From Many Lands

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 708, 6 July 1929, Page 3

From Many Lands

- TABLOID READING FOR THE WEEK-END. — _ MARRIED 70 YEARS , TROUBLE OVER A FENCE

never left native town Born at Cheriton, near Folkestone, 90 years ago and married at Cheriton nearly 70 years ago, Mr. and Mrs. John Bailey, of Richmond Street, are still living in their native town. They well celebrate the 70th anniversary o£ their wedding on September 12. Another Cheriton couple, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, of Somerset Road, have been married 66 years.. Their ages are 95 and 89. MEN ARE POLITER SHOP-ASSISTANTS’ VIEWS That men are more polite shoppers than women is revealed through a census o£ opinion among London shop assistants o£ both sexes. Women shoppers, they say, o£ten are rude; are much harder to please and seldom know what they want.. They expect the sales person to help them make up their minds. Men, they state, know exactly what they want. They go into a shop, ask for it and get out quickly. TEMPLE TO MITHRAS FOUND AT COLCHESTER A Roman building brought to light In Colchester Castle Park is declared to be a Mithraeum or Roman temple dedicated to the worship of Mithras, a Persian god of light. This building, with its underground apartments, is said to be the best of the three such similar temples unearthed in Great Britain, although it has no sculptures or carvings. The cult of Mithras was the last religion of importance brough to Rome from the East. It became the rival to Christianity. MILLION FIST FIGHTS ALL "BROTHERS” IN RUSSIA Russians engage in a million fist fights each year, according to Dr. Leibovitch of the Moscow Institute of Criminology. Official statistics show that iu Moscow there were 1,044 persons hurt in fights during March, 1928, and 1,603 in April. The increase in the latter was due to holiday vodka. The statisticians even gave social correlation to the fighters. They said that 35 per cent, were neighbours, 15 per cent, husbands, 6 per cent, former husbands, 7 per cent, relatives, 6 per cent, friends, 5 per cent, acquaintances and 26 per cent, perfect •trangers. WHALES AS TARGETS PROTESTS FROM THE SHORE! Protests against the use of whales for “dry navy” targets are planned by South Jersey (U.S.A.) resorts. Empty barrels are regulation targets for the lib guns used in pursuit of rum-runners, but it is said that these same guns have been used in taking pot shots at whales of a species which have no commercial value. The carcase of a 59ft whale, which recently stranded near Sea Isle City, gave local authorities much trouble and put them to much expense. That whale, it is said, had been struck several times by heavy projectiles. OYSTERS ON TREES MANGROVES AS "PARENTS” The traveller in certain islands of the West Indies (as in certain parts of Mew Zealand) has the opportunity of viewing the novel sight of gathering oysters from trees. Around the harbours and lagoons the mangrove trees grow down to the water's edge. Their branches droop until some are submerged. Oysters will cling to any surface in the water to which they can fasten themselves, and as there are few shelves or stones along the shores, the bivalves attach themselves to the branches. When the natives go oyster gathering they lean over the side of the boat, find a branch to which oysters are clinging, and cut it off, and the bivalves are sold on the tree. ' SOLVENIOR PYJAMAS A NEW NOTE IN BEDWEAR The fate of lost handkerchiefs is rarely known, but those that disappear from the pockets of University of Missouri students may be destined to become a part of a pair of “souvenir Pyjamas.” Since only sixteen handkerchiefs are needed, discrimination ts used and the handkerchiefs of “campus leaders” are iu popular demand. The idea of making the pyjamas first suggested itself to a university girl when she noticed she unintentionally had acquired several men’s handkerchiefs. They were rather nice cues and it seemed a shame not to use them for something, and then came the big idea. JEWELLED TORTOISE IN LEFT-LUGGAGE DEPARTMENT Railway, street car and even airplane officials are accustomed to finding articles such as umbrellas, boxes and purses that forgetful passengers leave in public conveyances. Recently however, a stranger than usual find was made in one of the Imperial Airway's Paris-London air liners, a small iive tortoise, carefully encased in pink cotton wool and resting in a cardboard box. The shell of this tortoise was studded with rubies, emeralds and other jewels, making the pet a valuable one. The stones formed a geometric design. The tortoise was found to be the Property of a woman passenger, who later reclaimed her strange pet.

