News From All Sources

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 120, 16 May 1932, Page 7

News From All Sources

<s> ■ Lord Rutherford’s Arms The arms of Lord Rutherford of Nelson, are interesting in that New Zealand and science are both incorporated. There is a kiwi on the top as a crest, the supporters of the shield being a Maori on the right and Hermes Trismegistus, the God or patron of Alchemy, on the left. The motto is a quotation from Lucretius’ talk on the “Nature of Things’’— “Primordia Rerum Quaerere.” The shape of the shield represents the peculiar shape of the decay and recovery curves of radio-active bodies discovered by Lord Rutherford in 1903 and used by him as a basis of his disintegration theory. Double Barrelled Loss The case of a householder who suffered in two different ways when a burglar broke into his home was mentioned in the Auckland Supremo Court when tho thief came up for sentence. The question of returning recovered stolen property ■ was raised by the Crown Prosecutor, who remarked that he did not suppose the stolen revolver would go back to its owner. It was unregistered and the police would deal with it. "It is pretty hard to have your place broken into and then to have it discovered that you have an unregistered revolver,” said Mr Justice Reed. Unlucky May Birthday

A wish expressed by a young man in Auckland that he had been born on Juno 1 instead of May 31, because tho fact that May 31 was his birthday was going to cost him 5s this year, caused some curiosity among his friends, the reason not being apparent until he had quoted chapter and verse of the unemployment legislation. The levy of 5s is payable this month, and youths who become 20 in May are liable for it, no matter whether their birthdays are at the beginning, the middle, or at the last day of the month. If the birthday is after Juno 1 the young man has two months to spare before ho becomes liable for his first payment in August. Not Hunger but an Ailment

The relief department of the Auckland Hospital Board receives many strange letters and one was received recently from a man who said bluntly that when his stomach was full he was free from pain, but when it was empty he had much pain. He had not enough food to keep it full, and ■wanted some more. The relief committee is composed of laymen who were not impressed by the letter, but a doctor who came in at the moment put a new complexion on.the application. “If what the writer says is true,” he said, he is suffering from duodenal ulcer.” It is one of, the characteristics of that complaint that when the stomach.js full there no pain, but when it is empty there is much pain. . This leads to sufferers getting up, in the night to eat. After hearing the doctor’s conjecture, the committee, took a more sympathetic view of the case. “It only bears out the committee’s rule that every case must be considered on its own merits” observed a member.