HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17008, 5 April 1923, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. GLIDING SCHOOL. A gliding school, the first of ite kind in England, is to be opened shortly at Whiteley Bank, Isle of Wight. Captain I . Warren Merriam, who during the war instructed thousands of R.N.A.S. pilots both at Heudon. and C'ningford, is to be the chief instructor. The first machine to be used is of the monoplane type, and was built for the Royal Aero Club Gliding Competition held at Itford Hill last October. lt has since been modified to carry two persons. It will have dual control, so that the pupil, by resting his hands and feet lightly on the controls in front of his seat, may “feel” everything that is done by the instructor until he has gained sufficient knowledge and confidence to fly the machine himself. He may then pass on to a singleseated glider arid finish off his training on his own Captain Merriam has already had many inquiries from prospective pupils, one of whom is an Edinburgh woman, who is desirous of becoming the first lady glider pilot. DIVORCES ON CREDIT. Since Paris has become known as “ the Reno of Europe ” legal talent has turned its attention to obtaining divorce business. The climax was reached recently when a prominent newspaper carried the following advertisement : "Divorces on credit. Judgment guaranteed within three months. Pay when secured.” During the sensational trial at Nancy some weeks ago of an influential man charged with the attempted murder of his wife, who was a niece of Maurice Barres. a member of the Academy, it was brought out in Court that rgencies undertook not only to secure evidence against men and women desirous of breaking their marital ties, but also contracted to manufacture ” evidence. SEEING OYER THE TELEPHONE. To be able vo see as well as to hear on the telephone is the claim made by a French scientist, M. Edouard Belin, for his invention of telephotography. M. Belin declared I at a lecture before the French Eleo ; tricians’ Society that Tie is on the eve of this important discovery. lt been found that, by the combined use of selenium and an electric euirent, the image of an operator in a specially ; prepared telephone box is faithfully re- ! produced at the other end of the wire. Main - demonstrations were carried out by M. Belin during his lecture, and the audience were able to see the lecturer’s own photograph, by the aid of his invention. on a screen at the or her end oi the lecture hall.

FLESH AND BLOOD GODS. A census of the living divinities which are to he found in the world has recently been taken. It shows that there are about twenty of them, beginning with Tseng Tinsze, chief of the Taotist religion, whose family has professed to possess divine power for more, than a thousand years. In Mongolia eight gods of flesh and blood, called Gyguens, are revered, and two : goddesses. called Bariclious, whose birth is always marked by the appearance of a rainbow. Needless to recall the existence of the Dalai-Lama. But few know that ir, the mountainous masses which separate Cambodia J from A imam live two gods the King of Fire and the King of Water—to whom the sovereign of Cambodia sends Matabeles honour the negro god Mlimo, who lives in a avern, and their neighbours, the inhabitants of Msslmnaland, honour an old man who calls himself the God Lion. Some five or six more divinities are cited. Would it he a good idea (says an English writer) to assemble all these gods in NASA L i DENTI FT CATION. Not everyone knows that you can trace cows by nose prints!. It has been | found that the wrinkles of the tip of ; the nose are neves- duplicated in differI ent animals. Nose-prints are made by I applying a thick ink to the soft skin | I between the no>tn!s. and then taking | absorbent paper. They supply an inj able cattle when, as sometimes happens. the. become mixed up after a . show. No one could safely steal a pedigree animal whose raise- print had he impossible lor the thief to reniovo the means of identification. BOY BISHOPS. Years ago it was :ustomar> at many of the great churches to appoint one of the choir-boys a " bishop tor the waited on by dean, canons, and clergy alike, and during his few days of authority liis word was law. At St Paul’s Cathedral he had Die right to claim supper from the Dean ami he attended with a retinue d dorks, vergers, dined in state and afterwards went i butions'Vrmu i.e 'e'-,!d°wav-|l n\ . Bcn.l luge record* in 13!W ! ban £77. As money wag oT iar greater value in tlm,o «l:i> - than «l G »««’, j this represented something like * LoW HIS VENGEANCE. A man walked into a tobacconist's • shop and asked the man behind the counter: “Can von recommend a good cigar?” “Of course J can. sir!” rcrecoin mend \hvsel ’ ’ WH ITTIXOTOVS CHI HUH Where Dick Whittington cnee erected a church, there now stands a creation oi Wren s- St Michael's, Paternoster Royal. Hero, the Selborne S*>cietv were told the history of the spot by the rector. ( anon G. R- Bullock- ■ Webster. Sir Richard Whittington did not build the original church, said the rector.' Am uahv. there has been a church on the site of St Michael » since, at any rate, the days of the Saxon«. Of Whittington's church there i< now no trace, for it was burnt to the ground in the Great Five of 1666. : With his wife. Dame Alice. Sir Rhhard Yvas bnrhd on the south side of the , altar. That old rascal Henry VTIL swept nwav the college founded by Whittington (from which College Hill derived its name) and .Sir'Christopher W ren built the nresent church. Wren was not an architect, but a professor of astronomy at Oxiord. and n man of extraordinary versatility-. At the same lime that be built St Paul’s k« j worked on thirty-five other City churches. Thev arc not beautiful places,” 1 declared the Canon, looking around St Michati s. “ but merely preaching solitude, though Wren’s churches are priceless, and the scheme to destroy them is deplorable.”