NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 May 1929, Page 7

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

1.5 MINUTES RALLY AT TENNIS. Tennis circles on the Riviera have iK'cn greatly interested by an extraordinary rally that occurred in the film, .it the ladies’ open singles competition at Bordighcra, Italy. Mrs Satterthwaitli (Great jiritain) and Sigimrina Yaierivi (italy) were the linalists. The rally lasted between 15 and 1G minutes, during which time s .me 425 strokes ,vcre played, drives and lobs alternating. At the end of the rally the talian girl collapsed.' During the time he finalists in the men’s singles Herr von Kehrling and Signor de Stelani. lisposed of five complete games. POISONED WHILE SLEEPWALKING. Death due to poisoning from prussic .cid taken during a suite of somnam.ulisui was the verdict of a S.arhornigli inquest on N. Sykes. The youth .vas the son of the Karesborougli postmaster, and was employed as an apirentice at a local chemist’s shop. He vas found dead in bed, and medical evidence showed that he had been sleep-walking since childhood. Three bottles were found in the boy’s pockets. His duties included the removal oi die bottles in the chemist store for replenishment, and it was thought hat he had apparently forgotten all ibout the bottles while attending n ustomer and had taken them home.

YEAR-OLD MYSTERY OF THAMES

An extroardinary situation has aris .'u in regard to the headless body of a .voman recovered from the Sunbury jock in November last. An inquest vas held at the time, but it was found mpossible to identify the body. Re■ently Mrs Howell, of Sidmouth Road, informed the police that she tad seen in a newspaper dated Novemior 1, the circumstances of the revov-M-y of the body. She expressed her elief that it' was that of her sistern law, Miss Mathilda Alice Howell vlio had been missing since February, 928. The newspaper gave a wrong Inscription of a shoe and a pair o! stockings which, had been recovered 'mm the water, lint Mrs Howell wir able to say that her sister wore suede shoes, and the slioe found was made of suede. CLAIMANT TO MILLIONS. The death in Nottingham General ilosplital of John Thomas Edwards (GO), of Moorbritlge Lane, Stapelford. •obs the world of a romantic figure. Although he laid claim to- the “Edvards” millions, he died as a result ol icing knocked down by an engine on the L.M. and S. Railway at Stanton ate, while following his occupation « a platelayer. “Jack” Edwards was born at King Swiverton, Staffs, and it was his claim that his great grandather’s brother, who was migrated to America about 1770, was the Roberl Edwards who went out to the U.S.A. md purchased land on which New York’s famous Broadway, with its Woolworth’s and other buildings, now stands. The value of that site is enlnnous, and the “Edwards” millions are founded on it. John Edwards had a family Bible showing completely bis descent from Robert Edwards. He once attended a, lecture in Stapleford, where views were presented showing the actual site which he claim >d.

ASK A POLICKMah i World wide faith in the kindness >f English policemen was illustrated by :iss Gordon, the London secretary ol he Travellers’ Aid Society, when she spoke in Liverpool. The society, slie said, was asked to help a young Spanish woman who was unable to speak my English. She arrived in London m her way to her brother at Glasgow. She was armed with a letter which wan ..tklressed to “Mr Policeman, London.” It read: “Mr Policeman*—l, die bearer, am a Spanish subject cum.ng from Spain on the way to Glasgow, .s 1 don’t know what train I must get for Glasgow, will you he so kind in u , take me there? 1 will pay you the lure lor the cab as far as the station, (hank you very much for this favmr.” On another occlusion, said Miss Jordon, a seven-year-old Swiss girl arrived in London with a placard .tanging round her neck announcing that her mollur was waiting lor her tit Victoria Station. Some time elapsed before they discovered it was Victoria Station, Manchester.

STORY OF A WOMAN HERMIT. The death has occurred at St. T)ogniae s, a lisliing village two miles from Cardigan, of a woman recluse who lived in terrihle circumstances. She a as Mary Ann Davies, a well-to-do • Itlerly .spinster. About a month ago the sanitary inspector of the St. Dognaels Rural District Council had occasion t) visit her, and reported to the council that the house was far from what was desirable, and its occupant in a lillhv condition. IFt hands and face were jet black, and could be taken for those of a coloured person. She had lost the use of lmr and crawled about an her knees. She had not been to bed for a fort-

night, sat on the hob during the day with her legs st ret . bed over a grate containing a coal lire, and slept before the fire at night, partly in the ashes. She had recently, for some purpose, applied paraffin to her hair. It caught alight, and she was nearly burnt to death. The report mentioned that not very long ago her next door neighbour, who lived in like circumstances, had been burnt to death. Mi-.s Davies was “a very intellectual woman” ami despised any domestic assistance that was offered her, added the inspector.

CENTENARY REVELS AT ZOO. There was high jinks at the Loud n Z. o last month when it celebrated iti one hundredth birthday. Grey-haira M.r George Blore, the keeper ivlio lias charge of the vast ostrich house, sp-k-. about the inhabitants including the cinerous vulture, known as “George.’ - , “Geirge,” who has been at the Zo<; 29 years, is getting a little quick-tem-pered. There a.re tortoises which an more than 150 years old, hut even they have not he n at tlie Zoo longei than “George.” I love looking aftei my ’SO charges, although some of then are a hit of a handful,” said Mr Blore. “One of them, ‘Mable,’ the marabou, who is fort.v years old, lias been here since 1902—only two years less than the. cinereous vulture. She is getting a litt’e touchy. My pet? Oh, that’s old Paddy, a two-hundred-weight os trieh. He was very bad-tempered when he came. He tried to kick me—and he can kick—but I made friends with him, and now we are great pals. Peo pie who speak of the ostrich as beinp a stupid bird who hides bis head ir the sand and thinks he cannot b< seen, do not command my respect at all. Ostriches are as cute as any thing, and do this to protect theii most vita part—the head. But they can he so nasty!” KILLED BY A MOUSE. A mouse has caused the death of an elderly woman at Orchardtbn Farm Garlieston, Wigtownshire. Mrs (Elizabeth Heron,ShTllan, wife of .a farn worker, was engaged on the top of a threshing mill when a mouse run op’ from the sheaves. Startled, she step ped back, and her left leg became entangled in the mill rollers, and she was drawn into tlio machinery and fatally injured. BRIDGE MAXIMS FOR MARRIED Maxims for married bridge players have been drawn up by Judge'Sabatli. of Chicago, who declared that of tin 18,000 divorce cases he had heard duiing six months many were as a resuh of bridge differences. His rules are:— Husband and wife should never pla; as partners unless essential. Deal a few kind words with every hand Always smile regardless of whetlie your wife is playing north, south east or west. Even though the fac. is obvious, never say your partner idummy. “Slam” and “Bust” ar bridge terms; don’t take them liter ally.

FACING A PROBLEM. That the Government is aliv© to its responsibilites in regard to noxious weeds was made clear by the Hon G W. Forbes, Minister of Lands and Agriculture, at P'irongia. He said that ragwort was a serious troubland a menace to any dairying district, but not so much where settlers wen I in for sheep. The Government had sel aside a sum of money for the purposi of clearing noxious weeds, or assisting in their eradication on Crown Lamb A considerable amount of work ha'" already been done, and about £12,00 had already been spent on the object.