HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17890, 5 July 1926, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. Fog Freaks. Strange things happen to ships in fog. and they sometimes find themselves in queer places. Around Cape Terawhiti. in Cook's Strait, N.Z., where the currents are strong and erratic, a rabbiter saw a 10.000-tonner creeping slowly towards a stony beach, on which he was standing. He shouted, but she came on, blowing her whistle. So the man fired his gun, and that stopped her. She backed out into water again. Stirring Up the Gcok. The oddest fog freak was that which happened to the old Stormbird, which for a long time was accounted the oldest steamer afloat, till she was lost on the Wangdnui bar. Creeping down past Terawhiti, the Stormbird was caught in a current, and taken into Te Kamru Bay, where there is a sheep station. The station cook, hearing voices, gut a lantern, and went on to the verandah. “Boat ahoy” the Stormbird s mate hailed. “Come alongside!" The cook replied, that he was in a house, not a boat. When daylight broke they saiv that their craft had passed between two rocky points only 100 feet apart, and grounded' on the beach almost against the verandah. She back-ed-out. at high water without a scratch. Picked the Wrong ’Un. The life of a horse trainer is crowded with -a good deal of excitement and many amusing incidents. Recently a trainer of Randwick was summoned from the tea table to answer a knock at the door. On opening the door he was asked to do a favour for a jockey who was supposed to be in the hands of the police. The trainer was nearly parting with a £1 note, when he decided to visit the police station. Fie was more than surprised to find that the jockey was very much at home with his wife and family, preparing to go to the theatre. 1300 Mile Air Mail.

The City of Mexico -will be linked irx an air mail circuit with San Antonio, Chicago and New York, according to plans now being made by the Callcs Government, details of which have just been imparted to officials of the National Air Transport Company in San Antonio. This will give San Antonio an overnight service to Chicago, they 6aid. The route from the City of Mexico to San Antonio already has been charted and trial trips to the border have been made. The 1300mile jump would be made in approximately thirteen hours, according to existing schedules. Soviet Husbands Beaten.

A strike of wives in the village of Vertevevka, Province of Briansk, has resulted in a complete victory, the husbands signing a pledge to accord them better treatment. Assembling with a militant peasant housewife, Axenya Karaseva, as their leader, the women marched to the village school where they drew up their ultimatum. Then Madame Karaseva made a speech in which she declared: —“ V a married women live under harsh conditions. The men often beat us, treating us like cattle. We never hear a kind word. We refuse to suffer these offences longer. Therefore we serva our husbands with an ultimatum that we re ready o be helpmates and. companions, but we demand that our husbands should not be So free with their hands or abuse us with bad words. We shall not return t*o them until they all sign this!” Realising that the entire village was against them, the husbands agreed to mend their ways, walked meekly to the platform and with trembling hands signed the document: « « « Efficient Telegraphy,

The town of Geneva is quite nattu# ally very proud of the way in which it has extended its hospitality, both to the League and to the visitors to the League. In one respect its difficulties have not been small. The number of telegrams dispatched from Geneva hag grown enormously since the creation of the League, and the telegraphic facilities have had to be adapted accordingly. During the December meeting of the Council of the League, the average number of words telegraphed every day was 42.000, and during Assembly meetings it is not unusual for 75.000 words to be telegraphed. The importance of an efficient telegraphic service between Geneva and the rest; of the world can be judged from the fact that war might have broken out between Greece and Bulgaria during the recent frontier incident had the telegram of the Bulgarian Government reached the League Secretariat two hours later than it did. The canton of Geneva has also made a request to the Swiss Federal Railways that a third direct train between Paris and Geneva should be included in the time-tables, and that there should bo direct communication between Gene "url the roy^e,