HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17572, 24 June 1925, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. NEW PILLION LAW. When the rear identification mark of a motor-cycle is obscured by a pillion rider's coat, the pillion rider only is no v to be summoned in England. This announcement was made by Police Inspector Munday at Ilighgate Police Court. lie said that formerly the mo-tor-cyclist was summoned as well, but the Commissioner of Police, thinking this was a little hard on the motorcyclist. had issued the new order. A pillion rider before the Court was summoned for aiding and abetting, and was fined 10s. I E TGI I TEEN-YEAR-OLD HAMLET. To play Hamlet in a real theatre, on a real stage, at the age of eighteen is an experience that falls to few men. Mr Lawrence Green, who was at Charterhouse, London, till last December is to enjoy this triumph at the Apollo Theatre, in the performance given by Mr Jayk Ilulbert’s Rehearsal Club. lie will act in the player and duel scenes, lie has had no real acting experience, though he played Shylock when he was fourteen and Bottom when he was twelve, in amateur theatricals. “ I did not desire to enter a business career,’* he told a reporter recently. “so went to Mr Jack Ilulbert. After hearing me %reaxl a little sketch. Mr Ilulbert offered me a part in the second edition of ‘ By the Way,’ which is now in preparation.” JUDGE RETURNS GIFTS FOR A WOMAN. A woman’s pathetic story of the illness of six of her children and of her workless husband had a surprise sequel at Southwark County Court, London. The woman. Mrs Dukes, of Stephens Place, Lambeth, had previously told her story to Judge Sir Thomas Granger as an excuse for falling into arrears ot runt. Sir Thomas said fellow workmen of the husband had called upon him and denounced the husband, who had been described as a “ fraud at a meeting of protest between employers and their workmen. The judge added that he had returned gifts sent by the public fi,r the woman, lie made an order for possession of her house within four weeks, to be suspended so long as rent was paidWOMEN TEACHERS OF BUYS. Should women teach boys in school? Mr W. H. Young, president of the National Association of Schoolmasters, England, holds that, they should not that boys need to be taught by men. " If,’* says he, “ boys are to be trained as rr.cn, to act as men, and to think ns men, they must have manly instincts. and these instincts cannot be implanted in them by women teachers.’' Yet how many men have made good " in life, although they have been taught mainly, if not wholly, by females. In the old days even in Victorian days -there wero not often available for a large number of boys any teachers save female. As recently as 1880 02 per cent of the teachers were women. To-day the percentage is still greater—7(3 per cent. Although, to cite figures furnished by Air Young, there arc over 8200 women teachers of boys in school, there are only two men teachers of girls. The fart is, according to Air Noting, that there is a shortage of 11,000 men teachers. BIG WATERSPOUT. Thrilling experiences arc related by sailors who encountered a waterspout in the English Channel during a sudden thunderstorm on a night in May. The column, one of the largest seen in those waters, narrowly missed several steamers, and passed so close to one of the Goodwin lightships that the crew became seriously alarmed. When last seen the spout was travelling swiftly towards the Belgian coast. *' We heard a loud, hissing noise,” said one ship's captain. “and then saw an immense column of water rise out of the sea. The spectacle, against the background of a brilliant rainbow illuminating the threatening clouds, was thrilling in \he extreme.” A few years ago three waterspouts were seen in the Channel on one day. There has been keen discussion recently in scientific circles as to the cause and formation of waterspouts. "SPORTSMEN ALL!” The Bishop of Peterborough. England, has replied to an open letter { addressed to him by Air A. J. Darnell, president of the Southern League. Mr Darnell had protested against the Bishop's statement that footballers were "bought and sold like slaves.” The Bishop has now written:—“l am verv glad you have written so frankly after my address. I felt sorry I hacl not spoken more guardedly. The last thing I wish to do is to wrong any man, and I am sure thatjmany professional Soccer players arc good sportsmen and men of high character. If I have said anything to hurt such men I am sorry. That which was in my mind was the system and not the man. I know that professional Soccer draws huge crowds, but I think that it has brought dangers to the best sportmanship and has tended to weaken club football. I regard your writing as the act of a good sportsman who wished to defend the men whom he felt to be wronged.” Mr Darnell has replied, thanking the Bishop for his s p or t sman sh i p. APPALLING DEPTHS OF SPACEIf a. telegraphic message could fie sent to the moon, it would reach its destination in a little more than a. second. It would take something like eight minutes to arrive at the sun ; but how long,, do yon think, would it take to reach the .'tar called Alpha Contauri, travelling thither ISO.OOO miles a second? Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, would not be long enough ; it would take no loss than three years, travelling all the time at that tremendous pace, before it would reach its destination. If that is the case with respect to the nearest of .'tar. what must be said of those further off? There are stars so remote that if the news of the victory ol Wellington at Waterloo had been flashed to them in 1815 on the celestial telegraph system, it would not have reached them yet, even if the message had sped at the rate of A 80.000 miles a second, and had been travelling all the time; that if, w ben Wi - liam the Conqueror landed in .England in 106(3, t lie news of his conquest had been dispatched to them, and if tho signal flew ever the wire at a pn« which would carry it seven times round the cartli in a second of time, tho news would not have reached them yet. Even if the glad tidings of that first Christmas in Bthlehem. nineteen centuries age. had thus been disseminated through tbo universe, there ar« yet stars of which astronomers could tell us. plunged jnto space in depth* so appalling, that even the 1921 year* which have elapsed since would net have been long enough for the new* to reach them, though it travelled 180.U00 miles every second !