NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 July 1929, Page 8

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

THE WORLD’S OLDEST EGG'S. It is now said that an error of 85,000,000 years was made in computing the age of the dinosaur eggs found last year in the Gobi Desert, Manchuria, by Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History. While the explorer at first i.jestimated them to be only ld,uX;,boQ years old, other physicists, geologists and paleontologists, employing the latest scientific methods, have now helped Dr Andrews to make a new estimate of the age of the eggs at about 95,000,000 years. TAXPAYERS’ “HOWLERS.” “Howlers,” perpetrated by taxpayers in the endeavour to grapple with their forms are given in the current issue of “Taxes,” the journal of the Association of Officers of Taxes. Among the brighter examples are the following:—“I have purchased a holding in 4 per cent confounded War Loan.” (This comes from Glasgow.) “I have transferred my holding in War Ronds to 01 fier cent Conver sation Loan.” “This stock is held by deceased’s executioners.” A woman wrote, “Dear Sir, —Receive your income tax this morning. My husband keeps to his bed, and this is very hard.” THE WORLD’S LOFTIEST CAPITAL. La Paz, Bolivia, where the people recently demonstrated against Paraguay, is the loftiest capital in the world, for it stands on a mountaintop 12,470 feet above sea-level. This is 2,000 feet higher than Quito, in Ecuador, and 5,030 feet higher than Mexico City. Its nearest rival for height is the far-distant Lhasa, which stands at an- altitude of 11,830 feet. The mean temperature of La Paz is 50 degrees Fahrenheit. But tile cold nights arc unrelieved by fireside comforts, as the folk have nothing to burn, neither coal nor trees in the desolate mountainous regions around the city. “FOAM BARK.” In Queensland there is a tree the baf’k of which is utilised to produce the froth on beer. It is the pink tamarind, but is commonly known as “foam bark.” Previous to the war, South American “soap bark” was used for this purpose, but when those supplies were unobtainable, recourse made to the bark of the Queensland “pink tamarind,” which proved to be just as good. This tree is found very useful to the native aboriginals. When they want fish for breakfast, they fill a ibag with the bark and swish it about on the surface of a water-hole, and produce a lot of foam. This attracts fish to the surface, where they become ready prey to the agile fisherman.

LOST EAST ANGLIA. The fate threatening the Suffolk coast village of Pakefield is one which has already overtaken many places on the East Coast, even in comparatively recent times. Hie sea is constantly eating away the land, particularly on the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts. Old maps show numerous towns and villages which arc now merely shoals and sandbanks. The ancient parish of Shipden has long since been washed away, and the West Rock Shoal mentioned on navigators’ charts marks the site of the lost town of Orwell. The city of Dunvitli was once a prosperous port, hut only a few houses now remain. Watts Dunton’s novel, “Aylwin,” gives a vivid account of its church crumbling and crashing into the weaves during a storm.

NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND. Mr William Clarke Hall, the magistrate, at the opening of Haddo House Parliament Hill (one of the homes for working boys in London) t.nlu a pathetic story of the life of a man now aged 65. “The other day this old man came before me,” he said. “He had been convicted 41 rimes before for theft. He was a kindly, gentle old man, (but he had never had a chance as a boy, and as soon as lie came out of prison he stole ag.am !•<■. cause ho did not know what else to do, and went *rcw t> pri-on again. I thought I would give him a chance. I have found him a job as a night watchman, where there is nothing he can steal except a few bits of coal. That man has cost the country £3OOO while on the credit side there is only an 1 - infinite tragedy of a wasted life.’’

THE ICE BLASTER. If Sir Hubert Wilkins carries out his daring plan of going to the North Pole by submarine and blasting his way upwards through the ice, he will have at his disposal, thanks to experiments made in recent years of destroying icebergs, a chemical agent which is more destructive of ice than any explosive. Thermit consists ol finely-powdered aluminium mixed with iroon oxides, and, within a short time of ignition, the mixture attains s temperature of 3000 degrees. Charges of it placed in Atlantic icebergs by the (Ulifted States ice patrols have set up such heat waves that the plateaux of bergs as high as 500 ker above the water have been melted in a couple of days. LENGTH OF A KISS. How lony and how passionately ought an actor to kiss an actress in a love scene? This question has been raised by’ 'a- spectator of the now play, “Rolls Iloyce,” at the Mathurins Theatre, just off ,the boulevards, Paris. The spectator, who is a Paris architect, laid an information with the police”' against tha actors, and the management, declaring that the kissing sceiie is carried to so realistic a point that it might endanger public morals. . M. Saturn in Fabre, who, with Mile. ' France Ellys, is responsible for the scene in question, frankly declared that he did not know how it would strike a spectator. “Neither of us,” he said, “knows exactly what our acting may look like, as we forget ourselves in our roles. But we cannot believe we have done anything shocking.”