NEWS ITEMS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12469, 19 February 1909, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

iMiss Layard, an Ipswich antiquary, has retrirned from Ireland witKl 800 . flint knives, scrapers, turtle tracks, 1 and borers which she picked us> on the shore of an Irish lough in \the course of seven hours. Horse racing without jockeys is. o.tie of the sports of Rome during the carnival. The horses are started by & gun and are provided with spurs -id the shape" of small spiked balls on cords swinging round their bodies. Work has been started two miles north-west of Houston, Texas, by a syndicate with a preliminary capital of £30,000, to unearth buried crties, believed to lie in Harris County. Professor Braissons, who is interested in the syndicate, declares that the work will prove that Texas was peopled, like Mexico, with Atzecs and Toltecs. "The most dangerous places iv The post office installation of wireless telegraphy has resulted in some remarkable .'achievements. The most remarkable' is that messages have been received at Hunstanton (Norfolk) from Bolt Head (Devgnshire), the; distance between the two coast stations being something like 300 miles. The authorities, lioweyer, do not regard the result as one likely to be always obtained, and they believe the exchanges to have been more or less "freaks." Bolt Head, in fact, is only fitted to receive messages from . vessels 'not more than one hundred j miles out at sea. ■ I A great flutter has been caused in the highest Court circles in Berlin by the discovery - that the Crown i Princess Cecilia has sold a diadem ' valued at over £5000 to obtain mone.\ .. for contribution to the ;fund to' re : j jlieve the widows and orphans of the 1 victims of the recent colliery' disaster in. Westphalia. The Crown Prince had already, contributed to the fund, .but the Crown Princess, whose kind heart was touched by the 'sufferings — of- the -women, and- children deprived :of husbands, and fathers, determined to give a far larger pirn for the amelioration of their, distress. .Afters se- -. ..eretly> 'selling the. diadem she . gavt • the entire proceeds' -^to -; the; . reliel •'■■-.liu'rid. . When the.' Crown Prince .wa? Hriformed "of- his -wife's successful attempt to raise money, ie accepted tht accomplished fact witli". good humour. Many courtiers, on te contrary, arc Many courtiers, on the contrary, are which they regard as a violation of eti- : quette. :■,...■;.. ; ■■■■ ■ :' ;.: >: .- : ''■;■