NEWS BY MAIL

Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1926, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL

13.C00-MILES GREETING. LONDON, J an. 2. ‘‘Through 13,000 mile of ether," writes an Australian in London, ‘‘there came from an amateur wireless friend in Melbourne oil Thursday the message: 'Christmas greetings by radio.’ .Mr •J. A. Partridge, of Wimbledon, picked it tip with wonderful clearness, and relayed it. to me in the City by telephone. "Hope sprang high for the morrow. I welcomed the postman. A load of greetings for everyltody else; lor me an 0.1T.M.5. Oil Christmas morning the income tax man presented me with a claim for a stun only live times greater than j should have to pay in Australia." SISTERS’ STRANGE FATE. LONDON. Jam 2. Police in Glasgow are investigating the strange circumstances surrounding the death of a woman and the serious illness of her sister in a viliiu at Nowlands, Glasgow. It is stated that the .osiers slept together on Friday night, and when t::e household awoke the following morning one of the women was dead and tie other unconscious. The dead woman was examined !>v a doctor, but there were not external indications to give'a elite tu me cause ot death.

The other sister, who was still unconscious last night, showed nothing to account for her condition.

SFICIDE IN CELL. REBTR IGTIOXS OX POLICE SEARCH. LONDON, January 2. St. Paneras coroner held an in(Hic>t yesterday on the body of Cecil p -a- a:. of Shepperloii, .Middlesex, who was i,. :"d dead in a cell following his in icst on a cahiye of stealing notes from li-e jjiim office at liatlibone-placc, W. I’.c. John \ a>i ley. who arrested Branson, said lb." with a detective l:e searched Branson at lottenham courL-road Police Km: i<>», and found on him 2s l td, two tills of pepper, a cloakroom ticket, a box containing crystals, an envelope containing crystals, and a cliei|no book. Reason was placed in a cell alter everything bail been taken away Irom him. as usual. I.liter a pair ol gloves, a handkerchiefs and an empty envelope wire returned to him. Dr Thomas Rose, divisional surgeon, staled that the same evening be saw Branson lying dead in the cell. He found Hint the metal pot in which Branson bad been given tea contained rymtuU*. Tlio nost-tnorlfiii turn showed Unit death was due lo poisoning bv cyanide of potassium.

Dialing with the practice of searching prisoners, lnspeitor I’. Smyth said : We arc not allowed to go below the outer i iolking, and anyone who bad made up his mind to commit suicide by poi'diiing liimsell could easily conceal a .small (plant ity of poison in his underclolhing. Nor are we allowed to compel a prisoner to strip. V\ it h that exception, the search is a thorough one." The jury returned a verdict of suicide during temporary insanity, and added that, in their opinion, the police tool; every precaution.

THEFTS l-'ROM GARS. I.OXDOX. January ‘2. The story of an alleged systematic scries of thefts from unattended motorcars in ihe West End by a Frenchman who was said to be an escaped convict was told at Marylcbone Police Court yesterday, when Victor Louis A aclier, .VI. described as a clerk, ol I' itf.roy street. Tottenham Court-road. pleaded guilty in live charges ol theft and to a further charge of failing to register as an alien. Detective Jenkins said that for I lie pa : vear extensive thefts had been inking place from unattended motorcars in the West End. but the thief could not be traced. On December 10 a Mr w'hi'idiidil caught Vnrher as be was carrying off two suitcases of boot

samples from a motor-car left in Old Cavendish Street. At a house in Fitroy Street the detective found a vast quantity of properly which was removed in a police lender. Fifty cases of goods were identified by the losers as having been stolen from their motor-cars while unattended. near Oxford-circus. Vacher admitted having stolen them all. The detective added that Vacher had told him that in 1913 lie was sentenced in Paris, for a trivial offence, to a life sentence and taken to the French point settlement in French Guiana. If' claimed to have escaped in 1017, coming to England in a fishing boat at the beginning of 1920. Ho had worked in various London restaurants for four years. Vacher was sentenced to 12 months hard labour and recommended for deportation. 0 COSSACKS MUST GO. LONDON, January 2. The Home Office has decided that six of the seven Cossacks who are in longer employed by the organisation running the entertainment at Holland Park Hall. W.. must leave the country at once hut that one may remain in orih-r to watch their interests in regard in their wage dispute. The seven Cossacks, trick riders, visited the Aliens Department of the Home Office yesterday and strongly urged that considerable arrears of wages were due to them—a contention that was denied by the company.

ARMIES OF STARLINGS. LONDON. Jan. *_>. For three weeks Beacimsfiold, Buckinghamshire. lias had an invasion of starlings. .Many thousands of these birds us-‘ the beech woods on the west of the town as roosting places. M here 1 hey go during the day no one knows. Every morning, just us day is breaking, they gather in great flocks, and. alter tremendous amount, of i battering, rise into the air as if by word ol command and lly towards London. Regularly every afternoon between I p.m. and -LJL p.m. they return from llie east and seek their resting places in Burke's Grove Burgess Wood, and oilier woods. After they arrive the air rings with, their chattering. ACTRESS EX’ GEESTS. LONDON, January 2. For three hours yesterday afternoon between 709 and 800 poor children irom Li uuington, Westminster, and Newington liutls sat in the stalls of the Old t ie.. Waterloo Be,ail, E.E., while .Miss Sybil Thorndike, .Miss Hilda Trevelyan, .Miss Athene Scylcr, .Miss Ethel ( okriiige, unit other actresses sped to and from the " bar," handing round eup.s of tea. bread and butter and cakes to them. Tibs was one of the annual parlies, given by the Jabberwork Christmas Tree Guild, composed of boy and girl members who live in ail parts of the world and who each send lid and a toy at Christmas.

The little guests were later treated to a special entertainment on the stago given by the Old Vie. company.