NEWS NOTES FROM LONDON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17882, 25 June 1926, Page 4

NEWS NOTES FROM LONDON.

EVERYDAY TOPICS FROM A NEW ANGLE. (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON. May 29. | As a “ calling ” —if calling it can be ! styled—the church is not as attractive to young men as it used to be. The difficulty experienced by many clergy of “ making ends meet ” with the small , stipends they receive has prompted • many young men to elect to enter upon \ a professional or a commercial life. , with its better, more remunerative pro- j spects. Ilence there is to-day a dearth j of clergy. In the early years of this | century about 21.000 clergy of all ranks j were at work in England. The number 'was generally regarded as insufficient. Tf the average length of the life work of a clergyman be taken to be thirtyfive year*. 650 clergymen ought to have been ordained every year to replace those retiring and to provide for the increase in population. But the present staff is only slightly over 16.000 clergv. and the total is still diminishing. The average of ordinations in the last ten years was 302. though in 1923 •atld. 1924 the figure rose to over 4000. Economic reasons are principally the cause of the decline. Not only do young men object to enter the church without the surety that they will receive a " living wage ” — and there are many clergy whose stipends are not that— but fathers cannot to-day afford to send their sons into it. What are needed are better stipends and pensions for superannuated clergy. There

would then not be the shortage of clerics existing to day. Popular Ballads. A big hospital ballot has revealed the fact that the most popular of ballads is “ Home. Sweet Home,” which received more than twice as many votes as those accorded for any other ballad. The order of popularity of the fourteen ballads selected proved, upon analysis, to be as follows: — 1. “ Home, Sweet Home.” j 2. “ Annie Laurie.” I 3. “ Auld Lang Syne.” 4. “ Ivillarney.” 5. “ Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond.” 6. “Alice, Where Art Thou?” j 7. “ The Last Rose of Summer.” 8. “ Sally in our Alley.” . 9. “ Kathleen Mavourneen.” j 10. “ Hearts of Oak.” ! 11. “ The Minstrel Boy.” I 12. “ Men of Ilarlech.” 13. “ Come into the Garden, Maud.” i 14. “ Tom Bowling.” All night Telegrams. Then* suddenly arise circumstances in which many persons desire to despatch a telegram during the night. Telephone subscribers do not experience any difficulty, providing the person to whom they wish to send a message is also on the telephone. But in the great, majority of private houses the telephone is not installed, though no doubt the day will come when telephones will be as popular in this ‘country as in America. Mr G. Vyle, presid-ent-elect of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, suggests that public telephone call boxes should be equipped with shilling and sixpenny automatic slots to be used by senders of telegrams, who would be told the amount to pay after they had telephoned the message to the post office. If the money was not paid, of course.

the telegram would not be sent. The problem of delivery is another point. It would be little use. in most cases, sending an urgent wire which might be held up a dozen hours or more before being delivered. Regarding this point, it is suggested that urgent telegraphic messages should be telephoned to the police station nearest the home of the addressee, and that it should be delivered by the police. "C.0.D.” Abuse. Although it has been in operation a few weeks only, the “C.0.D.” (cash on delivery) system has already been subjected to abuse. People have received articles—in many cases boxes of cigarettes—which they have not ordered and on which they have had to pay the postal charges. The tfick is that if the persons receiving the cigarette's break the seals on looking t.o see where the parcel comes from they have to pay for the cigarettes. “The best advice one can give the public” (says a Post Office official) “is not. to accept from postmen parcels which do not bear the name of the sender. The labels supplied for C O.D. parcels are provided with spaces for the senders' name, and the amount of the trade charges No one need accept parcels unless he or she is satisfied with the iiifortnation contained on the label.” Television Coming. Television —seeing by wifeless—is coming, and coming with a rapidity unsuspected by most people. The Postmaster-General .has received an- application to consider the granting ol' licenses for broadcasting vision, and in America one of the most famous manufacturing firms, the Westinghotise Electric, is completing a method of broadcasting pictures. Many inventors have been making steady progress elsewhere. It is, in fact, already possible to see a simple object by wireless. The face of a person looking into an instrument can bo seen on the screen of another

instrument miles away. Shortly, we may take it, it will be possible to see the person to whom one talks, although leagues separate the two. . Much of the recent progress is attributable to improvements effected in the photo-elec-tric cells which are used to convert the light reflected from an object into electric current. The electric currents formed by the. cell are transmitted by wireless on a carrier wave, and are received and re-converted into light by the viewing instrument. There has been invented a new cell which combines the powers of an ordinary photoelectric cell with the amplifying powers of the wireless valve. It is this new-light-sensitive element on which such hopes of further progress are based. In the meantime, the facsimile of a cheque for 1000 dollars has been transmitted bywireless from London to New York. The operation occupied 25 minutes. The transmission of hand-written documents will greatly help in the speedy transactipn of business requiring signatures between England and America. It is realised, however, that legal decisions may be necessary before a radio signature is considered valid. Photoradiography can be of great service, in tracking criminals A suspect arrested in New York will have the shock of his life when a photograph of his fin-ger-prints is sent from London to America in less than an hour. A Welsh Island “Monarch.” After reigning for oyer twenty years, Love Pritchard, “King” of Bardsey Island, off the coast -of Carnarvonshire,.. has passed away at the age of 84.Bardsey—which was vacated by the “King”"and many of his “subjects" last y ear W as at the best a very limited monarchy, with no revenue and very few requisites. There is a crown, but it is only of silver gilt. _At least one King of Bardsey died in the workhouse. Love Pritchard frankly confessed that he was “fed up” with the 1 job when he left the island to end his

days on the mainland. His example was follov-cd by others, but there is no chance of the’ island being deserted, for the reason that the grazing is excellent and the sheep reared realised high prices. About 40 years ago 130 people lived on the island. To-day are probably no more than 40. When Lord Newborough owned the island, which is about two miles long and a mile broad, he appointed one of the tenants as head man, to maintain order, and in jest bestowed upon him the title of King, and presented to him a crown of brass.