NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 365, 5 March 1932, Page 22 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

BURIED IN BRIDAL GOWN. A girl who died on her wedding day was buried in her bridal gown, while her bouquet and the bridesmaid’s p«iey were placed on her coffin. The girl, Miss Laura Perkins, of Peopleton, Worcestershire, who was to have married Mr. F. Birchley, was taken ill on her wedding eve, and died the next day. The clergyman who was to have married the couple conducted the funeral service. MURDERS OF TAXI-DRIVERS. An unusual sight was offered at Helsingfors with about 600 taxicabs forming, the funeral procession for a young taxidriver named Kullberg, who was murdered and robbed on a lonely road by a passenger. Helsingfors had to go virtually without taxi service at its busiest time as a result. The procession also served to remind the public of the recent epidemic of murderous attacks on taxidrivers by robbers. Some of the assailants are apparently homicidal maniacs, as one who was arrested said he intended to kill all the taxi-drivers* in the city. BOTTLE FLOATS 1500 MILES. A message written on the French liner France and thrown overboard in a bottle in mid-Atlantic in September last, was picked up on the coast of North Devon at Westward Ho. It was sent to the “Daily Mail” by the vicar of Appledore (the Rev. H. C. A. S. Muller), and states that ithe bottle was thrown over by Samuel and Jerome Sverdlik, of 2039, Sixty-third Street, Brooklyn, New York. “I predict,” says the writer, “that when it will be found Jerome will be a well-to-do lawyer, and Sam a physician.” But he did not think it would be found so soon, for the information was added that Jerome was 8 years old, and Samuel 14.

EGGS BARGAIN SALE IN STREET. Thousands of eggs were smashed and scattered about the pavement and roadway when a heavy lorry, owned by a firm of Bermondsey- haulage contractors, and laden with several dozen crates of Swedish eggs, overturned after colliding with an-

other lorry at Central Park Road, East Ham, recently. The news quickly spread, and large crowds gathered and made good use of the opportunity of securing dozens of cracked eggs at bargain prices, for the salvage workers, realising the hopelessness of their task, decided to get lid of the cracked eggs on the spot, and the scene for two or three hours represented a miniature egg market. The driver of the lorry was slightly injured, but was allowed to go home after hospital treatment. EXPENDITURE ON HOUSING. A total of 36,000,000,000 dollars (£7,200,000 at par) was expended throughout the world by Governments and private interests in the construction of homes and living quarters from 1920 to 1930, according to estimates of Charles F. Stephenson, of the Foreign Construction Division of the American Department of Commerce. He based the figures on reports sent from abroad and statistics of construction in the United States. “Although a large part of these expenditures cover w*hat might be called extraordinary housing construction, to distinguish it from normal housing requirements,” lie said, “there is still urgent need for more hornet* to house satisfactorily the millions of people now residing in unsuitable quartern.” SWEEP ON CHURCH SERMON. The text of a sermon has been the subject of a sweepstake at South Minims, Barnet. Among quaint customs regularly observed at the parish chinch there at the festive season is the distribution of loaves of bread among the congregation without distinction between rich and poor, and the preaching of what is known as the “Bread Sermon.” This custom began in 1698, in accordance with the terms of a legacy left by Richard Bradshawc, a well-to-do parishioner, who not only provided money for the bread, but stipulated that the incumbent should receive one guinea for preaching the “Bread Sermon.” The present vicar, the Rev. Allen Hay, has preached over 30 such sermons and has used the same text more than once. This year the interest of the parishioners was such as to lead to the promotion of the sweepstake on the text that would be chosen. The prize was won bv a woman member of the congregation, who returned it for the benefit of parochial funds. ALSATIANS FOR THE BLIND. Details of a national scheme to equip blind men with specially-trained Alsatian dogs were given at the Bolton Alsatian Show recently by Mrs. Bond, of Skipton, a member of the committee promoting the scheme in affiliation with the National Institute for the Blind. Describing how the dogs worked, she said that the usual lead was replaced by a speciallyconstructed harness with a stiffened handle for the blind person. “The dogs arc trained to accompany a man in busy streets,” she said, “and at a crossing to sit down until the man feela the kerb with his stick, and until the traffic is, clear. Then, quickly and directly, they cross to sit down at the other kerbstone until their owner has successfully negotiated it. There are four dogs already at work in England. _ The dogs have to be thoroughly trained, and there is training also for the blind man in the use and .management of the dog. It has to be a suitable type of dog.” FOX IN A CHIMNEY. A sweep was called in to dislodge a fox that had “gone to earth” in the chimney of a house at Llanthon.v Lock, Hempstead, near Gloucester. The fox was being hunted by the Berkeley hounds following their meet at Hardwicke. When it reached the outskirts of Gloucester it swam the Severn and entered the house of Mr. N. L. Bradley at Llanthony Lock. Dashing into the front room, it immediately made for the fireplace and disappeared up the chimney. The hounds, which had followed it across the river, also entered the house. Paper was Jit in the fireplace in ail attempt to dislodge the fox, but with no success. Eventually Mr. Bradncy climbed to the rhof, and his efforts, combined with those of the sweep from below, resulted in the fox being forced out on to the roof, from where it scrambled again to the ground, and was quickly killed.

