LONDON NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 3590, 2 January 1923, Page 27

LONDON NOTES

AN UNTOUCHED EDEN. KITCHENER FILM SHOWN. ;Feoh Orb Own Correspondent.! LONDON, November 10. The famous Kitchener film, which has for so long been banned, was shown in public for the first time this week at the Leicester Square Kinema. Mr Arthur Freeman has decided to defy tha authorities, and intends to exhibit the film five times daily. “I am prepared to face the consequences of my action, he said. “If necessary, tile matter will be fought out through every court in England, as I think that the public are entitled to know the facts which the film reveals.” “ WHERE ARE WE?” An ingenious invention is the automatic road guide which has been installed for the first time on some of the Metropolitan Company’s trains. It indicates by means of a pointer upon a moving route map the exact position of the tram in tiic course of its journey from one terminus to another. Streets and squares, well-known stopping places, and landmarks are automatically pointed out upon the unrolling route screen, so that the passenger in an unknown district is rendered completely independent of the information he has so often to seek from conductor or fellow-passenger as to his whereabouts. Even the passenger famili:;.’ - enough with a long-travelled route will find this mechanical mentor and geographist of service and comfort on dark or foggy even ings. It never makes a mistake, and it makes no noise. When the tram stops the indicator stops. When the tram moves again the indicator goes on. Strictly speaking, of course, it ia the map that moves. All important stopping places are logged. Compulsory or optional stopping-places are indicated. The exact distance of every fare stage is shown. By night the sign is illuminated. A moving map of the route traversed is run on a couple of spools, which wind from one to the other after the manner of the old showman’s panorama on a small scale, i •' spools are operated through a flexible sh*-ft o-eared to the tram wheels, and similar to that used in the drive of a motor car speedometer. The dial of the instrument measures about 3ft by Ift, and a red arrow shows the precise topographical position as the tram moves along. THE “BOSSY” BRITON. The Bishop of St. Albans, Dr Fu.se in an address at St. Paul’s Chu*«*. den, spoke about what he termed the spirit of the British. He declared that the spirit of domination is at the root of a great many if not all, of the troubles with which we are faced to-day.” It produced a wrong attitude “between man and man, man and woman, class and class, and nation and na “\Te have,” he said, “grown »p with the idea that women are an interim sort of . „ because they are not so physically strong as men. This is a very barbaric idea. Man proclaims two standards of morals, one for h.mself and one for women He demands things from women that he would not dare to demand from himself the Britisher looks upon everybody who talk the English language, or who talks ix with an accent slightly different from lu own, as a rather inferior person We are getting out of it, but people dislike us. At first, until they know us, foreigners hate the Brit slier.” “DEATH PACT ” NO MURDER. “It is a serious question whether a mere agreement to commit suicide really constitutes murder. The essence of the Principle of constructive murder-is that the survivor shall have encouraged the other to commit suicide.” Tlls _ The above statement was made by Mr Jus tice Lush at Notts Assizes when George Leverton, 56, engineer’s labourer, Worksop, was charged with murdering his sister Sarah, a <red 58. The man, who had been unemployed s noe January, was found standing in Chesterfield Canal, only his head and should being above water His sistei, when recovered, was detud. It was admitted Leverton that they decided to commit suicide, and in the witness-box he to.d a pathetic story. . . , The jury, without retiring returned a verdict of not guilty, with which the judge expressed agreement, and added that -there ought to be a careful revision of the law. NEW MASEFIELD PLAY. Mr Masefield’s new play, “Melloney Holtepur,” deals with the supernatural m that, in the country house where the action takes place the present generation of lovers are influenced by the ghosts of the lovers of a former generation, appearing to them and trying to carry on their own loves and hates through their descendants. How much of this will be effective on the stage is difficult to tell from a mere reading, but the scenes between them, it is said, in particular the love sc ns between the art at and the girl in the country house, aro beautifully written, and contain some of the most delicate touches Mr Masefield has ever attempted. There is no definite link with modern spiritualism in the play, but it should intC'TCfltinji to lftrgG circle of rtidcrs. AN AFRICAN EDEN. Sit, Charles Ross, of Balnagowan, the inventor of the Ross rifle, is reported to have purchased outright the giant crater of Ngoro the largest volcano that ever existed on this planet. According to a story published by the Daily Express the crater provides a" refuse for thousands of animals, many of them extinct in every other part of tile world. Nobody knows what discoveries a thorough exploration of the, crater may bring. Pre-historic animals, believed to perished from the earth thousands of years ago, may inhabit its eaves. Scientists hope to find alive strange creatures of which only the skeletons have been found in other parts of the world Sir Charles Rose went to Tanganyika in January, 1921, on a shooting expedition, accompanied by the explorer-photographer, Mr T. A. Barnes, and Mrs Frederick Dalziel, of New York. They hod good sport, and they discovered the crater. Sir Charles Ross stalked and shot five lions within the basin, and the wonders he saw there made him resolve that no more shooting parties should be allowed. There will be no need for “No shooting” signs. The crater is 100 miles from a railway in the midst of wild country. Lions and tigers are the watchdogs of the forests that surround it. The number of animals in the crater is estimated at 75,000. The crater is, in fact; a city of animals, who have lived there for centuries safe from attack. Its steep sides made it a citadel of the forest, and while in all other parts of the world the work of extermination went on, no hunter dared to penetrate this fastness. Thus it is highly probable that ani-

