HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17343, 16 July 1924, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING, GIRL- OF TWENTY AS PREACHER. Miss Emily G. Bishop, daughter of a Chatham joiner, has been ordained a lay preacher in the Primitive Methodist Church. Miss Bishop, who is twenty years cf age, is of a charming personality and a fluent speaker. “I have learned to love the sanctuary as ± love my home." Miss Bishop to!d_ an interviewer. “One day,” she added, “our minister asked me to prepare myself for ordination. I was never more surprised in my life. I tried to dis* miss the idea, but the call was insistent, and gradually I arrived at the decision that I was meant to preach the Gospel.”

MARAUDING DOG RUN TO EARTH.

A fine Labrador retriever, which has accounted for over a score of dead and maimed ewes and lambs in fields of Ribble Valley, was shot by farmers at Dickenly recently, says a London paper. The dog's exploits have aroused the wrath of the whole countryside, and farmers and villagers, armed with guns and ether weapons, thoroughly combed the district. After two “drives" the deg was run to earth in a woodVounded by a farmer, who had lost seven sheep during the week-end, the dog was finally shot dead by one of hi* companions. jackdaw gives fire alarm. A jackdaw’s alarm prevented what might hare been a disastrous fire at Cheadle, Staffordshire. In the early hours of the morning Mr Sleigh was awakened by the loud screaming of hi% pet jackdaw. Going downstairs, he found the house of his neighbour. Mr Ernest Moss, on fire. Arousing Mr Moss, the two held the fire in check with buckets of w*ater until the brigade arrived and extinguished it. The origin of the fire is a mystery, but it is certain that the jackdaw saved the property and probably lives also. TO “FORGET THE SEA. When Earl Beatty eventually retires from the Admiralty, which may be comparatively soon, he intends to pas* practically the whole of his time in the country and “to forget all about the sea.” But with this he will probably combine a good deal of polo and hunting ; and for a sailor he sits a horso extraordinarily well. As soon as he is free he would like to pay a visit to tho States, where, of course, the British “ Lion ” would certainly be tremendously “lionised.” His successor atthe Admiralty is to be Sir Charles Mad-SELF-SURGERY BY BIRDS. Remarkable instances of what is apparently self-surgery by woodcock ar« related in the Echo de Paris by readers in different parts of France. Several sportsmen claim to have shot woodcock on whose feet were “plasters” of mud fixed with feathers pulled from the bird’s breast. These “plasters” covered wounds made by small shot.A French doctor even alleges that he has killed a bird whose broken leg had been supported against its body by a sort of adhesive sling made of feather* and a liquid. RECTOR’S SUNDAY TENNIS. Sunday tennis is encouraged by Canon T. H. Dodson, rector of Wootton, Northamptonshire. At the meeting of the local tennis club, which he attended, it was decided to open the tennis courts on Sunday, except during the hours of divine service in the morning and the evening. The rector said that there was nowadays no need to go to the extremes of Puritanism or frivolity. It was necessary to keep the body healthy, the mind clean, and the soul pure, and he thought that these should benefit on Sundays as on other day.,. CHILDREN TO COME FIRST A new block of forty fiats, capable of accommodating 300 people, was opened at Pimlico Road, Westminster, byMr Wheatley, Minister of Health, in May. The dwellings have been erected by the City of Westminster at a cost of approximately £26,000, the site being leased for a period of ninety-nine years by the Duke of Westminster at a nominal rent of £1 a year. Mr Wheatley said that the scheme had been made possible by the generosity of the duke, and he commended, his example to other great land-owners. According to the expressed wish of the donor, the persons who were accepted as tenants should be people with children. A NAVAL YARN. A captain of the United States Navy by name of Home went to call at a British warship commanded Dy Captain C-ave-Browne-Cave. The visitor, on going aboard, asked to see “Captain Gave.” The officer of the watch, replying with deliberate emphasis on the hyphens, replied: “No, sir, Captain Cave-Browne-Cave is ashore.” Tin* American officer was prompt with the re joiner was prompt with his rejoinder. “Oh ! That’s all right,” he is credited with saying. “Just tell'him that Captain* Home Sweet Home called to sen him.” There is a possibility, of course, that the story is attributable to the ingenuity of a fabricator; but whatever its origin it deserves to be remembered because of the swiftness of the retort-. THE DIAPASON. The most important stop on an organ is generally known as diapason, and there are a number of other musical terms which are very siafiiar, like dia tonic, diaphony, diapente, and, ies>s frequently used, diastaltie. These are some of the oldest musical terms iu existence, and come from the old Greek, musicians, “dia” being Greek tor “through. ’ They first came into use when the lyre of four strings was th* principal instrument, and the distance between the first and fourth string was called “diatessaron,” that is “through four.” This was continued when more strings were added, and new name* came in, including “dia pente,” that is, “through five,” ar.d “diapason,” which means “through all.’ At first this name meant merely the octave, which has all the notes in it; but later it came to> mean the whole scale of an instrument; and to-day the diajiason stops of an organ, of which iher* are several of varying strength and character, sound evert* note of the keyboard, while some of what are commonly known as “fancy stops” sound only half or less of such notes.