PILOTS TO NELSON. Brigadier W. I. Joy, of the Salvation Army, who arrived at Plymouth recently from Central America, said that the biggest surprise he had abroad was to find that the Mosquito Indian in Nicaragua could speak English. This knowledge, he explained, had been handed down from generation to generation from the time when Mosquito Indians acted as pilots to Nelson and other British sea captains who were exploring the creeks and water* of Nicaragua. Brigadier Joy is retiring after 21 years’ service abroad. MEXICAN TRAIN ROBBED. Cash and valuables amounting to 7500 dollars were stolen by bandits from tiio baggage car of a passenger train within two miles of Mexico City. Two men. unmasked and with revolvers drawn, surprised the baggage master of the train coming from Aguas Caiientes. They bound and gagged him and with his keys opened and looted a safe in the car. Throwing their booty ahead of them, they leaped as the train was moving at a fast rats and were seen to roll into a ditch. A police search for the pair was unsuccessful and they left no clues. DOG DOPED BY BURGLARS. Burglars who broke into a house in Shirley Road, Hove, got away with jewellery to the value of about £IOO, after apparently doping a watch dog which had been left in ithe house. The dog, which was an excellent house dog, had been left running about the house when the occupiers went out, but when they returned about midnight they noticed a strong smell of chloroform, and the animal appeared to have been doped. None of the rooms on the ground floor was disturbed, but the rooms upstairs had been ransacked. PLUS FOURS FOR BRITISH SOLDIERS. A proposal to dress the British soldier in plus four golfing knickers and opennecked tunics is advanced by LieutenantGeneral Sir Harold Fawcus, director general of the Royal Army Medical Service, himself a prominent golfer. Trousers in the nature of golf knickers and gaiters either of canvas or soft leather, Sir Harold says, are more hygienic, while the existing tight-fitting collar predisposes to boils. Sir Harold holds that the soldier should wear a drab angora tennis shirt with necktie, and his proposal rather suggests a baggy uniform like that worn by French Moroccan troops. SACRIFICE OF SISTER LOVE. The 17-year-old Manchester girl who offered to marry anyone who would provide £2OO to save the life of her ailing young sister, will not be allowed by her parents to go to Bolton to meet a widower who corresponded with her as a result of her offer. The girl is the stepdaughter of a gardener, and wrote to the Mayor of Bolton telling of their straitened circumstances and the illness of her nine-year-old sister. Her mother “We knew nothing of it until the matter was published. It is a noble and impulsive offer, actuated by her affection for her little sister, but we shall certainly not allow her to make such a sacrifice. All that she wrote about her sister’s illness was true. She has been ill for nine yean, under doctors all her life, and several times in hospital. Two doctors are attending her now.” A GHOST MYSTERY. Sir William Goodenough, president of the Royal Geographical Society, told what lie described as one of the best ghost stories lie knew when delivering a lecture to young people at the society’s hall at Kensington. Showing a lantern slide of a group of houses in Malta, he said it concerned one of those. A young man was walking along the street in Malta when lie saw a man attack two ladies. The youth went to tlieir assistance, knocked the man down, and escorted the two ladies home to the house shown on the slide. He accepted an invitation to stay to supper as he Jit a cigarette. Next day he missed his cigarette case, thought he had left it behind the previous night, and returned to the house. He found the house shut up, and was told it had not been occupied for years. He entered and found the rooms heavy with dust—but on the table was his cigarette case. CAR SKID KILLS FATHER AND BABY TWINS. Twin girls, aged five months, were killed instantly, and their father fatally ■injured when a motor car skidded into a perambulator on the London-Brighton road at Lower Kingswood, near Reigate. This was the tragic end to a father's stroll before luncheon with his first born. He was Mr. Albert Kinge, aged 30, of Green Lane, Kingswood, a painter and , plumber. Mr. Kinge was wheeling the perambulator along the path beside the l oad overlooking a 10ft dip to a field, when a motor car containing a woman and two young men going towards Brighton skidded into the perambulator, hurling it with the two babies, over a hedge into the field below. The father was knocked down and died shortly after admission to Redhill Hospital. The motor car also struck a tree, and was badly damaged, but the three people in it escaped injury. The task of breaking the news to Mrs. Kinge was undertaken by the doctor who was called to the accident.