male which have perished elsewhere have survived at Ngoro Ngoro. BISHOP’S FINANCIAL TROBULES. Dr J. A. Kempthorne (Bishop of Lichfield) has contributed by invitation an article to The Weekly Dispatch concerning the in come and expenses of a bishop. “Obviously,” he says, “the only excuse for a bishop living in a very large house is thn opportunity of exercising hospitality. In on® of my earlier years at Lichfield we had in the course of 12 months nearly 400 staying guests, the vast majority of whom came on some diocesan business. But it soon became obvious that the income could not stand the strain. About three years ago I was faced with the following budget problem : The nominal income of the see ia £I2OO. When rates and taxes were paid tha actual income was £2600. Expenses (staff, travelling, postages, etc.) amounted to £800; subscriptions (mainly diocesan) to another £6OO. The result was that £I2OO was left for the maintenance of the palace, which, with the large domestic staff which it required, could not be lun for less than £I6OO. I was foi-tunate in being able to find a tenant for the palace. The Lichfield Theological College occupied a smaller house next door. By a simple process of exchange I was able to take this house and put the college into the palace. , . , •‘No doubt the critic of ‘opulent bishops will sav, ‘But, after all, bishops live luxm riouslv; they travel first class, and go about in motor cars, etc.’ I can only reply that I always travel third class, and that I only use mv thirteen-year-old car to do worlc which could not otherwise be done A™ 1 ”® the present year I have paid over . P rate visits to places outside Lichfield. Thw could not have been do ire without » A bishop sees very little of his own home and if he were stupid enough to desire o -a living, his income, when official expense* have been paid, gives him UtO. ctau-rf havin<* it.. No doubt bishops have their faults? But soft living is not one of them. The pompous and luxurious prelate. „ lf ever existed, is as dead 3* . CITY REVIVAL OF THE V HITE C D. Mr Eustace Gray, press agent lad nun and the Holborn auction Zl X hal’s, and lasted about one minute. Take White p£lu? wit.h on new m /here will be the old Flip Flip, and Whist able of accommodating .000 dancers. 5S~v» * KSS* immediately, „„d &&&&&** Franco-Dritish Exhibition was j s Tti £ j? “ d T.?* s whole being an< j acco mmoGovernment tor the training üßed {or of war materials and th* storage of supplies. JOHN BUNVAN’S TOMB. &*&&&&£ F“. Ctorchl it ha. ree.ntly fwuyh wait - SET® Aedir*«d »d Urn “rrvrss-«..t ,„t in a tomb prep-red to him. “ i”-r,Sm« 6 Wth S yh r£ ; is? the Fleet - the eve of Iris 60th birthday, k had a vault in Bunhill Field, burying ground, and therein the great master pissed many made it their demre to h^nterred as near as possible to the spot li;s remains are deposited. su^. Th T* f ?n e ißM B whfchftit is noted in tha fnscriptton^he^monument now. bears, but th, subsequent 60 years’ weathering wrought t S »f destruction. i Opposite, m the (Mv Road, is Wesey’s old chapel, where the fireT part of the dedication service vvas hHd' to-day, and afterwards the congregamrnneeded to the cemeteTV. At the ieded cation of the tomb Dr Massie, chairman of the Protestant Dissenting Deputies, pre sided. Dr Horton, representing the Congregational Union, offered prayer; Mrs John Brown, widow of \he late Dr Browm unveiled the monument; the Rev J. C. Carl lie, D D representing the Baptist Lmon, g the address: and the Rev. J. M. Blackwell, attending for the Presbyterians, pronounced the benediction.