NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN A NUTSHELL

THE WORLD AT A GLANCE The British Ministry of Pensions is responsible for supplying artificial limbs to more than 36,000 pensioners. ‘-■ - • •Tons of gold bullion placed’in a secret “war chest”, before Japan went off the gold standard are l said to exist in Tokyo. ' A recent census showed that ■ there were more than 100 varieties of cheese on sale in the shops of London. The widest selection was found in Soho. The steamship Dampen sprang a leak and was rushed to Newport, Virginia. In the dry dock it was discovered that a large cod had become wedged in the hole and stopped the flow of water. Girls employed in the highly-skilled and. dangerous work of filling “needles" and plaques with radium salts are only allowed to be employed for six months. Then they must find other work. Anton Svaby, of Eperjes, near Kosice, in Czecho-Slovakia, was so jealous of his wife that he locked her and his two children in their two-roomflat and never let them open the door or windows. He is to be prosecuted. Paper tubes coated with cement are used by the. United States Bureau of Fisheries as incubators for baby oysters. The larvae cling to them till they develop into seed oysters with rudimentary shells. c

It has been discovered that the first trustees, of Bowes, near Barnard Castle, Methodist chapel, included a man named Shaw, who is believed to have been the original of Mr. Wackford Squeers in Dickens’ “Nicholas Nickelby.” The matriarch of the duck world is dead, and the Worcestershire village of Dodford will miss her. Brought from Ireland by. Mr. F. J. Clay, she was 24 years of age, and laid regularly for 17 years.

A 14-year-old Edinburgh boy, Bertie Smith, of John Street, is claimed to be the youngest spiritualist medium in Britain. He gives lectures regularly in public. His aunt, with whom he lives, Haims to have discovered that he had psychic powers when he was 12. Poor relief, was being granted to 1,340,638 persons in England and Wales on the last Saturday in December, 1932. This is equivalent to 335 per 10,000 of the entire population. The areas with the highest percentages were Lincoln, Sheffield, Cardiff, Merthyr, Tydvil, Barnsley, Liverpool: and Norwich* Walking, about 18 .miles a day for two years, a young Chinese Roman Catholic recently made the pilgrimage from China to Rome to see the Pope. He passed through Siam, Burma, India, Persia and Asia Minor. Then, after sailing to Marseilles, he visited _Ly oELS > Geneva, Milan and Bologna' before reaching Rome. A firm of manufacturers is issuing .ffie following, which sums up the economic situation in a nutshell: When someone stops buying, someone stops selling. When someone stops selling, someone stops making. When someone stops, making, someone stops working. When somebne stops working, someone stops earning. When someone stops earning, someone stops buying.

Fear of the fairies has held up an ambitious road-widening scheme in Roscommon,- Ireland. The scheme involves the- cutting down of a number of “Iqve bushes” " ■which?' for hundreds of years, have been locally regarded as the haunt of the “little people.” Terrified by the misfortune which interference with the bushes would bring the inhabitants have banded together and forted the road to stop. The British Admiralty wants fewer “professors” and more sailors among the officers, in the. Navy. It has been an order which' aims at curbing too much specialisation, and every officer will be giyen -a? sea appointment as- soon as possible .after. completing, his qualifying, course.' i Many » officers in the . Navy specialise in' • gunnery, submarines, torpedoes, and wireless, • and have passed on to an advanced course ■ college after qualifying. Now they will all have to go to sea before they can go to college. Cocker spaniels are not fighters in the ordinary way, but Mr. G. F. Gardner, of Vange, Essex, has a cocker which turned up trumps in an .awkward situation. Mr. , Gardner, who is a farmer, locking up his poultry, when tie surprised, a big dog fox. The fox sprang at (him, but the usually docile cocker sprang at the fox and bit deeply into his throat. The fight lasted ten minutes. - At the finish Mr. Gardner had to drag his 'spaniel away, , as it was'practically unconscious; the fox died within a few minutes.

Identification of lost •or stolen dogs would be easy if dog owners .would take the precaution-of taking nose-prints of their pets. Tests ‘with thousands of dogs have shown that, as with human finger-prints, no two dogs have identical nose patterns. The procedure is simple. The .'nose.of the dog' is lightly smeared with ink and the impression taken on clean white absorbent paper. The nose pattern 6f a dog does not alter with age, so that an unwilling pet need submit but once to the ink smearing. A Blue Book prepared by Canada reveals that: More than 92 per cent of the population of=the 'Dominion. over the age of five can.read and write; during the last six years tourists, have spent £270,000,000 in Canada; there are 6000 fur farms in the Dominion; Canada’s ail .mails fly nearly 2,000,000 miles .• every year; her population is 10,376,786—0 r less than a quarter of that of G rea t Britain, although she is 40 times larger; Britain has invested £450,000,000 in Canadian industries; the mineral production of the Dominion of Canada has reached £60,000,000 annually. '

Though he is. blind he is a notable botanist. Mr. John Grimshaw Wilkinson, a member of the Leeds Naturalists’ Club, and an hon. M.Sc. of the University, carries on his life’s work by touching leaves and flowers with his tongue. In this way he is able to determine their species. A severe illness left him totally blind at 23. He is now. 77, and is known as the man whose tongue is his microscope. Uncommon leaves from all parts of the - country have been sent to him, and he has - revealed their identity. In his. collection to-day he has 5000 specimens.

When the funeral service of the Rev. F. S. Polson, vicar of St Mark’s Church, North End, Portsmouth, 1 took place, parcels of groceries and gifts of money were brought by members of. the congregation in lieu of the usual floral tributes.-; It was the ; vicar’s wish that ; there should be no elaborate signs of mourning .in tlie way of dress, and that no expensive flowers should be sent. He desired,.however, that those who wanted to send tokens of their sympathy should contribute to tiie unemployment depot fund of the parish. . It was ..in accordance -with .this suggestion that parishioners took to the funeral their practical tokens of sympathy and regret. The gifts were deposited in the church and later handed oyer to the officials of the fund. ,