NEWS IN. A NUTSHELL

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1932, Page 11 (Supplement)

NEWS IN. A NUTSHELL

THE- WORLD AT A GLANCE

Barnardo’s Homes have now placed over 30,000 boys and girls in situations in the British Dominions. t Mrs. Harriet Coldron, of Greasborough, Yorkshire, has died in the house she lived in for 86 years. The British are keener on picturegoing than the Germans, their average weekly attendances being about 7,000,000, or 1,000,000 more than in Germany.

An 1815 edition of Izaak Walton’s “The Gompleat Angler” fetched £7O at Hodgson’s auction rooms, Chancery Lane, London. :

Nothing but the metal framework was left of a motor-car which was attacked by famjshed rats in a. French garage.

Prison and. a £4OO fine have been, imposed on a chemical director of a drug factory at Basle (Switzerland) for taking part in smuggling .activities.

The Swiss Government is to issue a special series of postage stamps—from 5 centimes to one franc —to mark the Disarmament Conference at Geneva next month.

Of the law cases heard under'the Poor ■Persons- rule, in England, 93 per cent, are matrimoniaL In 96 out of every 100 cases so heard the poor litigants win.' ■ .-■■■. ' .•

As white, though very visible, is too dazzling in sunshine, the authorities 'in ■ the South of France are discussing having all main roads coloured red, with secondary roads, green or yellow. In art-school-work girls are said to have a keener-eye for colour and detail in design than boys, - who, however, show more vigour, humour and originality in their work. Although killing eagles was made a crime in Germany 'in 1925 the oncedreaded Prussian eagle has continued to decrease in numbers until it is almost extinct. .

Two hundred new .wireless licenses were taken out in Portsmouth in two days following an \ announcement that a Post Office detector van would visit the'town. •■", ? ■ ' ■ :

A committee of the London County Council has told the . Medical Women’s Federation that it would be undesirable to withdraw the council’s veto against employing married women. ■ ' Using a local anaesthetic,. Dr. Evan O’Neill Kane, of Erie, U.S.A., has operated upon himself for rupture. Eleven years ago Dr. Kane, who is 70, operated upon himself for appendicitis. , • ■ The condition of Germany has made a very big impression • upon marriages in that country. In the first half of last year the number of marriages was 70,000 fewer than the normal, and 30,000 less than in 1930.

The problem of ventilating the £5,~ 000,000 tunnel under the Mersey (Eng.); having; proved unexpectedly difficult, the opening has now. been deferred from next autumn until Easter, 1933.

Two new races planned for Brooklands (Eng.) are the Junior Car Club’s 1000-mile race on June 3 and 4, in which women drivers will take part, and the British Empire Trophy race to be run on April 30 in four heats of 50 miles and a final of 100 miles. Dogs are being. trained to serve as attendants to deaf mutes in Germany; a code of signals serves to show the dog what its master requires, while it will warn him of the hoot of motorcars in the street. ' . i

As picture ; fans, Americans hold first place with 20,500 theatres containing 18,500,000 seats. There are in the whole of Europe, excluding Russia, 27,000 cinemas, providing accommodation for 11,000,000 visitors. . ' • ■

Turkey has agreed to sacrifice its national drink, which is coffee, as one of the means of overcoming its troubles. A Bill is to 'be passed- prohibiting the importation of coffee, none of which is grown in- Turkey. ■

The King has presented a mast, formerly in the Royal yacht Britannia, to the Royal Alfred Aged Merchant Seamen’s Institution, and it will be used as a flagstaff at the institution’s home at Belvedere, Kent. •

Miss Thelma Carpenter, of Bournemouth, who won the Women’s amateur billiards championship in London, on her return to Bournemouth was escorted out of the station under crossed billiard cues. v : <

The London and Faris Mints, working in collaboration, have concluded arrangements in Belgrade for the coinage of 32J million silver pieces for Yugoslavia, these being the first silver coins to be issued in that country since the war. ' ■ ‘ . ■ ■

During the last 12 months 27,000 people were. reported “missing” in Paris, and more than 25,000 in New York. Britain’s annual figure, of. women and girls, for the whole country is about 15,000, of' which number less than onetenth remain undiscovered for more than two weeks.

Vienna’s oldest man, Carl Polzer, has just died, aged 101? He was born in the same year as the Emperor Francis Joseph. Polzer started as an apprentice, and gradually worked himself up until he became the owner of 18 houses. On his 100th birthday the Burgomaster of Vienna, Herr Seitz, paid him a visit of congratulation.

A woman aged 108 who for health and activity is said to bo unsurpassed in. Europe has been discovered in a village in Portugal. She has never been ill, has never taken medicine, has all her own teeth, and can eat chestnuts, does not use glasses, but can thread a needle; fetches water from the village pump, gathers wood in the undergrowth, and cooks and does housework without ever feeling tired. She has been married three times. Her first husband died leaving her 16 children. Her third husband is still living, and is young enough to be her grandson, but often sits in a corner of the kitchen too tired to move, while his wife of 108 moves about briskly doing the housework.

A guinea put out to interest with the Commercial Travellers’ Benevolent .Institution -47 years ago has returned £1339 Us. The return was not made to the investor, who was a commercial traveller and did not live to learn of the profitable fruits of the transaction. He subscribed just one'guinea to his society’s superannuation fund before he died, and it was his widow who received the benefit of this mite. She lived till she was 80, and only the other day this very benevolent institution made to her the last of the payments, which in all amounted to the handsome sum of nearly £1350.