MISCELLANEOUS.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 December 1925, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS.

[Australia cfc N.Z. Cable Association.] CAPTURING A TlilEF. LONDON, December (3. The Duke of Aianchester, hearing a crash of glass in a jeweller’s in Jermyn Street, when he himself was leaving a house nearby, sprinted after a suspected t hief, captured him in Regent Street and held him in a doorway until the arrival of a policeman . GIFT FOR LABOR UNIVERSITY LONDON, December 7. The "Alorning Post” says Frances, Countess of Warrick, has presented fasten Lodge, her seat in Essex, to the Trades Union Congress for an International Labour University. BRITISH AVIATION. LONDON, December d. It is learned that the Air Ministry, after a costly series of experiments extending over throe years, is inclining to the belief that flying in a fog will never be commercially practicable owing to the pilots’ hitman limitations. Even the most daring stunters show a marked disinclination to lose sight of the ground and trust to instruments of proved reliability for giving height and direction and gyroscopes for ensuring stability in a fog, hut. they essay low flying, which is attended by appalling risks of collision Avitli trees, chimneys and other objects. So few pilots are able to overcome this natural psychological trait ilmt the Air Ministry is likely to abandon its fog flying programme.

Apart from the installation of emergency apparatus in civilian aerodromes the Air Force in the next two years will bo equipped exclusively with allmetal aeroplanes, in the construction of which enormous progress has been made, saving weight and wear. Gradually the whole of the wood and fabric machines will be scrapped. A new leviathan, a thousand horsepower flying boat with a duralium hull, is undergoing tests in preparation for a twelve hundred miles service flight. BR OADCASTING' ENQUIRY. LONDON, December 0. Sir Arthur Stanley, giving evidence before the Broadcasting Committee, presented proposals, including fuller State control through a commission consisting of one Commoner with ropresentatives of the Post Office, listenersin, science, education, art and radio manufacturers, with a programme advisory committee. He suggested tbe Broadcasting Company’s assets and staff be transferred to the Commission. Professor Low, secretary to tlio League, urged that the revenue lrom licenses should be devoted wholly to the maintenance and improvement of and the punishment of persons interfering with reception by oscillation. Professor Low added that educational programmes were best when given on a special wave length, enabling listeners to Dine in. ENGLAND IN STONE AGE. THAMES TRIBUTARY OF RHINE. LONDON, December 0. Professor Parsons, lecturing at tlio London University, said the first people arrived in England during Hie Stone Age, twenty thousand years ago when the Channel did not exist, England being joined to the Continent. The Thames, whose width extended from Hampstead to Dulwich, was then n tributary of the Rhine. The site of London was chosen because that was the river’s narrowest point, fhe first settlement- being on the south side at Cornhill. near the junction of the AValbrook and Fleet Rivers. Between the years .land |0 Anno Domini, the earliest Londoners lived in mud and wattle huts, their favourite walk being along the riverside on what, is now the Strand.