NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1928, Page 8

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

CON VI GTS’ ISLAND HOLI DAY. Thirty-two convicts who have been spending a pleasant three weeks’ holiday in beautiful scenery at Camp Hill Prison, Parkhurst, Island of Wight, returned to Maidstone. Most of the party are serving life sentences. Their work was the clearing of undergrowth from the forests, felling timber, and sawing wood, but they had ample time for recreation. They gave concerts on their own account, assisted by the Camp Hill Prison orchestra. The programmes included violin solos by some of the “lifers.” 'The Inen were allowed to smoke, and Sunday newspapers were supplied to them. The games included chess, draughts 1 , dominoes, and rings. r

P‘,O. ’S “M AR ATHON ’ CAPTURE, Wallace Jones, an absconding inmate of a,poor law institution in Weymouth, recently set himself a hopeless Cask when lie tried to show a clean pair of heels to a policeman. Constable W ai 'd of the Dorset police, saw Jones near TTpwey Wishing Well, and although he was encumbered by his cycle he gave phase. Ward is a quarter-mTTe and half-mile running champion of Dorset, and had no doubt that lie could give Jones two fields start and stand the handicap of a cycle, which he swung acrgss his back. The cbase continued over a two miles’ course full of obstacles and inclines. The going was heavy. Two miles from Dorchester the 'Lampion got his man and took him before the Weymouth justices, who sentenced him to seven day’s hard la l bour. The policeman was congratulated on winning a fine race. GOLDEN-VOICED ROY. Fifteen people, including the local vicar, recently sat around a wireless loud-speaker in the kitchen of a Lancashire family’s home at Morecambe. waiting to hear the “ surprise item ” broadcast by the 8.8i.C. 'from 2L.0. For them it was not a surprise item, for it was Master. Frederick John Firth, the bright-eyed, golden-voiced boy of the house, who, with Mr John Williams, the newly-discovered singer from the mines of Wales, was to be the. “ star turn.” “ Frederick always has been musical,” his mother said. “He could play the piano by ear when he was four, and I think lie could play any instrument after a little practice. He made a whole congregation cry at a Morecambe church once, when he sang ‘There is a Green Hill.’ Now he is taking very well to the violin.”

BLINDFOLDED MOTOR CYCLTSTS

During an interval of dirt track racing at West Ham Stadium, M„ Gaston Ouvrier rode blindfold round the track on a motor cycle, and avoided obstacles placed in his way. Members df the Auto Cycle Club, examined the mask be wore. When Mme. Ouvrier is present in the audience, M. Ouvrier lias more confidence, as, it is stated, thought transmission between them is much more highly developed than it is between him and the crowd. It is apparently a considerable strain on M, Ouvrier to he guided by the thought* of audience, and he lias to take care not to overstrain, as he is a disabled ex-soldier. He suffers form “trench feet,” has only one lung, and has -17 pieces of shrapnel in his body and head One shell fragment is within a millimmetere of His brain and he attributes his “sixth sense” to an unconscious instinct developed to protect him from the danger of receiving a slight blow on the head, which might prove fat al.

“LIDO” COMES TO ENGLAND. An English “Lido” within four miles rtf the heart of Brighton, is Brighton’s latest bid for popularity. It has the rather unromantic name of Saltdean. which is the eastern-most point of Brighton’s new boundary, hut a more picturesque and secluded little spot would be hard to find. Nestlin'! 1 in a tiny bay just beyond Rottingdean. the “Lido” has rapidly become the worshippTng-plaee of the sea and sun bathers. Its sandy shore is gay with bright-coloured tents and brig tiler bathing costumes, while on a prettily laid-out terrace half-way up the cliff is a glass-screened'open-air cafe, where one takes refreshments in bathing costume, bath robe, or any other rig. Parties come by car from miles away usually already costumed for bathing.. Within a few yards oif the shore there are tennis courts and a car park, both of which are generally filled to capacity. Saltdean has but few houses; it is just a delightful, romantic spot where “every prospect pleases.”

BITTER “FRUITS”. “Fruit” machines and another known as “The Little Stockbroker,” which .ire installed in many West End nigtli clubs are providing a source of profit almost as lucrative as that derived from alcohol. The principle of the m | 'bines is apparently simple. A coin is inserted, a lever pulled, three strips revolve, and, according as they stop, the gambler loses his money or receives odds. Machines should hear a notification that they are for the use of members only; hut in some dubs Lhe resen ation is openly ignored, and •'dancing partners” are reaping rich commissions for introducing men to the “ifruit” gamble. In one case 1 last week an elderly man was introduced cn i lie machines by a pretty member of the club staff, in half an hour the bulk of £5 had evaporated, and in that time the man had only recorded two wins—a. 4 to \ and a 3 to 1. Profits of over £SO are to be made in one day, and an expert who has made a special study of the mechanism of these machines states that the odds are 90 to 1 against the plaver winning.

