MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1928, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

[“ The Times ” Service.] RADIO COMBINE LONDON. Jan. 3. The Marconi International Marine Communication Company and Radio Communication! Company have agreed to amalgamate their operating inspection services, under the title of the British Wireless Marine Service, which henceforth will deal with all matters relating to wireless operating aboard ships. It is claimed that fusion w.l! give British shipowners services the meat efficient and most complete wireless organisation in the world. DESPERADO’S ESCAPE. NEW YORK, Jan. 4. Ben Hamilton, a noted Montana desperado, stole cattle in the wc&k preceding Christmas. The police sprelul an alarm through the countryside, and finally Sheriff Babcock and two deputies, AVithington and Cummings, captured him in Idaho. They brought bun hack to his native village, and when passing Beil’s house, lie requested permission to obtain a change of clothing. Stopping the sleigh, Ben stopped, and a moment later reappeared with a gun, with which he bored the head of eacli man before again taking to the hills.

Searchers found the trio dead, st seated in the sleigh.

MIGRATION SCHEME LONDON, Jan. 3,

ft is understood in London Unit tin Overseas Settlement Committee is con sidering co-operating in the construe tion of the railway from Southern C>oss to Lake Grace for the purpose o settlement in the wheat areas of West era Australia, but is not committed t< the undertaking pending the receipt o: reports from Western Australia. The Committee rogicts that Austral in has not sufficiently availed herseli of the thirty-four million sterling Migration Development Scheme for which Western Australia is primarily responsible. then Victoria, and thirdly South Australia.

FLOODED ENGLAND. LONDON, Jan. 4

Extraordinary scenes continue to he witnessed in flooded England. Hundreds of homes are surrounded by water. and business men are being ferried along stretches of roads and railway trams like rivers. Great areas of land are so changed in appearance that Captain Perry, piloting an Imperial Airways liner from Cologne, had to set a compass e.mrso over the southeastern counties to Croydon, as if flying over the sea.

MACHINE BEHAVES SPLENDIDLY SYDNEY, Jan. 4. Moncrieff states that the machine behaved .splendidly all the way. '1 hey never had a second’s trouble with the engine, and against a strong head wind averaged 120 miles hourly. The monoplane will he checked at Richmond before the ocean flight is undertaken. “GHOST CHURCH.” LONDON, Jan. 3. A lost parish church, of Wnlton.-on-ihcNa/.c, which was engulfed a century ago will) the village, and is now three miles out at sea. dramatically reappeared during an exceptionally low tide, following on a heavy storm.. The belfry is known as the “ghost, church,” and great crowds gathered on tin* sea front to watch the ruin silhouetted against the sky, until the tide returned and again cngulled the building.

PLATINUM DISCOVERY. LONDON, .Tan. 4. THo Colonial Office reports flic discovery of a platinum bearing area in Sierra Leone. / Investigation shows that the area is about forty square miles, and the deposits are likely to be of considerable importance. The Imperial Institute analysis is favourable. Prospectors must satisfy the Sierra Leone Government of their bona tides. Platinum is the most valuable of nil metals. Its price at present is about £l4 per ounce. n.O.R.A. PROPOSALS. LONDON, Jan. 3. Shopkeepers criticise the D.O.R.A. Committee’s recommendations bn the ground that it is unfair to permit the sales of tobacco and sweets in theatres and elsewhere after the shops are closed. They argue that there is no reason why chocolates and cigarettes ■should not he purchased before eight o’clock like any other commodity.

SLAUGHTER, AVOIDED. PARTS, Jan. 3. Marshal Foeh, according to an intoriew with Lo Petit Journal, is able to leep soundly at will, lie was not ired throughout the war, because even f nwakened by a. subordinate, he was iblc to give instructions and go to leep again immediately. He told the literviewer that a big offensive had )cen planned for November 14th. if lie Armistice had not intervened.

FRENCH NAVAL REVIVAL. LONDON, A Paris correspondent says 1927 was a decisive year regarding naval revival. Twenty-five ships, including submarines. wore commissioned, twenty-four laid down, credits voted for nineteen of these, and three air squadrons created. The cost of new construction amounted to £10,728,000 against £2,880,000 for 1924. The first two complete .series of post-war vessels will be ready for service in 1932, including nine cruisers, twenty-one flotilla leaders, thirty-six destroyers, forty-eight submarines and numerous auxiliaries. Two million sterling annually will be spent to provide oil storage at Brest and Toulon. The existing eighteen air squadrons will have increased to fifty by 1938.

WOOL RESEARCH. LONDON. Jan. 4. It is understood that the Empiru Marketing Board proposes to grant a capital sum of £7,000, and an annual maintenance grant of £2,000 for wool research. A new laboratory will be established at Leeds at a cost of £5.000 with equipment costing £2OOO. FOUNDERED IN BLACK SEA. BERLIN. Jan.. 4. An unconfirmed report states the Russian steamer Ogoza foundered in the Black Sea in the height of a storm. A hundred and fifty were drowned. INDUSTRIAL FAIR. LONDON, Jan. 4. The British Industries Fair, tlie biggest yet held, occupying 25.000 square feet, opens at White City on February 20th. New Zealand and Australia and other dominions and colonies have an official exhibit. The .Fair is under the a.uspices of the Empire Marketing Board.