NEWS BY CABLE AND MAIL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16838, 29 December 1928, Page 13

NEWS BY CABLE AND MAIL

TOBACCO RHODESIA'S STAPLE CROP. LONDON, Nov. 6. Sir John Chancellor, ex-Governor of Southern Rhodesia, who was the, guest of the British Cotton Growing Assona tion at a luncheon at Manchester to-day, said Rhodesia bad never regretted undertaking the responsibility of government. Tim white population was now 46,C00, and settlers were entering as fast as the country could absorb them. Cotton growers, 'he. said, had suffered orily a temporary set-back, and be believed the country would shortly be pro iyiwig tens of thousands of bales. "Tobacco growers similarly had sowed too large a crop, resulting in overstocks, but be was told that Rhodesian tobacco was the best Imperial tobacco. He was sure that in a few years tobacco would become the staple crop of the country.

DRUNKS' FINGER-PRINTS TO BE TAKEN. JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 3. In future all persons appearing in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on a charge of drunkenness will have their finger-prints taken in order that, previous convictions against, them may bo proved. ' Mr. Bovill,. the assistant magistrate, pointed out that- this would save expense. In the event of their being found to bo habitual inebriates they may be sent to Raviaansnoort Inebriates Home until cured; At the present; he pointed out, every person charged with . being drunk costs the Crown a great deal more in tho services of a constable, station sergeant, magistrate, prosecutor and other officials than could be covered by a £1 fine. RAND HAILSTORM. Never in the history of Johannesburg has such a sight been' presented as the Gin. coating of ice that covered the roofs and streets in a quarter of an hour after 5 o'clock on Thursday, when devastating hailstorms descended upon the city with battering fury. The damage to buildings and. their contents from the weight of hail and the nieltiitg ice was enormous. BISHOPS FAVOR FAITH-HEALING. NEW YORK, Oct. 25. The commission of bishons and laymen, which has been inquiring for six years into faith-healing, has reported, to the convention of the Episcopal Church at Washington as follows: "Christian healing has passed beyond the experimental stage. Its value is unquestionable." The signatories include lwr> doctors and a famous surgeon. It- is asserted that all faith-healitig should be eonducted in closo co-operation with medical science and practice.

SHEEP IN RHODESIA. BULAWAYO, Oct, 25. Interviewed in Bulawayo in the course of his world tour, Air. A. G. Warby, a prominent sheep farmer from New South Wales, said the coarse, nature of the grass, the lack of water, the necessity of frequent dipping, and the occurrence of sudden tropical rain, all militate against Rhodesia ever becoming of any importance as a. sheep-rearing country. Mi'. Warbv started 50 years ago with practically no.cattle. To-day he owns 40.C00 sheep and 5003 head of cattle, and a fortune of £300,000. He is accompanied by his wife, and will visit the chief farms ih the Union. WORLD SCiIOLAftSHIPS. NEW YORK, November 2. An offer to endow a law school with international scholarships, one for each of 60 nations of the world, has been made by Air. Chester D. Pugsley, vicepresident of the Westchester County National Bank.

In explaining his plan to the Harvard corporation, Mr. Pugsley says : "My thotight is that the incumbents of the scholarships should ho designated by the Foreign Minister of each nation and the. Prime Minister of each of the British self-governing Dominions." The trust fund amounts to nearly £IOO,OOO, and Mr.. Pugsley, ( who has already founded 60 scholarships to his old school, explained his new offer by saying that it had been made possible by' the frugal living of his mother, who died recently, and the wise guidance of his father. soviet via iron pamijjk KIGA, Nov. 2. One of Soviet Russia's chief exports to Germany in recent, years has been scrap iron, but owing to the present pig iron famine 1,000,000 tons of scrap iron is being sought throughout Russia, as raw' material for the nationalised industry. The present reserve of pig iron is only sufficient to last a fortnight, as smelters are bhly producing one-third of the stipulated quantities, with the result tiiat the steel industry has been working half time for the past month. The Soviet steel industry is in danger oi' a complete collapse.

MURDER FOR A THRILL

ATLANTA (Georgia), Oct. 29. A 23-year-old-student of Oglethorpe University, and son of a. respectable widow, lias confessed that he shot dead two men during a series of seven recent hold-ups here, "all for a thrill." He was aided by another student, who drove the ear. The victims were two shop assistants, who refused to put up their hands when ordered. BARICiES UNDER FRONT HARDEN LONDON, Nov. 6. Invisible garages for private houses will shortly overcome the space difficulty jn crowded cities. The front garden will lie raiser! by a levee on pillars until a platform capable of accommodating a. motor car is level with (he ground. The owner will chive the car on to the plat - form, re-operate the lover, and the garden will replace itself and corneal the sunken car. STRANIJE DISCOVERIES LONDON, October 20. WofidiJrfu] discoveries are claimed to have been made in equatorial Africa by Mr. Oarveth Wells, the British explorer who Went as d member of the expedition to the MtrtiritfliHs o." tlie Moon, organised by the Chicago (JeogrSiptiical Society, and wh'o has now arrived in New York. A Daily Chronicle tabic says Mr. Wells states lie discovered in the Mountains of the Moon strange . forms of vegetation, including heather 50ft. high, groundsel 20ft. high, parsley 9ft. high, and lobelias taller than a man. On one occasion he saw a herd of gnus aild zebras, which he estimated to be 30 mite's wide and five miles deep. The herd was so vast that three days after the first was sighted it was still passing the same spot.