From Many Lands

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 690, 15 June 1929, Page 19

From Many Lands

TABLOID READING FOR THE WEEK-E

TO VISIT MIKADO COM WANDER EVA. BOOTH Commander Evangeline Booth, leader j of the Salvation Army in the United •nates*, will sail on October 24 for a ■peaking tour of Japan. She will be j by the Emperor v ho will take ' occasion to give official recognition j tehcr work in Japan at the time of the earthauukc in lokyo. FIGS WIN THE DAY an amusing decision rattle psgs may hog the highways with impunxtj, following a decision of judge Pl John Biondi swung his truck off the j road recently in order not to kill a number o: young porkers crossing in front of him. His car struck a tree and was damaged to the extent oi ! £SOO. He sued the owner of the pigs, but the Court ruled the young pigs had the right of way and entered judgment of j non-suit. smoking and longevity TWO PIONEER GRANDMOTHERS Martha McCulloch-"Williams writes to the New York ""World" that her two grandmothers each smoked a pipe four times a day. One lived to be 95, and the other SO. Between them they bad 40 grandsons or great-grandsons in the Confederate army. She herself can smoke a big fat cigar without discomfort. but she smokes only when reraining would seem priggish reproof to uther smokers. HE TOOK THE CAKE! AN ELEPHANT ON THE SPREE A young- elephant, belonging to ;i Liverpool circus, broke away from its keeper and careered along the streets to spend Sunday in unaccustomed freedom. It halted outside a restaurant and with trunk swaying stood eyeing a dis-w play of cakes. Then it attempted to enter, but was too big to get through the doo-s. It looked like carrying the shop front away with it, when a young woman inside the restaurant popped a cake in its trunk The elephant gave a trumpet of delight. backed out of the doorway and ambled quietly away with its keeper again. A SEGRAVE STORY "JIX” TELLS THE TALE Proposing the toast of Sir Henry Segrave at a London luncheon, Sir William Joynson-Hicks told a story of the speed-king’s general strike activities. ‘‘The gallant, major,” he said, “was instructed to take a somewhat elderly police-sergeant from Whitehall to Mitcham. They got there in four and 1 a-half minutes. ‘‘As he got out of the car the policeman exclaimed: ‘Give me as many general strikes as you like, but never any more rides with this gentleman.’ ” Note.—From Whitehall to Mitcham is about 8 miles. The average speed of Segrave, if the Home Secretary’s figures be correct, was nearly 107 ra.p.h. TIED UP FOR 18 HOURS CHINESE TORTURE ENGLISHMAN During the fighting between Hunan troops and rebel soldiery retreating from Hankow missionaries and other foreigners were under fire for six days, and the manager of the Asiatic Petroleum Company' at Changteh, in the Hunan province, was maltreated. When the Wuhan faction, which is in revolt against the National Government, evacuated Hankow part of their forces fled south-west on the way to Kwangsi. They seized and held for a week the ritv of Changteh, looting the Roman Catholic mission, the premises of the petroleum company, and other build- ! ings until driven out by the Hunan troops. The manager of the petroleum company, who was wounded in the thigh. u ’ aa stripped of his clothing and tied up for 18 hours without food. He escaped and joined the remainder of the small foreign community, who are reported to be safe, the rebels having evacuated the city. STEERED INTO WAUL POLICE SECURE A CAR A crowd of people watched a struggle between alleged motor ban- j dits and two constables in Heatliland | Road, Stoke Newington. Constables Knox and Craggs were ‘ °n duty in that road at 3 0 o’clock, w heu they saw two men in a car ! which they believed had been stolen j toe same day. They called upon the driver to stop, out instead he accelerated. Craggs j jumped on to the running board, and a fttT a struggle steered the car into a ; w all. Knox ran to his assistance and | Was struck, but not seriously hurt. The two men were detained and Wer © taken to the Stoke Newington | P°lice station. -HORRID CARPET" ONCE A SHAH'S TREASURE In the church of St. Alban, Tcddingis an exquisite carpet which once decorated the palace of a Shah of ■Persia. But Air. Albert John Bovay, of Ted<unston. who died last February, disliked it so much that he left a bequest °f 41400 on condition that the horrid carpet which now “tuaguros the channel be removed and oev-r replaced, and that a handsome br jfOt carpet be substituted.” The Rey. Herbert Williams, vicar of Alban's, likes the subdued colourot th¥ carpet. However. I understand the point of 'lew of Air. Bovay." he said to an interviewer. "We shall leave it to the 7"elutect of the church to choose the oostga. lt ls probable tbat eve shall tbo Persian carpe't, which is valuable, and replace it with a bright a carpet.” v Mr - Bovay was a sidesman for 40 cburU atu ‘ took a keen interest in cn urch matters.