PRINCE AND BUTCHER BiOY. Cyclists, chiefly tradesmen’s messeii. gor boys, recently formed themselves into an unofficial bodyguard for the Prince of Wales during part off his t’.Jt’.vlve-mile drive Ybrough Aberdeen, where he laid the foundation stone o the Forester Hlill Infirmary. A great • crowd had broken through the police cordon and cut off the Prince’s moto" car from those in which were the official civic escorts. When the procession was being reformed, a. butcher’s boy, with basket on His carrier, boldly clung to the side of the Royal ear much to the Prince’s amusement, and the police made futile grabs at him while the Prince laughed more an 1 more, and encouraged the boy to further daring. A black and white dog then darted in behind the motor car, and ran more than a' mile along the route.

An elderly woman flung a red rose, which, to her disappointment, fell short in the roadway, but the Prince immediately had the car slowed down so that she could throw him another—which he caught and placed in his but ton-hole.

ROUND BRITAIN IN A BUS. A single decker omnibus recently completed a remarkable journey round Britain' in six days. The vehicle, which normally seats 33 people carried on the tour eight passengers, and completed the trip of 1829 miles without a mis-" hap. The first stage, .of the journey was from Southall, Middlesex, to Land’s End, in one day. Glasgow was reached the second day by a route along the West of England, and on the third day the bus reached Inverness. The return journey was by the coast road though Aberdeen to’ Edinburgh, and so hack to Southall. In Scotland the bus passed through snowdrifts a foot deep, and along roads only just wide enough to allow it to pass.

BOY BURNED IN STREET. William Cooper aged 11, of Stockdale Road, Battersea, was burned on the face and neck by flames which rose from a drain in Stewarts Road, Battersea. It is thought that some children put carbide clown the drain. Cooper, who had nothing to do with this escapade, was running by when a steel protector on his hoot hit the iron grating of the drain and made a spark, which ignited the gas. The lad was taken to St. Thomas’ Hospital and later to St. dames’ Hospital in a serious condition.

man and GIRLi CHASED BY BULL While walking at night across a field at Mearashby, near Wellingborough, Mr Norman Kingston, of Lewisham, and his fiancee, Miss Dorothy Howell, were attacked by a hull. Miss Howell ran and hid in a hedge while Mr Kingston threw his jacket over the hull’s horns. The animal then went away, trying to free itself from the coat, and the couple made for a gap in the hedge. Mr Kingston-{ helped his fiancee to climb through some barbed wire to safety and went back to try and retrieve his‘ coat. He found it on the grass and was putting it on when he heard the hull behind him. He ran for the hedge and scrambled through a blackberry bush as the hull butted him in the hack.

TAKING THE UATH. Conflicting opinions have been expressed regarding the suggestion of Dr. J. Adams Rawlings, a Swansea justice, that policemen should not take the oath in cases of minor importance, but should affirm. The secretary of the Society of Friends, members or which do not take the oath, in an interview said:—“We do not believe in taking the oath on the principal that it encourages the sett ng up of two distinct standards of truth.” The editor of the official organ of the Rationalists said: “Religious people would be perfectly justified in objecting to oath-taking as irreverent. ’ The secretary of the Protestant Alliance said : ‘‘l can see nothing irreverent in the taking of the oath, provided it is done sincerely—and, of course respected afterwards. ’ ’

THE, 'WORLD’S FIRST TELEGRAM. What was probably the first form of “telegram”, in the world as recently exhibited at the International Congress of Orientalists at Oxford. It consists of a fragment of stone translated means “He died to-day.” This message was brought by “express messenger to the friends of an unknown man 1300 years ago. The Oriental books and manuscripts opened in the Bodleian Library in cannection with the congress. Among other exhibits is a collection of Indian playing cards to each suit, which were used in the sixteenth century. They are circular in shape and represent the signs of the Zod i ac.

MUNIFICENT GIFT OF A “WHITE ELEPHANT.” Columbia Market, Bethnal Green, Liondon, opened in 1869 by the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts, who spent upwards of £200,000 upon it, has been more or less a failure from the beginning. 'Hie bareness’ purpose in building this imposing Gothic edifice was to provide the East End poor with a convenient centre 1 where food and otliei necessaries could be purchased cheaply. But the stallholders and their customers preferred to trade in the streets adjacent, as had been their custom from the time immemorial, and the market remained practically deserted. Attempts were made from time to time to convert it into a fish market, a vegetable market, and a meat market, but all without avail.