MISCELLANEOUS.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 February 1928, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

•• CAPTAIN KETTLE.” "There never was an original ' Captain Kettle.” declared Mr l ulrlilfe H viic, the creator of the famous fiction character, with the torpedo heard and ready pistol, addressing the Leeds Luncheon Chib. " The fact was," he explained, " 1 wanted to get married, mid thought I might make enough to buy some furniture. Tlial was the real ‘'cucsis of 'Captain Kettle.'” HIGH-SPEED AMBULANCE. London is to have a high-speed ambulance filled with special braking so as to ensure saletv in last travelling. This vehicle is being built lor the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and will he specially adapted for street incident work. A thermostat is fitted between the engine and the radiator so :ls t„ ensure a quick depart my after the ambulance has been standing Ini some lime.

BIRD’S FLIGHT ABOVE FOG. When Hying from Paris to London over a fog hank which extended unbroken for 100 miles. Captain A. S. Wilcockson. of Imperial Airways, saw ~ wedge-shaped formation of lards Hying over Poix, 15 miles from Amiens when he noticed the birds, which were moving steadily in a southerly direction. A naturalist said that tlie birds were most, likely wild geese on a southerly migration. £Bl9l FROM GARDENS. It was announced at a. meeting of the Executive, committee of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Institute tor Nurses. London, that through the scheme arranged by the National Memorial to Queen Alexandra, under which famous gardens in England and Males were opened to the public, £Bl9l had been raised. The King, it was stated. had been greatly interested in the scheme, and had suggested that it: should he made permanent, and the King and Queen had consented to open the Sandringham gardens again. A VERY QUEER HOUSE. The strange experiences ot a London business man in a house declared to he haunted were described in the London “Daily Mail.” The exact address was not given, hut the article led a reader to write asking if the house were the same as one he once lived in—and gave the correct address. He said: "1 am not an imaginative man. hut (.luring the short time I lived there 1 had very bad luck and f beard similar strange noises during the night to those described by the recent occupant. 1 also heard footfalls outside my bedroom, but never saw anything. My servants also heard these noises, and two of them refused to stop. Shortly after I took the house I got pneumonia and nearlv died. The man who took the house after me. shortly after his marriage, died within two months. There is no humbug about it. it is a very queer house!” TINY. BUT FIT. In the Babies’ Hotel in London there is a baby girl who weighs only op, in/, at the age of six weeks. A fair-sized doll is a giant alongside her. Twelve days after her birth the baby turned the scales at 21b 2',oz. She is healthy, and the matron and licr staff are confident she will grow up well.