BREEZES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 18 September 1934, Page 4

BREEZES

A Long Wait.

Waiter: Are you the fried flounder, sir?

Customer: No, but I’m a poor _sole with an empty plaice, and I’m waiting for something to fillet. * * * * Forests of the- Sea.

Trunks of seaweed eighteen inches in circumference, with branches and leaves like a tree, were discovered recently by a botanist in the Antarctic Ocean. It remains to be proved whether they can be used as firewood.

Unmapped jungles of vegetation lie beneath the waves. Dr. William Bebe, the marine explorer, glimpsed a real forest of seaweed when investigating in his bathysphere, the continental shelf off the coast of Chile. Some of the stems towered to a height of 600 feet, three times higher than the world’s tallest tree. Inexperienced voyagers often mistake the enormous drifting masses of seaweed that appear at their thickest every summer in the Sargasso Sea for islands. * * * * Australian Government Farm. . For five shillings a week rent and a lump payment of about £l3O for improvements, the Australian Government has leased its “costliest failure,” otherwise its £30,000 demonstration farm at Batchelor. The sale is for 2553 acres of land at the farm, all the buildings, and the lease hold of 48 square miles of territory adjoining. The farm was established in 1912, and was a complete failure in most respects. Costly pedigreed stock were killed by pests or bogged in the wet season; the sheep were killed by grass seeds, and dairy cattle died of heat or were eaten by crocodiles. White ants ate the stables, machinery sheds and barns, and the soil proved a disappointment. Pineapples, corn and tropical fruits flourished with irrigation. The purchaser, J. Gaden, will use the farm to pasture his horses in the wet season. *»* . * Charter for Mothers. A protest against the dismissal or compulsory resignation of married women workers was made by the International Council of Women at their meeting in Paris. Women in all countries are asked to oppose any tendency, whether by Govornments or employers, to restrict the labour market to unmarried women. A “Mother’s Charter” has been drawn up by the Council, which demands: —• Pre-natal examination and treatment; . , , Facilities for women m employment to see their babies; A definite share of the husband s income, or, in the case of unmarried, divorced or abandoned mothers, a definite allowance from the father of the child; and „,, . ~ Equal rights with the father in the custody and education of the children. * * * f Eccentric Heiress.

Two London men, ex-Chief Inspector Janies Stockley, formerly of Scotland Yard and Mr Leonard C. Kay, a chauffeur/ of Gloucester Street, S.W., are to receive £SOOO a year under the £2,0U0,000 will of. Mrs Florence Adelaide Pratt, the eccentric heiress to part of the Singe millions. They will receive the money following the decision of the New York Surrogate Court, to uphold Mrs Pratt s last will, which was contested by her sister, Mrs Margaret Alexander, of Grosvenor Square, W., on the ground that she was of unsound mind. Mr Stockley, whose first job as a young detective was to take part in the hunt for “Jack the Ripper,” the Whitechapel murderer, was Mrs Pratt s personal bodyguard. Mr Kay acted as her chauffeur-secretary. Extraordinary evidence about Mrs Pratt’s eccentric habits was given dui'ing the hearing of the case. Witnesses either in person or by affidavit alleged that Mrs Pratt, who died in London in-1932, aged 76: Hired assassins to attack Major Stanlev Williams, her former secretary; _ Made six wills in eight years, leaving £1,000,000 to Mr Stockley and £750,000 to a Paris dressmaker; and Placed her sick husband in a bath ot nearly boiling water. It was also stated that once, in a Paris hotel, Mrs Pratt threatened to take off all her clothes when the head waiter protested because she was not in evening dress. * * * *

Colourful Chinese Wedding. London’s most colourful Aveddmg ot the season took place recently, when Di. Sze Ming-Sze, son of MrSze Soa-Ne, a former Chinese Minister in London, and noAV Minister in Washington, Avas married to Miss Li Yao-Ching, daughter of Mr Li Ming, chairman of the Bank ot China.

The pretty Chinese Avomen wore their native dresses in all shades of green, orange, red and gold, decorated Avith marvellous hand embroidery. The bride outshone them in a dress of al-mond-blossom pink satin. Tho ceremony Avas strange, and tew Europeans Avere privileged to see it. It Avas conducted by Mr Quo Tai-Cln, the Chinese Minister in London. There Avas none of the religious atmosphere which characterises a Western Aveddmg, but none the less it Avas solemn and very dignified. Much boAving m the Oriental fashion Avas made by the P ai ' tlcSi Immediately after the bride had entered the room on the arm of her father, the Chinese national anthem Avas played. Then followed the reading and sealing of the marriage certificate. \\ ith the exchange of the ring and bowing o each other by the bride and bridegroom, the couple became man and wife. There Avas more boAving to convey thanks and respect to the presiding officer, by Avhom an address was delivered before the bride and bridegroom left. A reception at which Chinese food was served followed the ceremony, and later in the evening bride and bridegroom left, for their honeymoon in the English Lake District and Scotland. The bride travelled in a modern red Chinese dress Avith gold-pamtcd flowers.