NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1923, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

MATCHES AND MARKS. BERLIN, July JO Everv German wlm buys a box ol matches has to pay a tax on if. Iho amount of this tax is six pfennigs per box, thiit is to say, 1-1 ,(VOO ol a Id. The Government takes the utmost care to collect this tax. In everv niaLeh factory there is a Government official whose business it is in paste a label on every ease of matches, indicating that the tax has been paid. The amount of money accruing to the Government in a certain factory amounts to 12,000 marks a day. But the salary of the official employed is 100,000 marks a day. Tt is suggested that the Government will save 28,000,000 marks a month if it abolishes the tax on mutches. CHARLIE CHAPLIN. NEW YORK, July It. After several temperamental mishaps the matrimonial engagement between Charles Spencer ( liaplin (Charlie Chaplin) and .Mile, l’oht Negri, the screen actress, has been definitely cancelled. The announcement this time comes not from Charles Chaplin hut from the Polish tragedienne.

“I realise now,” she says, "I could never marry a humorist. Charles is a charming follow, hut he is too temperamental : he dramatises everything. He has no qualities for matrimony, because he experiments in love. “Pm glad it is over, as it would have interfered with my work.” When interviewers asked, “Is the engagement; definitely off?” Mile. Negri replied, ‘'Five weeks ago.” Yesterday evening Charlie and Pol a attended a public entertainment, but they were not together. Chaplin was with Miss Leo no re Ulrie. a leading actress, while Charles do Roche, the new Apollo of the screen, was showing profuse attention to the humorist's late fiancee. Charles Chaplin and .Mile. Pola Negri became engaged last November. Last March the engagement was broken off, hut the couple “made it up.” CANCER AND FOOD. PARIS, July 2?. According to the Math), the International Cancer Congress at Strasbourg, before closing yesterday, adopted a motion to call the attention of the public authorities to the danger presented, front the point of view of the development of cancer in the digestive tract, by the soiling by manure and sewage water of vegetables and fruit eaten raw. Professor Fibseger. from Copenhagen had informed the congress that he had established that cancer of the stomach in rats is due to “the presence of verminous parasites which rats acquire through eating cockroaches. In. this connection Professor Borrel, of the Strasbourg Bacteriological Institute, called attention t« the fact

that radishes, strawberries, salads, etc., are grown in manure and that therefore in eating these foods raw and uncleancd human beings take in substances and parasites which it would be better not to absorb, if only for the sake of the cleanliness of the digestive tract.

“YIBtRO-TELEPHONIC SYSTEM.” LONDON, July 23. The Public Control Committee of tlie London County Council yesterday afternoon considered the application of Major Sidney Albert Westrop (trading as the Hamilton Wells Institute) for a license to carry on an establishment for massage or special treatment at 10, King-street, Bakerstreet, AY. The chief inspector of the council said be opposed the license on the ground that, the proposed treatment required the attention of skilled physicians. that a great deal of publicity had been given to the institute in the -Press, and that if tl-.e license were granted it might be regarded by the public as a guarantee of the efficiency of the 1 real men t.

The inspector read a long article from a newspaper praising the treatment, which was known as "the Hamilton AA'ells vibro-tclephonie system." Airs Alsickcnzie, one of the council’s inspectors, said that when she visited the premises she heard a woman complaining that her hearing was no better, and someone telling her that it was really, but people were speaking more softly. Ali-s Bishop, another inspector, said that she went to the institute as a prospective patient, .although she had never suffered from any disease of the ear. A man examined her with a mirror and an electrical instrument. "When lie had finished,” said Aliss Bislmp, "I asked, ‘ls if very had!'’ and lie said, ‘Your oars are very had ; you ought to have treatment at once.’ ” She was told the fees would ho £‘lo and that the treatment would last three months. Aliss Bishop added that she heard a gramophone at work and saw people “listening in” with head ’phones. ATajor AAT’slrop, giving evidence, said there were branches of the institute in several provincial towns. He had treated the chief constable at Birmingham, and any number of Jusi ires of the Peace. The Press aniioiim enionf which had been read had rather more in it than he should have liked. The license was refused.

A GERA!AN HUSBAND. LONDON, JHI v 21

A story of how an ex-German brewer at Edinburgh drank to the success of German arms during the war was told in the Court of .Session, Edinburgh, yesterday, when Airs Christina Lemon or Klinger, of Alary-place, Cat heart, Glasgow, sought a divorce from her husband, Jacob Klinger, on tlie ground of desertion. She said that she was married in Glasgow in 133!), and there were three surviving children. Her husband, who formerly lived in Bavaria, had come to ibis country in 138,3, and lie fold her that, he had made arrangements to become a naturalised British subject. lie got a situation in an Edinburgh brewery, and subsequently became a partner. In the last week of July 1!)M two of his nephews came to the house, and at the dinner (able in August, when news was received that war had been declared, he and his nephews rose, turned their hacks upon Airs Klinger and lew sons, and drank to the success of the German Army. He gave his

nephews money to take them hack to Germany, and her two sons joined flic British Army, lie became very hitter against this country and ceased to speak- to her. They communicated with each other bv means of scraps of paper. He was interned in Dot ■ember 111I 1 1 <5 and repatriated in February 1913. Since then he had nob cuminunienied’ with her. lie had started a divorr; action m liie German courts on the ground that she had broken up the home, hul. it had been adjourned. Lord A 1 orison granted a decree.

PASSENGERS IN A HELICOPTER. LONDON, July 21. Passengers have, it is reported, flown in the official British helicopter (an aeroplane that rises and descends vertically) which Air Louis Brennan, the inventor, is perfecting. Experts who have seen the machine lift itself easily, hover motionless in the air and descend perfectly, at Farnborough, Hampshire, are astonished at the progress made. The next stage is for the apparatus to he employed to enable the machine to move horizontally as well as support itself in the air. About £II,OOO has been spent on this experiment, Sir Samuel Hoare, Air .Minister, stated in the Commons on Thursday, and experts considered the progress made justified further expenditure. The Government, it will he recalled, lias offered prizes totalling £oo,ooo for successful helicopter designs by private firms. PEDAL AEROPLANE. DAYTON. July dO. Air AY. E. Gerhnrdi, an aeronautical engineer, flew to-day 20 feet in a machine propelled by foot-power only. Air Gerhardt termed his machine a scientific curiosity, but stated that the principle was applicable to machines for more extended flights. Similar experiments have been conducted in France.