NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 May 1923, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

A Bill aiming at a uniform divorce and marriage law throughout the Faited Stales Im.s recentlv been presented to the Senate. It stipulates that marriage' licenses inii.-L not be issued until after the parties have given two weeks’ pub-lie notice of their intention and until they have furnished affidavits certifying to l heir normal mentality and their freedom from communienbl - disease. These within the first degree of blood relationship anti Blacks and Whites and .Mongolians and Whites arc forbidden to marry. The new Pill allows divorce on the grounds of infidelity, physical and mental cruelty, abandonment or failure to provide for one year or more, incurable insanity, or the commission of a felony. A year must , lapse between the decree nisi nmi the* decree absolute. The spoilrot's of the Bill—the General Federation of Women’s Clubs—express the hope that Lite passage of the Bill will in time raise the matrimonial status of the (Tided States to the “exalted level maintained by Great Britain.” wnere they point out. the divorce rate is uniquely low—one divorce to every 71 marriages.

Wlicn he appeared at the Old Bailey to he tried for murder in a taxi-cab ol his sweetheart. Alice Cheshire. Bernard Pommy. '2d. shop assistant, bicmel Hempstead. Hi rtfordshire, objected to three women on the jury. Their pltres were taken hy men. To Mr Justice Horridge’s question whether he still refused the help of counsel, Pommy relumed an emphatic "Quito.” After the ia.se for the prosecution had Milled ITmiroy said he did not wish to give e\ Idem or to call witnesses. Without l t .ing the box the jury found Pommy guilty, lie leaned smilingly over the dock rail as the jury gave their verdict, Asked if lie had anything to say why sentence of deatli should not lie passed, he replied coolly: If I did £ny anything it would alter my ease altogether. Therefore I won’t. Sentence of death was then passed.

Tito amazing development in the use of the telephone by Americans is illustrated l»y a proposal by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company tn increase its capitalisation from £159.(Kin.OCJ to £425.000.00,') thus making it the largest company in the Cnited States. If the .shareholders approve the proposal tiie company will be capitalised at about £10,500,000 more than the Steel Corporation, which hitherto has enjoyed tho prestige of having the iagest authorised capital stock in the country. In support of their proposal the directors mention that last year more than GOO,IKK) new station.- were opened at a cost of more than £33.000.000. The company and its sub'-i----diaries now operate 14,050.ni5i telephones and more than 30,000.000_ miles of wire The average number of calls made daily is 38,090,000.

A Hungarian engineer of 22, named Joseph Dezsoffy, has invented an apparatus for extracting electric current from the air. The chief feature is a mast similar to those used for wireless, an d the electric energy gained varies according to the height of the mast . He claims 40,000 volts an an altitude el 9001 1. Though the invention is still m an early stage, tire inventor has fitted several houses with his apparatus, supplying electric current for their light; ing.