NEWS JOTTINGS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16211, 8 December 1926, Page 14

NEWS JOTTINGS

LONDON, October 22. Automobiles in the United States kill an average of 62 persons daily. After nearly 30 years of work an electric railway has been built to the Jungfrau, one of the most famous Alpine peaks in Switzerland^ A £IOOO note was found in the offertory bag at a Sunday service in Salisbury Cathedral. The donor is unknown. Bishop O'Hare, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Jamaica, was drowned while bathing .-in Kingston harbor. Scottish-bred Shorthorn bulls have recently sold at £4600 (paid for Calrossie Orangeman), £9lB, £626, and £685 in Buenos Aires. Chile has six radio broadcasting stations and about 23,000 receiving sets are in use in the country, while Peru has a single station and 10,000 sets. A return by the Ministry of Health shows that approximately one person in every 16 throughout England and Wales was, at the end of June, being supported out of the rates. During 'a flying exhibition at Pardubice (Pardubitz), in Czechoslovakia, one of the machines overturned and the pilot and 12 persons were injured, seven of them seriously. Tho America lona Society proposes to erect, equip, and endow a Gaelic University, in the Highlands of "Scotland, at a cost of. £2,000,000. Archoliffe Fort, Dover; one of Henry VIII.'s defensive works, .is now being demolished'on : its seaward'side'to make room for Southern,"BaihVay improvements. ',

Direct and indirect taxes collected in Franco during the first, seven months of this year total nearly twenty-six milliards of francs, or 6,300,000,000 f more than during the same period last year. What will eventually be a 500,000,000 dollar trust fund, to be used for the protection of animals and game in all parts of the world, is provided for in the will o| Mr. Stacy Anson Hansom, who died recently in Washington. A serious grape famine has '• been caused by the recent heat wave which passed over Southern Europe. Cable messages state that two-thirds of the Almerian crop was destroyed, and consequently the supply of dessert grapes for the British market this autumn will be only about 80,000 barrels instead of 2,300,000 which was last year's total crop in Almena. Mr. C. H. Dodge, a prominent New York millionaire merchant who made war profits in excoss of £3,000,000, handed the entire amount over to Near East relief, "i am resolved that not one cent, of war profit, which is blood money, shall stick in my fingers," he said to the secretary of the relief organisation, who has just made public the facts, Mr. Dodge died recently. Wider control of the Italian banks by the Government is ordered in a new decree which has been gazetted. The decree provides that all banks must register and turn over one-tenth of their profits annually to reserves until these reach 40 per cent, of the capitalisation. The banks must also submit balancesheets periodically to the Government, and undergo inspection by experts whenever the Government Issue Department deems lit.

Professor Sievres, of tho UniversKy ot Irfipzig, Germany, has invented a phonographic apparatus for measuring the voices of criminals in order to ensure their identification. The apparatus would be used in addition to the fingerprint system. The professor explains that every human has a voico of different timbre, and that if this tjmbra is accurately measured a valuable means of identification is offered.

Efforts are being to save historic houses in the only remaining part of Elizabethan Plymouth, which are threatened with demolition by the corporation. Architects and lovers of old English architecture and oaken carvings are combining to prevent the destruction of these quaint old dwellings in New street, and the district near the Barbican, i

Tho will of tho late Mr. F. H. Buhl, an American billionaire, provides for the distribution of two millon dollars (about £400,000) as rolief to the war stricken areas of France and Belgium. Under the direction of Mr. Herrick, the United States ambassador to France, half of the money will be distributed immediately, after tho deduction of about £47,000 as inheritance tax by tho State. Details of the distribution to Belgium will be announced later.

Carting sand from a pit on the golf links at Knotts End, Fleetwood, an English farm laborer found 400 Roma,n coins in a good state of preservation under a square stone. 3ft deep. Hens scratching brought many, more to light. Tho find is of historic importance' as it is the biggest made in the country between Lancaster and the River Wye. It gives support to antiquarians, who assert that Fleetwood is identical with Portus Sentantorum, the largest Roman port on tho west coast, and that in A.D 207 Severus visited the district on a punitive expedition from York. LONDON, October 26.

Viscount Cowdray has given £SOOO to endow a Chair of Forestry in Aberdeen University. A heavy rainy season is in progress in East Africa, writes a correspondent. The rains on the coast were especially severe during the latter part of September. Ten inches of rain fell in 22 hours at Kilifi, near Mombasa. Canada, in proportion Ho population, has more golf courses than the United' States, and probably more than any other country, There, are 464 courses and a population of about 9,500,000. For the first time for 13 years a German naval vessel, the fishery cruiser Zieten, entered Grimsby dock, and after her commander had paid formal visits to the principal officials, the town clerk and other official representatives had luncheon in tho vessel. • Richard Strauss, in recognition of his activities on behalf of Viennese opera, is to bo presented with the land on which ho has built his residence. The value of the gift is £IOO,OOO. The Prairie Provinces (Canadian wheat pool is making a final payment of £l,770,000 to former members of the pool, bringing tho total net amount paid to growers to 6s GJld. pet bushel. ■ M. P. Slroobant, director of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, has announced the discovery of two new planets by M. Dolporte, of the Ucelo Observatory. They are estimated to be of the magnitude. Birmingham City Council have accepted the gift of Messrs. Cadbury Brothers,.Ltd., of I£o acres of land adjoining Birmingham University, 100 acres for a hospital and the rest for playing fields; £SOOO also being given by the firm towards expenses incurred by the council in dealing with the land.