NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 February 1924, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL.

or H N KW'L'.ST COINS. “A AIGRK PLKASIXG ASPECT.” LONDON. December -0. “The latest United Kingdom silver ■oiiis liiivo ft more pleasing aspect than those to whid) we have grown accustomed. though with home reluctance,'’ write -Me-ssis Samuel Montagu and Co., in tTieir weekly hellion circular. “1 lie use of nickel for alloying the silver to 500/1000 fine has been abandoned for that of copper, and the exterior of the pieces lies been blanched to a greater degree. The films of pure liver thus left upon the surface must eventually he removed by wear. “\Ye shall then he able to compare .In- appearance of the new copper with ti.at of the old nickel compound, the gfj onisli tinge of which tailed to meet ogulat approval.”

£30.000 SANTA CLAPS. RICH MAN* MAKES GOOD LOST savings. NEW YORK, December 10. The town of Province. K ll ode Jslandg acclaiming one of its' richest citi- /,-, ~ Air Jesse 1L Metcaii. as the •hampion Santa Claus ol 10'J-1. A few days ago the State Banking Commissioner ordered the closing of a local bank. It ho Cosmopolitan Trust Company. An epidemic of domestic tragedies followed in the wake of this action. It inflicted especial hardship upon 3.500 members of a Christmas Savings Club, whose funds, accumulated since the beginning of the year, .’me deposited, in the suspended bank. Today Mr Metcalf announced his willingness to buy all the Christmas dub deposit books “at tlieir face value and with accrued interest.” The sum involved exceeds £36.000. AL Aletcalf is a large woollen manufacturer. a director of the /Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and a member of one of the oldest families of Rhode Island.

RAILWAY'S £.5.500.000 WORK PLANS. LONDON, Dec. AO. The London and North-Eastern Railway is to spend nearly £5,500,000 next

year in increased locomotive, carriage, and wagon-building programmes. Four complete dining-car trains are to he built. The food in these trains will be cooked by electricity, the current being generated hy special dynamos in the trains. llie now suburban stock will he built of a type which could readily ho converted to electrified working. Of the new passenger toadies -il l are to be built in the company's own workshops, while 290 for London suburban services are to ho put to con-

tract. The amended locomotive programme will cost £1,270,000. One hundred and four engines are to be built at tho company’s workshops, contracts for another It being given to Glasgow, Newcastle, and Leeds. Twenty to he built at Glasgow and others being built in tho company’s own shops are each of 2,000-h.p. and are the most powerful in Great Britain. The wagon-building programme is for 12,000 vehicles at a cost of £2, 100,000. SIIIBIIr 11,1)1 X(: C’ONTRACTS. M ossrs Vickers, Limited, have received a contract from the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway for the construction of two 1 .‘3-knot cargo steamers for their service to Ireland. Tho vessels will be built at Barrow-in-Furness.

1:200,000 is to be spent- and 100 men will he employed for a year in the construction of the Shell Oil Company’s new works at Ilamble, near Southampton. Tho depot will constitute a large distributing and reception centre for oil fuel, petrol, and paraffin with an estimated capacity of over thirteen million gallons.

WAR’S SACRIFICES. EX-RREMIER ON FIVE YEARS OB DISKXCHANTMENT. LONDON, December 20. Mr Baldwin, yesterday unveiled at the offices of the Board of Trade a memorial to the 303 officials of the Department who fell in the war. He said : The unborn generations in some ways are happier than we, for to them will 1.-.: revealed in its true perspective the magnitude and the issues of tho war, and from them will he hidden some of the controversies, the sordid things, the selfishness, and the greed which rose among the good deeds like poisonous fungi. It is no use our asking that question which has so often come to the lips of disconsolate men and women. Were these lives sacrificed in vain l' To many of us the last five years have been years of disenchantment. and yet every cloud li.;-- a silver lining, and we can take strength from this tact—dial through all the difficulties of the time the strength and the moderation of the cli.'ra-trr of our people has once again shown itself. 11l oar country. almost alone in Europe. have we had freedom from mieonsliiulional rebellion, and, more than tin!, we may say of our own people tluii toolings of hatred and vengeance have no permanent root in our hearts.

D. is on!', hy the common and united efforts of iiu-n and women that wo can maintain our civilisation at the level to whii-li it. has been raised, and it is only In super-human elfori that "c can ‘bettor it.

Ihe memorial consists of a bronze tablet mounted in an oak frame. The funds subscribed for it were originally deposited with Sir Charles IL McGrigor 12a:1.. ."id Company, who suspended payment. This involved a heavy loss, hut the stall’ repeated their subseript ions. V S <;IR1. DRINKERS. NEAY YORK. Dec. A 3. The growth of the drinking habit among boys and girls since the advent of prohibition in the United States is vividly illustrated to-day by a letter which tin' headmaster of Lnwreneeville School, New Jersey, Dr M. A. Abbott, lias found ii. necessary to adCress to the parents of his 500 scholars. Lawrenceville is tlie Eiiited States Eton College, its hoys being recruited from the best families in the country. Before prohibition, drinking among boys and girls was practically nonexistent in the United States, since lif jtio r lias l>een forbidden it has become the fashion in youthful circles for both sexes to carry whisky-flasks and drink immoderately. Dr Abbott dates his letter from ■ ‘Headmasters’ Study.” After dwelling on “tin* prevalence ot liquor-dritik-ing among boys and girls in our country,” Dr Abbott tells the parents that the hoys when at school “give me tlieir word of lionuor quite voluntarily, without anv request of mine, that they will not touch liquor for the sake of die school. . . . but when they bring me this pledge they are 'fry oarotul to say that this pledge decs not bind them on week-end holidays.’ The headmaster adds: “1 don t know what has come over the mothers of gil-ls ill this country, but the way in which they are allowed to drink liquor and the way in which they unallowed to go down-town with any Tom, Dick, or Harry is going to he fatal to the future nation.” He asks parents wluit is the mlorcnee to lx? drawn from the reiusal oi the bovs to keep the pledge during holidays, and ends Ids letter with the plea: “Please help me."

BANK ROBBER’S EXPLOITS

MONTREAL, Dec. 19. "Red” Ryan, the bank robber, whose exploits are beginning to rank ■ vitli those of Jesse James and Dick Turpin, has been arrested at Minneapolis, Minnesota, altc-r escaping from Kingston penitentiary, Ontario, where he was serving a sentence for hank burglaries at Montreal amd Hamilton. Ho has con tossed that during tli® war. while with the Canadian Army, lie robbed two jewellery shops in Liverpool. He also said: "1 got in a home. Aboard ship I met a wealthy Australian, an oil man named Jack Slade. He wanted to get out of sight. we exchanged identities. He gave me bis papers and 1 took his name.” It was under the name of Slade that Ryan was sentenced in Montreal to seven years and fourteen lashes. The police sav that Slade was mysteriously murdered. "That’s all hunk, ’ said Ryan. "At any rate. T didn't do it.” Slade’s partner in crime. Arthur Sullivan, alias Brown, is said to have been lured into a trap by his sweetheart after Ryan's capture, and he was shot dead by a policeman when he called on the girl.