THREE MEN KILLED A pistol and knife battle resulting from an argument over location of a fence on a sheep pasture at Roy (U.S.A.) cost the lives of Pat Ledoux, aged 41, who leaves a widow and seven children; David Ledoux, junr., 19 years old, and Philip Spurlock, aged 35, who is survived by a widow and five children. F. Coldiron, father-in-law of Spurlock, and another of the Ledoux boys, were wounded. David Ledoux, senr., who witnessed the fight, declared Coldiron started it when he drew a knife on one of the Ledoux. The Ledoux have been ranchers in this section for 45 years. ACROSS THE FRONTIER! BUT KILLED GETTING THERE A Jugoslav schoolmaster and a high school boy were shot by gendarmes as they attempted to escape across the frontier into Austrian territory. They had been arrested in Agram (Croatia, Jugoslavia), in consequence of a conversation overheard in a cafe concerning distribution of seditious literature. They were taken to a spot on the frontier, so that it might be demonstrated how and where such literature was smuggled into the country. As they bolted from their captors they were shot dead and actually fell across the frontier line with their feet in Austria and bodies in Jugoslavia. £2O A DAY YOUTH’S EXPENSIVE HABITS A remarkable story of an 18-year-old youth’s gay life in the West End was told at Hendon Police Court, when Roderick Harry Pitt, Hampstead Garden Suburb, was charged with falsifying a bank book and cash book and with stealing £234. Detective-Sergeant Muggridge said Pitt had been living a life of recklessness, and had spent over £2O in one day on motor rides. H% had spent most of the money in the West End, where he entertained lavishly. At one time he was employed by an airplane company. He told the manager that his mother had been killed in a motor accident. In sympathy, the firm increased the lad’s wages from 17s 6d to £2. There was great surprise when the mother appeared to inquire why the lad had been suspended from his work. Pitt was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment. MAIL TRAIN HOLD-UP SORTER BOUND AND GAGGED A “wild west” hold-up of a railway mail van is reported between Birur and Shimoga, Mysore State. A man in European dress jumped on to the train during a halt, and when the journey was resumed entered the mail van and threatened a sorter, the only occupant, with a rifle. He bound and gagged the man and afterwards got away with a number of insured and registered letters. The extent of the loss is not yet known. The police have no clue to the robber. FLYER EXPELLED SEQUEL TO CINEMA “STUNT” A 1 Wilson, stunt aviator, who made, at Los Angeles, a parachute jump for the movies from a falling plane in which his mechanic, Phil Jones, met death on March 22, has been expelled from membership in the Professional Pilots’ Association. The report from the association, which arraigned Wilson for jumping from the plane while his mechanic was in it, stated that Wilson had “violated the unwritten law of the air in leaping from the plane before all other occupants were clear, unless the plane was less than 1,000 feet from the ground.” The jump was made at “about 6,000 feet,” the report said, adding that Jones, who was operating smoke pots for a “war movie,” was “unaware of the fact that the pilot had jumped.” UNSPLINTERABLE GLASS NEW DESIGN FOR WAR PLANES Experiments are being carried out with a view to evolving a “saloon” airplane for fighting purposes. The intention is that in the future, since planes will have to operate at great heights, the pilot’s cockpit shall be totally enclosed with unsplinterable glass. Glass panels will be fitted at the sides and on the top of the Fairey (Napier) non-stop monoplane. This will ensure greater warmth in the higher altitudes, since the flying “greenhouses,” as they have been irreverently dubbed, will be electrically heated, and the vision of the pilot, although he will be totally enclosed, will not be interfered with. Experts of all nations are agreed that airial battles in the future will be fought at such a great altitude as to be invisible from the ground. IN CLOSED CAR DEATH FROM CARBON MONOXIDE Herbert F. Allen, an Arlington real estate dealer and retired truck gard ener, drove his limousine a mile into a deserted wood road in Dover, ran a twelve-foot stretch of new garden hose from the exhaust into the tonneau of the machine, closed the doors and windows, started the motor and sat composedly in the front seat until death came from carbon monoxide fumes. „ _ Winthrop Harvey, of Boston, was horseback riding through the woods when he heard the idling motor and discovered Allen. Failing in first-aid methods, he called the police. Allen left a widow and three children, who were unable to assign a cause for his act.