Behind the exchange in London, on the Threadneedle Street side, there is a drinking fountain, with a tiny trough at its foot for dogs to drink from, just large enough to accommodate one pigeon. On sunny days, when there is a chance of drying after a dip, 20 or 30 pigeons suddenly swoop upon the fountain. The pigeons at oucc begin to form queues on the right-hand side of tho trough. The queue extends back over tho edge of the stop on to tho step below, and curves round corners like a theatre queue. One or two senior and formidable pigeons marshal the ranks. The first pigeon enters the trough, splashes through it, and emerges dripping on the loft side, where lie waits to watch the fun. Bird after bird follows, and the,smallest effort to disobey bath etiquette is instantly punished. The two " policemen," as tho bank messengers call the senior pigeons, drag out any pigeon who tries to linger beyond roason in the water.

WOMAN'S 250 LAWSUITS An Egyptian woman in Alexandria has fought 206 lawsuits, and intends to fight another 44. At the moment she is suing a number of prominent people in Alexandria, including several British residents. The woman is claiming dues of 2Ad a square metro on some 1,800,000 metres of land in the 'fashionable section of the oitv, over which she claims ancient rights of " servitude." MAN'S TENTH MARRIAGE Clyde Kinsey, of Springfield, Minnesota, United States, went to the altar l'or the tenth time recently. His bride was formerly No. 8 in the series which .Mr. Kinsey, now began when lie was a boy of 17. Wife No. 9 obtained a divorce recently, so Mr. Kinsey, who does not like, the state of single blessedness, fell back again on his last wife but one. When Mr. Kinsey is not getting married, he spends much of his time travelling. Once lie walked across America backwards, and once h 6 carried a cup of water from the Pacific and dumped it in the Atlantic. CHAMPAGNE BY THE YARD Drinking a pint of champagne from a yard-long glass in one gulp is an old custom associated with a venison feast which was held early in December at Stoke, Staffordshire, to celebrate the 145 th anniversary of the Ancient Corporation of Hanley. In days gone by it was the custom to reject any new member to this mock corporation if he paused fQr breath when drinking from tho £2OO ceremonial glass. At the recent banquet the corporation's recorder read a yearly record of the world and local events, and the famous " Venison Song " number echoed again through the assembly room. CHESS MATCH IN A PRISON A chess match took place in Parkhurst Gaol a few weeks ago between convicts and a team of seven Isle of Wight players. Not long ago a leading exponent of the game became a prisoner at Parkhurst and before long chess was a craze among the convicts. A group of the players was granted permission bv the governor to try their skill against a team from outside. The games were closely contested, the visitors, all good players, winning by nine games to six. They agreed not to smoke, as their opponents were prohibited from doing so by prison regulations. At the conclusion of the match a member of the prison team expressed thanks to the visitors for tho pleasure they had given.

GIFT OF BABY TO SISTER Standing on the deck of a liner at Liverpool recently, a. young mother tried desperately hard to keep back her tears —she was bidding good-bye to her infant son, perhaps forever. He was about to cross the Atlantic unaccompanied, and is to be legally adopted bv his uncle and aunt, who are the keepers of the Fire Island lighthouse, some 36 miles off the coast of New York. About 12 months ago the only son of the uncle and aunt died, and the loss was such a shock to them that they wrote asking Mrs. Boulter if she would send little David to live with them. It was a heartrending request, but the mother, realising her sister's Idnely life, sacrificed her own feelings. David has gone. STORY OF A RELIC The " Veil of St. Ann," Mother of the Virgin, is on exhibition at the Musee de Cluny in Paris, after being preserved in tho Cathedral of Apt, near Avignon, for centuries in a large bottle. For the first time it is possible for scholars to examine it and to give an opinion on its authenticity. The relic proves to be a little less than half as old as tradition has claimed, and to be neither Christian nor Judaic in origin, for unlike most relics, its origin and even tho date of its weaving can be establishd exactly. It is a piece of embroidered linen, measuring Oft. 6in. by 4ft. 6in., with Arabic lettering, which recalls that it was made at Damietta, in lower Egypt, in the year of the Hegira era 489, that is, 1096. GERMANY'S ONLY GOLD MINE Beichenstein, a small German town r>{ 2500 inhabitants near the SilesianCzecli frontier, recently celebrated its 100 th birthday. The town's claim to contemporary fame lies in its possession of the onlv gold mine in Germany, where 181b. of gold a month is produced from a mine which is about 200 yards from the Czech frontier. ]n the past Beichenstein gold was famous; many royal rings were made from this precious metal. In the 16th century the quantity of gold worked from the mine was so great that over 20,000 ducats could be minted from it. In the 17th century the famous Fugger familly owned 145 shafts in the town. But although its gold is hardly any more now, Beichenstcin is still rich, in arsenic; during the war the town delivered the whole of the arsenic needed by the German Army.

STRANGE STORY OF TWINS Twin baby girls have been baptised as boys at White Cross, Hexham. Shortly after they were born the family was told that the babies wero twin hoys, and suggested that as they did not look healthy they should be christened immediately. According to the Daily Kx press, the Rev. J. N. j?eid was summoned to the house, and performed the christening ceremony, giving the babies the names of Walter and Robert.

Later, to the nstonishinent of the family v it was discovered that the twins were girls. The minister was called hack to the house. He explained that he could not perform the ceremony over again, hut lie gave the children extra names, I'lthel and Kdifch, and added the letter "a" to Robert. The children, who proved to be normally healthv, will go through life with the'names Walter Kthel and Roberta Kdith.

HORSE'S ADVENTURE An eight-year-old bay gelding belonging to a laundry at Deal, England, recently escaped from a field at Sandwich, in which it had been put to graze, and plunged into the River Stour. It swam under the toil bridge in full view of crowds of people, and headed downstream. Bargees tried to lassoo it, but it got out into Pegwell Bay. Floundering across the mud flats, it made for the North Foroland, outdistancing all pursuers, who had to abandon the chase when the tide rose and darkness fell. Search for the horse was resumed next day, when it was discovered standing calmly in shallow water near Barnsgate Harbour. When attempts wcro made to reach it, it headed for the open channel. Eventually' it made its way back to the harbour, but was scared by the number of boats attempting its capture, and turned seawards again.

At last tho horse was headed off by a motor-launch, but it was only surrounded and secured after a threo-milo chase through tho shallow water in Pegwell Bay. Tho horse had then been 20 hours at liberty, and had swum at least 20 miles. No one knows how it spent its night in the channel.