HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19847, 16 January 1920, Page 4

HERE AND THERE.

The arrest of a burglar "on a largo estate near Sonderrhaitsen in the ,11 nu Mountains, lias led to the discovery of a. remarkable scries of crimes perpetrated by a gang of clever adventurers. The ringleader of tin's aristocratic ring is (he ‘‘Countess Colon mi,” titled as a result ol a mysterious adoption, who, however, has changed her name and title almost as frequently as she has changed her gowns. She had been closely connected with numerous burglaries in the fashionable "West End of Merlin. Her 'aemiiipl'ides arn’ hei,; brother, a lieutenant in the flying service, another army officer, a modiste known as '■ the Jiaroness Kelly," ami a- blacksmith. The countess proved an adept in enticing well-to-do men to her flat, while her accomplices broke into the houses of her admirers. Furniture, carpets and objects of art to tbo value ol several thousand marks were thus stolon. She also directed the ransacking of apartments, the occupants of which she knew to be out of town.

, Work lias been started on the foundations ol the great dam on the Murray .11 iver. just below it s junction with t-ie i.Mtta .Mina, wbirh is to be the maiit reservoir for Murray irrigation iwrites a .Sydney “Bulletin” correspondent!. MTion it is finished the bum above the dam is to be thirty miles long and held 1,000.000 acre-feet of water, or enough to cover a million ■ l . dee?- H will he tlm fifth biggest in the world, the four ahead of ,r being the Assouan on tha ■Nile, and the Flephant .Butte and two T'Vi'o M P«*enfc Burrin|ues (i, .pro-1 opt) is Amdralia’s biggest ] s-iui.l, but when the plans for the dam at the S’ligarloaf, on the (ioulbiirn River (\letona), are carried out (iVq In! ' tl,:l f t ’ "'ill; hold back ■lid.(.v,;> nere-fcct of water. The weiebt