NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1920, Page 3

NEWS BY MAIL.

CANADA SAND TREASURES. MONTREAL, Aug. a. Great interest lias been stirred up in financial circles by the announcement that commercial interests are proposing to employ the tar sands of the Athabasca River, in Alberta. In these sands, of which millions of tons are available, tremendous quantities of naphtha, petrol, kerosene, bitumen, tar,''lubricating and fuel oils can be obtained, sufficient, in the opinion of Dr Rosworth of the Imperial Oil Research Laboratories to supply the entire world demand for centuries. By a Dominion Oirder in Council recently passed, the lands containing these sands have been withdrawn from sale, settlement, or other disposal, and will be left free for development.

LANDRU’S OREMATORIUM. PARIS, Aug. 3

Fragments of teeth, and finger-bones, which, the experts declare, formed part of at least 3 adult bodies, have, as the result of 12 months’ patient work by skilled anatomists, been sifted out from the heap of rubbish found in the villa of Landru, the Paris Bluebeard, accused of the murder of 11 women.

There remained at the end of the first examination 25(f fragments of bones and 47 teeth, declared to be certainly of human origin. Then Dr Paul and Prof. Saubey began piercing the fragments together, and yesterday they presented their reports to M. Bonin, the examining magistrate. . some bones, they say, can be classified as coming from three distinct skulls. Forty-eight came from human hands.

STONEMASON ‘ ‘PRINCE. ’ ’

BERLIN, Aug. 3

Two ambitious elderly German “princesses” and another prospective “princess” are languishing disconsolate in Berlin to-day because their husbands have been found out.

For some weeks the police had been watching a good-looking man, apparently pssessed of unlimited wealth, known as “Privy Councillor von Borin-' sky Bogdanotf, Prince of Tartary.” Suspicious that he might be a Bolshevist agent, owing to his enormous expenditure, the police* arrested him, when they found him to be a very clever swindler, Johann Katzek, a stonemason aged 45, for whom a search had long been in progress, Katzek stole some title-deeds, forged a passport, and. successfully appeared

in Berlin as the “Prince or Tartary.” He enticed an elderly and wealthy widow into marriage. Immensely flattered at her new rank, the deluded woman gave to Kataek large sums of money. Then he became engaged to another elderly rich Berlin woman and obtained more large sums of money. The “prince” piAtended to have many distinguished German friends, including Prince Lichnowsky (former German Ambassador in England), He did not work ’alone. Stanislaus Leo, really a bank clerk, appeared in Berlin as the dashing young “Prince Sapieha Woiwode.” His achievements quite overwhelmed yet another Berlin woman ambitious to become a “princess,” and frouf his bride “Sapieha” obtained much money.

HANDWRITING BY ’PHONE. PARIS, Aug. 3

Two machines for transmitting photographs or autograph writing by telephone have been ordered by the Italian Government from M. Belin, a French scientist. They will be used for instantaneous reproductions of handwriting between Milan aqd Rome. The French Government has also ordered two spnilar ipachjpes for experimental purposes, M. Belin says the device weighs 201 b and can be fitted pn any telephone..

TRUNK MYSTERY. NEW YORK, Aug. 8.

The wpman victim of the Detroit trunk murder mystery, whose mutilated body was found in a trunk in a warehouse of the American Express Company, New York City, where it had been shipped from Detroit, Michigan, has been identified as a person known in the latter city as the wife of Leroy, who despatched the trunk, qnd for whom a countrywide .search is upder way.

Whether the murdered wpman actually was the wife pf Lerpy, who is known by several other names, is not definitely established, as there appears no record of her divorce from her first husband, “Kid” McCoy Jackson, a young farmer of Sturgis, Mississippi. Jackson yesterday was shown photographs of the slain woman, and exclaimed: “Yes, that’s Kitty. This town was too small for her. She left me.” The woman, who was 19 and attractive, was formerly Katherine Lou Fondren, the adopted daughter of Alfred Vaughan, a farmer of Sturgis. She is described by the neighbours as having been too pretty for her own good, l She married Jackson twp years ago, hut within six months she abandoned him and went to Birmingham, Alabama, where it is presumed she met Leroy, whose real name is lielieved to he Fernandez, a mechanic, whom she followed to Detroit.

DEA'j’H SENTENCE ON WOMAN BRUSSELS, Aug. 3. At Hainault Assizes to-day Rachel Pnriset was sentenced to death, “the execution to he in a public place at Charleroi,” She was charged with denouncing during the German occupation, Willy Erns, an attache of the Spanish Vice-Consulate at Charleroi, causing him to be shot by the Germans, and also with compassing the death or imprisonment of oilier perspr^. The young wumep listened to flip sentence calinly.

REICHSTAG AND SPA. \ i BERLIN, Aug. 14. I Herr Fehrenbach’s Government obtained a vote of confidence after a three days debate in the Reichstag on the Spa Conference. Dr Simons, the Foreign Minister, who is a. member of the German People’s Party controlled by Herr Hugo-Stinnes, the most powerful man in Germany, spoke several times ,and won the sympathy of many Majority Socialists. The general opinion in political circles is that Dr Simons is increasingly dominating his Cabinet colleagues.

£SOO AIR CARS. LONDON, Auguct 2. It is not only quicker, but it will sopn also bo cheaper to fly than to travel by other'means. As a result of the Air Show at Olympia, and data recently obtained, a little touring aeroplane is being produced by a. famous firm which will cany its owner-driver and a friend with a simple engine no more powerful than that in a motor-car. The little “sportplane,” or “air car,” will tour at 60 miles ail hour for an expenditure on petrol and oil which works out—even at the present high prices at l}d , a mile.

The owner and his passenger will be able to journey from the air port of London to Le Bourget outside Paris for a flying cast for the two of them of only £1 58., whereas their first-class rail and boat fares by the shortest sea route would cast them £6 12s lOd, The journey by land and ser occupies nine hours, as compared v A i' a little less than four hours by ,r. At an air port H < landing fee for a small aeroplane is 2/6 while tho charge for garaging on /for the night is only ss. * , " As soon as they can be produced in quantities these little air-cars will cost much less to buy than motor-cars. Already you can get one for prices ranging from £SOO to £750, and it must be remembered that the tyre bill of the aerial tourist is negligible.