NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1783, 31 January 1918, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

A surgical glove has been invented which will enable a man who has lost the use of the tendon in the back of the hand to be able to write just as well as if he had those tendons there. This statement was made by Surgeon-General Sir 'Francis Treherne.

An investigation into the length of life in Great Britain and Ireland from the year 1500 A.D. to the present day is being made by the Medical Research Committee. It is based on the ages of those whose birth and death have been recorded in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Dynamite has played such a prominent part in warfare in modern times, and has also figured so much in outrages perpetrated all over the world, that but few people seem conversant with the fact that it is of comparatively recent creation, having been first experimented with at Merstham (Surrey) in 18(58.

It was reported at the Licensed Victuallers’ Defence League Conference at Southport, England, that the Ministry of Food has refused to allow a supply of sugar for hot drinks in public houses, and the suggestion was made that cards should be hung up in public-houses, asking customers who require sugar to bring their own with them.

An Eltham resident of some years' standing, whose business takes him at regular intervals along the road to Kaponga, contrasts the present with the past. In the past days—say, fifteen years ago —the whole of the journey was permeated with the smell of cow and cow yards. The perfume screamed at people as they drove along the road, and seemed to remain in one's nostrils for hours after getting back to Eltham. In those days many of the cow yards were’ filthy beyond present-day belief. Now there are clean, concrete yards, byres nicely whitewashed, manure systematically used, and filth has given way to cleanliness. But the attempt to bring about the present reform threw the Liberals out of office.— Argus.

A senseless hoax, in the shape of an appeal for assistance for allegedly marooned seamen, was perpetrated recently. A bottle containing the following message was picked up recently in Australian waters: —“For God’s sake come and send help to us. We are on an island somewhere within 100 miles of Melbourne, low and woody, two conical hills, exactly north and south. We are due south-east of Heads. Wallace Reid, second officer, .Seagull, schooner,” The vessel mentioned was found to be the properly of (he Leyland-O’Brien Timber Company, Ltd., of Auckland, and the Commonwealth director of lighthouses, Mr T, F. Ramsbotiom, cabled the company a copy of the message, and asked the whereabouts of the ship. He also stated, however, that the document was possibly a hoax, as" the description of the island was nothing like, any of the islands between Victoria and Tasmania. The owners of the .Seagull replied that it was safe in New Zealand waters.

An interesting tight be!ween a

shark and big eel was witnessed last week from the rocks at Scott’s Point, Humpybong (says the Brisbane Daily Mail). A big eel foraging up the tidal basin was attacked by ;y blue shark between three and four feet Jong, and a ding-dong go, lasting a full three or four minutes, vvjj.s fought out. TJie shark held the ee) across the head and throat, and with powerful forward thrusts savaged his prey, the eel meanwhile forcing the tight inshore. Twice the eel threw the shark clear of the water, somersault fashion, and the alternating flash of white bellies and hushing tails was quite inspiring. The fight held till the combatants came into shoal water, and the shark let go, but as the cel broke dear he made a final stroke which severed a foot of eighteen inches of tail. The pel, dreadfully wounded, swam slowly along the roeks, and sought refuge in it cranny, not deeply submerged, where he was marked down. Patience and a stout boathook secured him as the tile waters receded, Investigation .showed him to be a ropk eel, or moray, of the silver variety, thicker than the upper arm of a powerful man, and what was left of him was 4£t. long. • - _