HIS FREE RIDE SPECIAL ACT TO GET IT! Mr. W. H. Gemmell. president of j the Minnesota Railroad, may now | travel free on his own railroad—by special act of the Legislature. When Mr. Gemmell was elected ai Regent of the University of Minnesota he found that as a State official he was barred from accepting or using railroad passes. To save him the trouble of taking j the price of a ticket from one pocket ! and putting it in the other, the Legis-1 lature has passed a law giving him the privilege of riding on his own ! line for nothing. A LUCKY SHOT DYNAMITE REVEALS GOLD "While* planting with dynamite to make a post-hole, a. farmer near Matheson, in Ontario, discovered a deposit of free gold. lie has sold his claim for £12,000 with a substantial share in the company developing the find. The gold lies along the line of the pre-Cambrian shield, on which many ! important gold deposits have been found in recent years. ON HIGH PEAK FATE OF TWO MYSTICS Details of a tragedy in the Bavarian Alps concerning an engineer named Dunne-Beil, aged 31, and his sweetheart, Mile. Friedrich, have come to light. In a fit of mysticism they decided to end their lives on the highest peak, nearest to Heaven, and despite the snow climbed Mount Falkenstein. They waited near the summit for five or six days and there their bodies were found. £3,800 FOR A LEG GIRL AWARDED DAMAGES Damages of £3,824 were awarded in the King’s Bench Division to a girl who lost her right leg as the result of a motor collision. The girl, Miss Esther Emily Mayes, a chemist’s assistant, of West End Avenue, Leyton, was standing in Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, waiting for a bus. The bus collided with a car belonging to Mr. Basil Evans, of Monkhams Avenue, Woodford Green, and forced it on to the pavement. Miss Mayes was crushed against a fence, and her leg had to be partially amputated before she could be released. She was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital, when the amputation was completed and her other injuries attended to. Judgment was entered against both the Omnibus Company and Mr. Evans. DEAD MAN’S NAME BORROWED BY ACQUAINTANCE How a dead mans name was adopted by a lodger living in the same house and the dead man’s testimonials used to obtain a job was described at Oxford Police Court. Frederick Currey, a salesman, of Kerjnington Park Road, London, was sentenced to six months’ hard labour on charges of fraud. Superintendent Webb said that in 3 928 Currey shared a bedroom with another man named Vernon. Vernon died and (the superintendent continued) Currey took possession of his testimonials, assumed his name, and by that means obtained employment. Currey handed in a statement, part of which read, “All my life I have had these lapses. They occur every three or four years, and usually last for three or four days, during which time L lose all sense of right and wrong and I do things which I would scorn to do in | the ordinary circumstances.” REALISM! REAL BULLETS AT CINEMA An extraordinary story was told in the court at Kroonstad, Orange Free State. A cinema manager, Mr. Myers, was , charged with culpable homicide. In order to lend realism to a cowboy film scene, ho fired three revolver shots through the open door of the cinema hull. A native outside was shot dead. I Mr. Myers pleaded that he thought the revolver w4a loaded with blanks on lv lie looked out of the door before firing, and saw no one. After the jury’s verdict of guilty, with ;k strong recommendation to mercy, Mr. Myers was fined £2O. DEVIL DOCTORS’ TASK SOME FIJIAN HISTORY Although the automobile is steadily [ gaining in popularity in the Fiji ( Islands it encountered great tear and ; superstition on the part o£ the natives | when first introduced. The first self- ! propelled vehicle was used in the | colony in 1905 by an American, who | was touring the islands.. The car j was viewed with awe by the in* } habitants, being considered the con- | iraption of a madman, and conserj vative residents suggested that the | owner be deported as a dangerous character. | The second car made its appearance in 1907, destined for the wife lof the Mayor of Suva. A liveried j chauffeur was provided, and it is not known which created the greater j stir, the vehicle or its driver. One I day the owner found under the machine several bushmen, poking about j and exploring the mysteries. Ex- ! planations revealed that tile Fijians j had held a conference about the new I vehicle that lacked visible means of | locomotion and bad concluded that j the affair was nothing less than a j devil wagon; therefore, partly out of j kindness to the owner and partly to | prevent the escape of the devil into | the bush and into the villages, the ■ "devil doctors'" constituted themselves a committee to study this weird | thing and to exterminate its concealed ! monster.