GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1948, 6 March 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

KAISER OUT SHOOTING. The ex-Kaiser, accompanied by his host and the latter's brother, went shooting recently in the woods on Count Bentinck’s property. The ■ex-Kaiser only look near shots, because his aim is slow owing to his short arm. He wore a fur coat and a fur cap. VICAR ELECTED BY BALLOT. Freeholders of Orton, England, recently elected by ballot, under a deed of the patron of the living, the Rev. J. King, of Blackpool, as the new vicar." Two of the candidates received no votes. This is the only case in England in which an Anglican clergyman is elected by ballot. SAVED BY HUN FEARS. The Germans before leaving the Mons-Charleroi coalfields made systematic preparations for extensive destruction, but at the last minute, under fear of reprisal, they abstained from blowing up the mines. From many of them, however, they stole essential parts of the machinery, so that the mines cannot for a long time produce their normal output, and furnish the winter supplies urgently required in France, which must continue to draw upon British stocks. The Germans have blown up railway bridges and canal locks, and barges have been de-j stroyed or taken away, paralysing! the inland waterways upon whichj Belgian transport so greatly depends.

TRAWLER BLOWN UP. While fishing about 20 miles north-west of Kinnaird Head, off Aberdeenshire, the steam trawler Grecian Prince, was blown up by a mine, and eight of the crew of ten were drowned. The mine, getting entangled in the nets, humped against the side of the trawler, and the explosion blew the stern of the vessel clean oil’. Two of the lost men wore father and son, who were skipper and mate respectively.

EX-CROWN PRINCE AND LADA

The Amsterdam Telegraph publishes a report rellecting on the moral conduct of (he cx-Crown Prince, now at Wciriugen—an island in the Zuyder Zee —alleging that when he left a certain house, at which a lady from Amsterdam was staying, the crowd made a hostile demonstration, and he was only able to save himself by flight. The paper adds (hat the police subsequently look action, with the result that a certain German Baron staying at the hotel and the Amsterdam lady in question have since left the island.

SNAKE BY PARCEL POST. What roads like the opening of a ■ detective story is reported from Hongkong. A parcel, neatly wrap-: ped in brown paper, was handed in at the General Post Office by a Chinese coolie, lie said (hat it contained (lower bulbs, and that the sender was a European lady. In due course the parcel was delivered at the address of a European gentleman, who (old his office boy to open it. When he lifted the lid of the box a snake, one of the most poisonous of the tropics, five feet in length, debouched and struck at the boy’s hand. It missed, and was captured before it could do any harm. WHALE MEAT' AS A FOOD. Whale meal has long been a popular part of the national diet in Japan. Since the war began it lias been tried and found good in America. Whale meat is so much like beef that the ordinary person who knew no better could not tell the difference. Ninety-eight per cent, of it is digestible, as against ninetythree per cent, of beef. One-fifth of a whale is meat, to say nothing of his heart (which weighs about a ton and a-balf), his tongue, etc-. As moat, n whale'oOl’t. long is equal to a hex'd of 100 steers. The great sea mammal is absolutely free from disease; he doesn’t have to be fed or otherwise cared for; and genei'alty speaking he offers a great field of enterprise. TANKS IN CIVIL LIFE. Having Avon its spurs in the Avar, the lank is now being adapted to commercial uses. It is towing barges on the French canals, and arrangements are to lie made for its general use for this purpose. It is doubtful Avhether such an enterprise can be emulated in England. A. reporter was informed that the matter had not yet been seriously considered, but the difficulties in the Avay Avere so great that it Avas not likely they should see tanks on the (owing-paths. “I think avc should have to build the canals to fit the tanks,’’ said an official of the Grand •function Canal. “Our inland Avatex*Avays are different from those of the Continent, and I don’t, think the tank method could be successfully adopted hero. ToAving-paths are not wide enough, and bridges are too frequent and too loav. On our oaati system alone Ave have from 250 to 300 bridges, and they have only eight or nine feet headway. In a good many eases (here is trouble to get a tall horse under them, and I do not see how a tank could manage it at all, unless it was very much smaller than anything Ave have seen yet."