HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19878, 20 February 1920, Page 4

HERE AND THERE.

The German Navy League is to be' re-christened “tho German Sea '’ Longue. It is to work for the deidopnient of the German mercantile marine and the resumption of German maritime trade and shipping.

■ . British sovereign, with the demgn of St George slnyiag the draw was first coined in 18)6 in memory of the victory of Waterloo. It was afterwards, However, superseded by the long-' familiar shield device, to be eventually resuscitated in 1871. *

Round and round the Paris market, dodging among the stalls, a small crowd chased two highway robbers for uearlv an hour. The men had waylaid a cashier and stolen £2006 which ho was taking to the bank. Eventually the t\io ol them wore cornered and arrested. The great bronze slab which tho Allsmans placed in the middle of the, roadways at tho exact spot where tho bomb tell which killed tho Archduke Ferdinand has now been removed bv the Jugoslav Government, The Austrians 'allowed no one to pass over the slab winch much impeded traffic in that pan of the road.

Most people are under the impression that cards wore first invented to distract the melancholy Charles the Sixth of I ranee, but ’;ns. a matter of fact no one can tell how long they have bcopm existence. There is a pack in the British Museum known to be over a thousand years old, and there were Japanese - and Chinese cards in tho twelfth century.

The theory that a person who. has had the misfortune to lose one or more limbs is likely to live longer than if he had not lost them would seem to bo borne out by facts (says an exchange). The reason is that the heart normally has to carry the blood to tho limbs, .and that tho fewer limbs a man possesses the less work the heart has to perform, and the longer, therefore, it lasts. ■

Prince Albert, following the example ot his elder brother, has joined the ranks of Freemasonry. Ho was admitted to the Order at Prince’s Galleria m presence of the Prince of Wales and a distinguished company. The Prince ot Wales, as a Guardsman, selected the Household Brigade Lodge; his brother, as a naval officer, has joined the Naw No. 2612, of which the late ivmg Edward, when Prince of AVales was "Worshipful Master-

Tho bulldog lias ousted the French poodle in tho estimation of French people. At the Paris dog show there were seven bulldogs to every poodle, and £BO was the lowest price for a white or brindled aristocrat. All those poor brutes were very miserable, lor tho day was cold and the show wti g held in the open air at the Tuilories’ without even straw being provided for them to Ho on. French indifference in this respect contrasts- markedly with the luxurious canine comfort of the English dog show.

An exciting incident occurred at tho motor sports at Taujierenikau on ■lliursday afternoon. During the progress of a ten-mile open event, Percy Coleman, the Palmerston crack, appeared to lose control of his 'machine when turning a corner at a pace clover sixty miles an hour. Ho performed a double somersault, and landed heavily on tho ground. Fortunately he escaped with a laceration of the face and a shaking. His machine crashed into a fence, and was badly knocked about.

A returned Maori soldier went into the Native Land Court at Te Kuril (writes a correspondent of the. “ Post ”) and demanded to know why his name was in tho list of those who were dead, and to whose estate succession was applied for. After inquiry, it transpired that just before the armistice word had been indirectly received that the soldier had ‘‘gone West.”. Since then, to the ]oy of Ills friends, the soldier had returned. The application was dismissed. The Judge congratulated the Native on having seen active service, and hoped that ho was carrying with him into civil life some of those excellent qualities' which the Maoris had displayed on the battlefield. Another similar case was where a Native applied to succeed him>self by another name. This occurred through a lawyer misunderstanding the position.

France possesses a wonderful system;or imposing- duties on tobacco, and they have some remarkable effects when combined with the problem of the "falling franc.” Writing from Monto Carlo nj November, a special correspondent of the London "Times” remarks: “ In a shop window in Nice there is displayed a tin of a well known English tobacco with a proud placard which mds: 'l3 fraucs 'per 100 grammes : Even with the exchange at 40, that would work out at £1 I2s 6d per pound, a figure at whigh it would take a sophist of more than ordinary calibre to convince himself, that smoking was an economy. But the ingenious contrariness of the whole scheme of tobacco duties, whether French or Monegasque (framed; as it seemingly is, to produce the minimum of revenue with the maximum of annoyance and inducement to n and), and the conduct of the douane almost make one feel kindly towards governmental follies at home. How'ever absurd it may be, however, travellers to I 1 ranee had best be careful nowadays how they try to smuggle small quantities of, tobacco through the Cue. Toms in their bags. A tin or so of tobacco and a broken box of cigarettes iqo an En ? lish iour ' st late’ly 80 or 100 francs at the Gare du Nerd m Pans.”

The Royal Northwest Mounted 1. ohcc, the picturesque force which has patrolled Western Canada, since settlers nrst Went there, has ceased to exist being merged in the new Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The headquarters ot this new force will b e at Ottawa, , ?, mI , the , okl barracks at Regina, so long the headquarters of the old force will now lose that distinctiou. There is no foice in the world that has enjoyed -i reputation widespread as lias the Royal North-West .Mounted Police, and its fame has been celebrated in storv on the stage, and more recently on tho film. The red coat, the gold-striped Wat P ie " St ° tsol) " bat 1 or the R, iN.W .M.].. was familiar far beyond the bounds of Canada. I n the old clays, when “mushroom” towns had not yet begun to spring up on tb« prairies tli» long and severe character ot tho duties o£ the force threw round its members a glamour that had not e en disappeared in later days, when then duties became more like those of an ordinary police force. Almost tho Whole of the R.N.W.M.P., went lo So rea’il-fi' f ,n W bc * n,d that the finale eally belongs to the -great scenes of bermsiu in fiance. Even s0 recently J- 11 there came Irom the great NorthWest one of those tales of heroic endeavour which have made the Mounted tohee famous. On December 21 DJio Inspector Fitzgerald, with three other members of the force, left Fort M’Pher son lor Dawson. After some time m> wordi being. li’eard of them, a patrol set out from Dawson and found their bodies thirty.fi.re miles from Fort M 1 herson. Fitzgerald's diary told » terrible tale of suffering The weather had been verv severe, 64deg below zero being recorded more than once. Food became scarce, and on January 18 it war, found necessary to kill one of the dogs for food. The last entry, on' Februarv 5. with the .thermometer at 48dcg below zero, reads:—Fine, with strong N.E. wind. Left camp at 7.10 a.m.; noonccl one hour, and camped about eight miles farther clown Jnst before noon T broke through the ire and had to make fire; found one foot slightly frozen. Killed another doo- to- ■ dnv * have only five clogs now. aiuf can only go n few miles a'day; everybody b eakmg out on.t** body, and ikin' pwi. v WS off. Light \