LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18458, 17 April 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Canada has prohibited the impor tation of potatoes to prevent cancer. A Washington cable states that Mr John McCormack, who was seriously ill, has greatly improved. The cargo’ steamer Comeric, direct from Changhai, has been quarantined at Sydney owing to a case of smallpox. The fifth competition for the A.C.O.M.A.’s cup will take place on the rifle range at Putiki to-day, commencing at 10.30.

At the Magistrate's Court at Timaru William Janies Hinds, aged 19 years, a postal official, pleaded guilty to four charges of theft of postal packages to the total value of £7 10/. He was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence, bail -being allowed.

A second-hand motor was imported into Sydney from New Zealand recently and its owner was faced with a bill of £6O for duty. The owner protested and under the law made application to have the ma chine burnt rather than pay the charges imposed. This was accordingly done.

In another column the Mayor invites the citizens to observe to-morrow as a half holiday from 1 p.m. on the occasion of the sculling championship. The Otago Harbour Board loan is being taken up by a large body of investors. The secretary stated that over £100,090 of the £133,600 required had already been subscribed.

A man who walked into the Wellington police station and asked to be locked up was being searched when £3 fell out of a stocking. At the Court next day it was explained that defendant had forgotten that he had it. He had put it there when he was on a spree at Christchurch weeks since, and he had not had his boots off since! “After every slump there comes a boom,” said Mr J. Graham, speaking at tho annual meeting of the Builders’ and Conti actors Association at Christ’church. The speaker was optimistic about the future of the trade in New' Zealand, stating that an indication was afforded in Auckland, where one drapery firm was spending hundreds of thousands of pounds in extensions. Christchurch, he said, was the manufacturing centr’d of the Dominion, and would, ever be so.

The Auckland Isthmus is still eruptive, according to some people. Professor A. P. W. Thomas states that he had lieen told recently that steam was seen issuing from the ground at a spot not far from this city. Soon after (the professor declared to a. recent W.E.Agathering) he observed a. similar phenomenon at Mount Eden, when the rocks from which the steam issued were distinctly heated. Investigation, however, revealed that the rocks, which had previously been covered with moisture, had become heated by the sun's rays—hence the “steam.”

In connection with the Federal Government's proposal for assistance to the meat industry, Mr Hughes states that a reduction in wages Is one, of the necessary conditions. It mufll be such that while not affecting the standard of living, it must equal the eost of the reduction in living. Regarding reduction of freights, he anticipated no difficulty from the shipping companies. The mater was not finally settled. Much depended on the Genoa Conference. If the economic conditions in Europe were stabilised he was confident that one of the results would be an appreciable improvement in the beef market. During the small hours of Thursday, Miss Foot's residence at Wairoa was burglariously entered and a quantity of jewels and clothing taken. On Thursday evening a note was found on the lawn of Sergeant Wade’s residence, stating that the stolen articles were concealed under a bridge, where four cross roads met, near the river. A search was made and the articles were found intact in the creek, with the exception of a small sum of money, which the writer of the getter stated had been kept to buy food, as he had haid nothing to eat all day. The police are making further inquiries.

Descriptive details of an invisible aeroplane invented by an Englishman, Mr Ernest Welsh, are published in the Yorkshire Post. To be made invisible at a low altitude an aero,.lane must be constructed of something with the reflecting and transparent properties of glass. This something the inventor is said to have discovered and produced in his own laboratory. The model has wings which look like thin sheets of celluloid, but what are actually sheets of steel as transparent as purest glass and as flexible as cardboard. The frame of the machine is built of sycamore, and that is covered with metallic sheets coated and converted in(o mirrors, so that when the plane is in the air at quite a low altitude the wings are entirely invisible, while the mirrors and reflectors encasing the body and the engine mingle wtih the lights and colours of the sky in such a way that visibility of the machine is entirely destroyed (says the Yorkshire Post). This new ni'tal can be produced in any thickness from that of a sheet of paper to the thickness of armour plate. It is not affected by acid or heat, water or petrol; it is a non-conductor, and absolutely permanent.

