OLD COUNTRY GOSSIP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17227, 5 April 1930, Page 16

OLD COUNTRY GOSSIP

IfATEY'S Sl-j.N l'K\t E. NO regrets ai;,k yok ed. LONDON. .!:,!i. 26. No word of tegrei, no voice or criti eisni is heard in England to-day . ■:' the .severity i/f the sentence inipo.siui In Mr. Justice Avery on Clarence Hntry ami his associates for their crimes of ''.and. for gory, and eunspiracv on a s. ale i nun before approached in an\ country. Drama more intense and gripping (ban anything the stage can ever slow was packed into the last HTt-eon minutes of the greatest- trial England 'i.is i-vcr known. During those minutes of ovui whelming suspense, the ht\ tone; of Mi Justice Avery was the only >am:id which hroke the stillness of the (ltd Bailey. The courtroom was packed. CD men stood in the crowd holding silk handkei chiefs to their brows, women with furs. bewigged counsel, all crashed in to got near when the judno took his seal. At the. back of the court was Ilatry's LT year-old sou. Like wooden statues, their fares ex pvessioidess, the four prisoners stood in wooden-walled dork. livery eye was fixed on them and the judge, a frail. sniall-statured man. stein and grey, his face lined with the wisdom of h:■> 76 years, begins to speak ;u a low-pit',icd voice. In tones like falling icicles his sketching phrases ruthlessly cist aside all sentiment. This frail elderly man in -his scarlet robes is the embodiment of tie power and digniD' of the Rritish law. "Clarence Charles Ha try," _l.be judge begins with deliberate intensity, ''ymi stand otivieted of the most appalling frauds thai have ever disfigured the commercial reputation of ibis <:< urtry. On and on goes that smooth cobi \;uiee in its crushing denunciation uatil, while hundreds stand as if frozen in Ihoh places, he utters kite awful tyords which send Hairy to a living tomb: ''-You will be detained in penal servitude i'o-r 14 years." A momentary terrifying husk, the? a sound like a sudden soft breeze sweeps the court as the crowd swiftly draws its breath'.

Hatrv spins round on his heels as though".i bullet has struck him. Finally bo gropes his way to the stairs winch lead down to the cells. .So it is with his three companions. Lien and ad oi them hear their sentences ivthout o.ovc. inent of muscle, bow slightly to the eourt, turn about and ivisappeui' i clow. The majesty of the law had l.eeu u] held, justice had spoken. Before the cell doors had closed on Hairy and bis Fellow-directors the Bcaverbrook newspapers were advertising the "Secret inside, story of his financial life." This will appear in a Fumiay newspaper, and it is reported in Fleet Street that thousands of dollar- have been paid for a single article -more even than Rothermcye paid for the prison memoirs of Horatio Bottomlcy. .

The trial of the four financial jugglers cost the State £50,000. and friends subscribed nearly €20.000 for (he defence. The Times, in protest against the

eairtucaunii oj inlanders tt.m.so gran dios t . schemes end in the < n >.:■.. says I lui;;. and his fciluw ei uni'eds were l.tiiit. 1 o: fiaud distinguished oiih from the inclines) i,:' its kind In tin oxtrava gance of $.-. ambition and the imieuhml sirupii. it v of it : iechuiipie. "is merely (hat oi any oilier l.io\ who job ; the ; ill to hack a wiunei'. I i seems incredible thai such fiaud eoidd lind its extent Hatr\ has cheapened and injured a national asset, tin- great tradition oi probity in the city." BKITAIN CARELESS ()'.!•' NATIONAL TEEASERES. LONDON. Eel., i. tireal Dritain's national treasures, valued at £50,000.000 at the lowest, and stm ed irj the century-old British Museum in Bloiinislniry. arc not exacth in a sate place, according In modern standard.-. Nor are I'm treasures insured. An investigating committee undei Sir Richard Glaze Brook, royal commissioner for exhibitions, lias found rebuilding the whole museum impracticable, ami the onh alternative is immediate strengthening of the tire patrol and giider.s tariying the floors. "The sigh; of a cigarette makes the museum firemen jump out of their skins," said an olhcial. Seventeenth and eighteenth ernl.un li'st editions stored in the museum with other relics, such as historical paperand charters, arc priceless, The Government docs not insure its property and takes its own risk against fire.

