NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1921, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL.

"NEW £400,000 NEWSPAPER.”

PARTS, Nov. 20

Founder of a ‘‘€400,000” newspaper that never appeared, Georges Croquet, who is 24 and under arrest, is being sued by two leading Paris music-hall artists, Serjitts and Boucot, for obtaining their services by fraud. Stated to have pretended that he was attached to the French Premier’s staff, Croquet, who has had to use crutches all his life, asked them, it is said, to sing at a young ex-Service men’s club in a Paris suburb, offering Boucot €(>() and Serjius £4O. When asked for fees he made out cheques on blank pieces of paper which, it is stated, were not honoured, and on the hack of which was the name of the unborn paper, Les Forces I' rancaises. He is said to have had'a staff for this paper 10 months ago, and set up luxurious offices, from which he used to telephone to Ministers, generals, or great bankers. He drove round Paris in a magnificent motor car whose driver was "chief of the motor car services of the greatest Paris paper.” Whenever asked when the paper would appear, lie is said t<> have invariably replied, "To-morrow.” But tomorrow' never came. BURGLAR'S RUSK. NEW YOKE. Nov. 20. A mysterious robbery of jewels valued bv the owner, Mrs Charlotte King Palmer, at €120,000, is occupying the attention of the New York police. Mrs Palmer is a former chorus girl, anil now is the divorced wife of a rich stockbroker of Chicago. She owns a house in DOth-street, a fairly fashionable section of New York. She loft the house in charge of a maid and a Philippine butler during a visit to the Adiiondack Mountains, a resort near New York.

When she rttimed home late on Tuesday night she found her bedroom disarranged and rang the bell. A polite French "Raffles,” who said be was a detective, investigating the robbery, entered. The stranger was followed by two other men, who gagged Mrs Palmer and took her jewels, which included a pearl necklace worth, she says. €20,000. When Mrs Palmer nearly fainted the "Raffles” offered her smelling salt's si ml brandy. The robbers left the bouse in the early hours of the morning, ar' J . shortly afterwards the maidservant and butler, who said they had been gagged and imprisoned in a cupboard on an upper floor disentagleil themselves from their ropse and released their mistress. 01 /|)-F ASH lON ED CH K 1 STM AS. LONDON, Dec. 21. A heavy fall of show in'Britain—the first for is>2o, has heralded ’throughout the country the return’ of the oldfashioned Christmas. There was practically no snow this time last year. THE MAILED FIST. "LONDON, Dec. 21. When interviewed, 'Constantine expressed annoyance at the Allies probable guarantee, and hanged his list on the table, exclaiming: “Why the devil should T invite the former Kaiser to Greece ?” HUNTING A SNAKE. CAIRNS (().), Dec. 20. .1. Davis, a feilfttb'smn'n. living with his wife at Wright’s Creek, fired at a snake whiclMiad entered the house. The shot wen! wide, lie put anolhei cartridge in the gun, but it exploded, and the shot entered his wife’s leg, causing terrible injuries. She subsequently died from hemorrhage.

1500 BRICKS A DAY

RICHMOND (N.S.W.), Dye. To

Although in his eighty-second yoai. .Mi William Simmons, of Bathurst, has just demonstrated his ability to lay. 1500 bricks a day as against the average tradesman’s 500 or 600. He has, with his own effort, completed the construction of a big baker’s oven locally. So speedy was Mr Simmons with the bricks that his hod-carrier was compelled at one stage to call a halt for a breather. CROSSBRED Wool.. M.ELLOUBNE, Dec. 22. largely attended" meeting oi JUoU <W n m «•>«! to form a company to treat n'osshrecl wool grown in the Chines district, the company to have a nominal capital of 60,000 shares at til each; 20;()(K) to he called up. Two thousand shares "eie immediately taken up. H is P r, »P oßcd to establish a spinning mill 0) Chines, and the whole of the yarn can be absorbed by the Clunos knitting mills and turned into the finished nrtiele. DEADLY NICOTINE. MELBOURNE, Dec. 21. .lean Sinclair, aged Id, eldest daughter of the Rev J. Sinclair, of St Cuthhert’s Presbyterian Church Hughton, died suddenly. Miss Sinclair, on returning home after playing •>"» „is, took, for a slight cold what she thought to he a dose of medicine. Unfortunately the hot tie contained n solution of nicotine used for spraying rose hushes. Miss Sinclair fell unconscious, and died in a few minutes. Mrs Sinclair, who went to her daughter s assistance, had a narrow escape. She tasted the contents of the bottle, otic was also seized with convulsions, but subsequently recovered.