An interesting story was told to an Otago Daily Times reporter by Mr J. McAlevy, chief steward on the A. and A. Line steamer City of Hankow, which was in port recently. Mr McAlevy, who was taken prisoner by Captain von Muller, of the raider Emden, when he was serving in a similar capacity on the Clan Matheson in September, 1914, said that just previous to the time the Clan Matheson wag sunk the German cruiser had captured two Italian, one Greek, and six British steamers. The Italian steamers were released on account of Italy’s neutrality at that time, but the Greek steamer Pontoporrus was seized, as she was carrying contraband. Five of the British steamers were sunk by the Emden, but the Kabinga was saved, as the captain had his wife on board, and Captain Muller would not sink the ship, as there was a lady on tne vessel. He said to her: “This ship is my property, to do what I like with, and I now present her to you as a gift to be henceforth your own private property. As far as the former owners are concerned the ship is at the bottom of the sea.” He gave her a letter to that effect so that she could prove her right to claim the ship as her own property, and he also had notices posted in four different parts of the Kabinga: The sequel to the incident was when Captain Muller was a prisoner in England in 1918, when the wife of the Kabinga’s captain claimed the ship as her own private property presenied to her by the German captain. The Bucknell Line, which owned the vessel, contested the claim, and the case was taken to the Admiralty Court. Captain Muller was callK as a Witness, and, upon his substantiating the lady 's claim, the Kabinga was awarded to her. The former owners subsequently bought it from her for £50,000. It ii interesting to note that on his capture Captain von Muller had his sword returned to him by the British in recognition of his chivalry. He is believed to be the only German officer who was thus honoured in the late war.

A special tram service to upper Aramoho will bo run to-morrow in connection with the boat race.

Napier Competitions opened on Friday. A number of Wanganui artistes are competing. On Friday, Misses R. Turvey and A. Vinsen, won the vocal duet (own selection). Miss A. Vinsen came second in the vocal solo and accompaniment and in the sacred solo. Miss G. Gam man, of Marton, won the dramatic recital, out of 14 entries.

Tn the course of a talk on motoring matters to the members of the Canterbury Automobile Association, Mr I*. \\ . Johnston (president of the South island Motor Union) advocated the setting up of a special court to deal with motoring cases. He said that at present a great deal of time was wasted in tho courts, and a good deal of forensic effort was wasted. If a special motor court was set up, a good deal of congestion would be relieved.

When is a man old? The question was asked during argument before the Supreme Court in on Monday last. Mr A. W. Blair twitted his opponent, Mr E. G. Jelllcoe, with quoting the decisions of authorities that were a guide to earlier generations. "They bring in an Act of Parliament now, to declare a man old,” said Mr Justice Chapman. ‘Why, I had my first brief before the present oLrd Chancellor was born!” Recently, Mr R. H. Mason, a visitor to Sydney from Atlantic City, New Yonk, severely criticised Australian girls and compared them to their American cousins who, he considered, were more beautiful. His comments around a storm of indignation which 1™ gone to such lengths that a film concern has invited Sydney beauties to be photographed for reproduction on the screen, at the same time offering a prize for the prettiest girl. A mayor for 66 years and slill fulfillingli his duties. This is the record of M. Figarol, Mayor of Saint Frajin, in the Haute Garonne, who is 94 years of age. He Is undoubtedly the doyen of the Mayors of France, though he is hardly known outside tie little commune he administers. The Deputy of the Haute Garonne has asked M. Maunoury, Minister of the Interior, for the Cross of the Legion of Honour for the old mayor, wno has seen two regimes and two wars.

“Anybody who knows what ’Varsity life Is knows that students taking lectures have a great deal or preparation to do,” said Mr H. Y. Widdowson, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch, in connection with an application for exemption from drill. “The case under review is, however, very different from that of a student attending lectures at Canterbury College,” The application, that of a teacher being privately coached in the evening, was opposed by the Defence Department and refused.