SAVING ENGLAND'S S 11.0.111

The bulwarks of England long agi ceased 1.0 be of oak. and now everyone is very busy with thoughts of diminishing the safeguards of steel in proporlion to i lie lessened danger from potential locs. Hut the sea attacks success-

fully and persistently lung stretches of our coast, and plans hitherto employed to prevent this erosion have been expensive, and not altogether successful. The latest method employed promises heifer things, and Britain's new weapon of

coast defence is merely a herb. To be precise, it is Spartina Townsendii. or rice grass, a growth than can nourish in spite .if. bing drowned in three m four teet of sii.lt water at every time, ll has long, fibrous roots, which bind mud into and strengthen sea, walls, and help to transform mud flats into green pastures. This L'rass was discovered half a eenlui'V

or so -.{'in in Southampton Water, but its potentialities were not realised until comparatively recently. The Empire Marketing Hoard is encouraging its use in two or three places where the sea has encroached upon the laud. And the value of rice grass is not limited by its binding and .amphibian virtues: it produces a very fair crop of bay. and it is prized by pigs as a delicacy of such succulence that they will even swim I" get it. A fair amount of it is being export ■ cd in different pails of the Empire, to which its qualities commend it. and in a few years it may give low-lying Essex many thousands of acres of profitable land in place of what are now desolate mud flats.

I,'lb'A I. VANDALISM. An imporfiint and representative conference was held at Oxford last: Saturday to consider what steps should lie taken to preserve tlie rural beauties of England from Ihe boiio- . la -t ie embrace of mode; n life. Jts at leinlanei' by roprosontnl ivos of \ aribiiis (io\ crninen! departments encourages lb" hope that olhcial action iniiiv ,-oon i c taken to stop tlm ;ipini' on \ irl ually tint hocked t'o- >he pas! twenty years. j due of the tragedies of dui civilisahinti is that its ways and means are so ugly. We sear the fair face of England with wide ban- roads for motor traliie. we disfigure our linest views c, it.li long processions of mammoth pyplons, which cany our electricity, ami we lei: our most famous beauty -pots fall \ id im to the factories of the industrialist or the biingaloitl grew tiis oi' the speculative builder. Itul during the past few years, private bodies such as the Senpn society and the Council i'"r the I'nworvatLou of Rural England, have done much good work in lousing the public to protest againsl I lie desecration of its heritage. In one respect, particularly, they have been responsible for a great improvement, for they have persuaded most oi' the big petrol and lyre companies to remove their unsightly road advertisements. The Sholl-Mox Company alone has rejriov ed L'i'.Otm of its sign., during the past six years. GLIDING. Tim bites! sport yet il [.-, a \ cry obi spoil, dating ba,k by Ihe mythological Icarus- -which is being popularised here is gliding or motortess flying. The Germans are al present the experts in this pastime, but a Drilish gliding- association is being foimed to promote gliding (dubs in different parts of the country and supply them with technical information and assistance in obtaining and building gliders, ami in (he choice of suitable sites for their work. Otto Lilienthal. Ditcher and the Wright brothers all i vperiiuented with gliders, and in so doing collected data which ihey could not have obtained in any oilier way. When power flight developed gliding lost its popularity, and during the Groat War no gliding was done ;• j all. There are now .about 2oii gliding club- in Germany, including one which lias just been started for women. Gliders cost very little, and accidents are staled to be generally slight. In return for the slight risk .and expense one ran acquire I lie art of wheeling, even for hours, in the air—a sensation which is claimed to combine the delights of .sailing and the thrills of shi-ing. I'NDKHGEOIND RAILWAY EXTENSIONS. An idea of the extent of underground railway schemes inav be gained from Lord Ashhold's speech at ' Ihe special general meetings of proprietors, which approved ihe bill- now before Parliament empowering the companies to carry out improvements and extensions. The total estimated cost of the whole works for which (lowers are sought- is .about £12.000.000, of which extensions account for £8,000.000. The raisin;/, of £13.500,000 is involved.