GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1932, 28 January 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

ADMIRAL CRADOCK’R MEMORY.

In honour of I lie memory of thelaic Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradnek, the United States authorities have decided to name after him a new town in Virginia, which has been erected in connection with war construction activities. Admiral Cradock lost his life in the action which took place off the coast of Chile on November Ist, 1914, between his squadron, consisting of the cruisers Good Hope, Conmouth, and Glasgow, and von Spec’s squadron, consisting of the Scharnhorst, Gneisonau, Leipzig, and Dresden. £30,700 FOR .JEWELS. Some valuable jewels, the property of two ladies, were dispersed at Messrs Christie’s opening sale, a total of £3(1,720 being realised for 116 lots. The purchasers were nearly all dealers. A single-row necklace of 59- pearls sold for £4,100. An emerald and diamond ring brought £2,850; a brilliant collet necklace, £1,420; a brilliant cluster and circle brooch, £1,200; a brilliant key-pattern muff-chain, £1,0(11); a brilliant brooch, funned as three oval links, £740; and a long brilliant neck-chain, £BOO. STATUE OF MR WILSON. An Anglo-American Society was recently formed in London. The president is the Duke of Conuaugl.it, the deputy-president is Lord Bryce, and among the rice-presidents are the Prime Minister and Mr Asquith, the Speaker, and the Lord Chancellor, and many other distinguished persons. The society has decided that its first act should be to arrange for (he erection of statues of Washington and of Lincoln, already offered from America, and to invite President Wilson to honour the society by allowing if to arrange to have his statue, hy an eminent sculptor, set up in London simultaneously, as a memorial for all time of his distinguished services to humanity at the time of the great war. SUNFLOWER SEEDS. | in response to the appeal made hy the Food Production Department last spring to the public to grow sunflower*, considerable areas in Britain have been used for the purpose. 'i'lie months of September ami October were very .unfavourable for the ripening of late-grow-ing seed crops, and the sunflower crop this season Ims produced an average of only 7cwl. per acre, as compared with an estimated average of 12cv.i., but it is believed that, given .favourable weather, simllowcring-growing on a. large scale has a promising future in the warmer counties of England. It is stated that (he Ministry for Food is offering 59s per cwt for the seed. HILOiOVA I.KER-S ESSENTIM.. Is the shopwalker who has been sevvimr in the forces .to he restored to the tloors of big drapery establishments ? “Tiie shopwalker —or superintendent, as we prefer to call him —is quite indispensable to a well-conducted establishment,” said the manager of a big drapery shoj. in the West-End of London, when the question was pul to him. “His work is highly skilled, and goes far beyond walking about the shop. He is the link lie)ween the customer ami the assistant. In cases of dispute he requires much tact. One of his duties is to keep the assistants up to the mark, and another to help the customers wilii suggest ions. He has to be a man of ideas with regard to the arrangement of the slock, and often helps the management with valuable suggest ions." it is not thought possible that women can replace men in this work permanently. Customers in these shops are mostly women, and a female shopwalker does not inspire in them the same confidence as a man. FAMOUS GERMAN AERODROME. The famous German aerodrome at St. Denis West rein, about 21 miles south of Ghent, from which the Gothas were wont to start on their raids to London., is described hy the first officer of tlie Koval Air Force to reach the ground after it had been evacuated by the Germans. Its area., be says, can be measured in square miles. The general shape of the field is oval, A fringe of low frees gave excellent shelter from the wind, and aid in the concealment' of hangars and workshops. But every building bad been removed,' not a board remained. The entire surface of the ground was fantastically ploughed like a giant check-er-board, and for the tiiffc is useless as a sfarting-point or landingground for aeroplanes. At Bruges, says ihe saffic officer, the docks on one side of the town are a scrap heap as the result of British air raids, and on the other side (he great munition factories have been completely wrecked. In the town proper not a building has been hit. Inhabitants say that after the first few raids they retired with a feeling of perfect security. Truly a contrast'to the expeditions from St. Denis Westrem!