NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 October 1929, Page 7

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

EASY SUICIDE ALARM. The British Home Office is alarmed at the number, of unnatural deaths that have occurred 'recently. Pait’i-;-y cular concern has /been aroused by the ease with which deadly poisons can he obtained, and by the epidemic of suicides by gas poisoning. There i.s reason to believe that proposals will lie made to adopt the plan of French chemists, and make the taste of arsenic and other poisons unmistakeable. Regulations may also be imposed to deal with the use- of gas. 12 YEARS LONGER' LTFE. “I do not think the public realise that being born to-day they are liable to live twelve years longer than their grandfathers,” said Professor Bostoek Hill at the Institute of Hygiene. “I <, began public health work fifty-three , years ago,” he added. ‘‘lt is an cxf thing that public health efforts in that time have increased the life of the public of this country, at birth by twelve years. That means also that illness and the misery consequent on it lias been corresponding-

]y decreased. There arc ample reasons for self-congratulation on the part of those engaged in public health work.” BOYS FALL ON TRAIN. A seven-year-old Neath boy, Frank ! Curtis, sou of Mr Clifford Janies Cur- ; tis, of Penrhiewtyn, had a remarkaide escape from death in a fall on to a train. Playing with/- other boys on a bridge over the Great Western Railway near his home, lie,rolled over the ( parapet just as- a passenger train was i. passing. He alighted on the last coach, j but rebounded off it and ■ fell clear j of the train on to.the up line. A rail- 1 wav worker who saw him tumble ran to the spot and was just in time to rescue him from another oncoming train, 'i lie lad was removed, to Swansea Hospital with a fractured arm, a scalp wound, and severe shock. DTD TIER DOG KILL HER? To 'account Tor a womans death by gas poisoning at Liverpool the theory, was put forward at the inquest that the gas tap was turned on by a dog as be pounced to catch a mouse, f Both the dog and its mistress, Mrs Mabel McCain, of Clubmoor, bad been found unconscious. The woman died in hospital, but. the dog recovered. Thu 'coroner recorded a verdict of death from coal gas poison-

ing, there being no evidence to show how thh tap came to be turned on. BOY’S PRANK CAUSES A PANIC. A sudden cry of “fire” created a panic at a children’s matinee in the itrumlin 'Picture House, Belfast. There was. a mad rush for the doors, and several children were knocked down and trampled upon. Two girls, Edna Sloan and Josephine , McAvoy, were so severely injured as to neccs- . sitato their removal to hospital suffering from bruises, internal injuries and shock. It is stated that a boy’s' foolish prank was the origin of the stampede. He flashed an electric torch and shouted “fire.” CITY OF PRETTY GIRLS. Nottingham was annoyed during the summer months at the repeated assertions that the prettiest girls in England are to lie found at the seaside resorts. “And I don’t mind telling you,” said one of the c.ty fathers in an interviov, “that they cam still hold their own with the girl anywhere. The remarkable thing is that you find extralordtnary beauty among lassies of the working classes. 1 suppose- generations of bard work lias kept their figures supple and ilicir wits active, and the splendid air has looked after their complexions.”

UNAVOIDABLE. An invention which will enable a torpedo discharged" from a submarine to travel invisibly through the water has been made by a Spanish naval officer, Don Manuel Garcia Diaz, who ,was recently decorated by the King of Spain. A submarine when submerged is. practically invisible, but a torpedo fired from a submarine leaves a wake which is easily seen by an enemy. Senor Diaz’s invention, it is claimed, will enable the torpedo to be fired without the least evidence of its discharge or passage. Subrnarnes could thus strike without warning and without rusk of detection. GO SHRIMPING. Prawn-catching and shrimping is the latest novelty in sport. Its popularity is said to be due to the fact that an amateur praw,n-catcher can, ;to an even greater extent than an angler, wear absolutely anything—as long as it is waterproof. While most of their friends are preparing to leave for S otland many authors, City magnates and professional men of London, journey down to little-known villages on the south coast, there to don yellow oilskin trousers, guernseys 'and big high boots. Then- all day they wane up and down the shallow waters off shore armed with a yard-Wide net in search of the wily shrimp, and enjoying: respite from every social convention. - • DUCK EGGS RISK. At the adjourned inquest at Mold on James Walker, aged 60. who died at tire Antelope Hotel, Rhydymwyn, Flintshire, Dr W. IT. Grace, of Chester, said that the post-mortem examination revealed growths which belonged to a group of powerful food poisoning organisms. Some of these were frequently a puzzle to determine, and they.nearly always proved fatal. This narticular poison organism was not found in tinned food, but for some extraordinary reason in duck eegs, and it was a comrlete mystery now it got the- v It- might bo found in one egg in IT,HIT). Walker died from an infection of food .poisoning Tim coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.