GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2027, 11 September 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

A short time ago it was suggested in the London Times that the good effects of a high-altitude sanatorium might be obtained by means of .captive .balloons. The idea has a good deal of scientific backing. An atmosphere entirely free from germs is*one. of the medical attract ions of the Swiss mounllun 'resorts. This can be obtained at 5.000 ft. above any English town. Tubercular patients might thus bo able to have sanatorium treatment of a'new kind after the same manner. That the subject is being considered in a serious spirit is proved by the fact that details have already been worked out as to..the requirements for titting out a captive airship as a tuberculosis sanatorium. ,

The New York magistrates have been puzzled to account for the large'number of drivers brought before them charged with violations of the traffic regulations. The total readied over ‘2OO a day, and the majority of the eases were dismissed because there appearedno ground for the issue of .I he summons. They discovered (ho reason when one of the attendants in the Traffic Control picked up from the floor a typewritten order addressed to policemen from headquarters, directing each man to arrest at least live motorists every day. The magistrate, Mr House, who has a reputation fur strictness in dealing with traffic offenders, expressed disapproval of the order. A fight* to the death between a bull-dog and a horse was described at Bow County Court recently, when James William Watson, a discharged soldier, sued S. Levy and Sons, tailors, to recover the price of the horse. IMainlitf’s counsel slated that Watson, having bought the horse, arranged with Levy for staiding it. Later, lie found a bulldog belonging to Levy bad the horse jyv the throat. There way a terrific struggle between the two animals, Watson tried to call the dog off, but tyas unable to do so, and the horse, becoming exhausted, fell on the dog, killing it. The horse, said counsel, was so cruelling tortured (hat a veterinary surgeon advised it should he slaughtered. Judgment was given against Levy for £22. An interesting story of the beginning of the greai motor ambulance service attached to the British Army was told,by Sir Arthur Stanley at a reunion of ambulance drivers at London. “We bad recourse,” he said, “to the aid of a lady of great influence, who announced her intention of going into Lord Kitchener's room nl the War Office and not leaving it until we got permission to go. She kepi her word, as ladies always do.” (Laughter.) “The result was a half-sheet of paper with the most astonishing ungrammatical message, signed by Lord Kitchener, which gave ns the right to sea re It for the wounded so long as we kept.far away from the front line; ami haying got that order, we promptly disobeyed it.”

At the annual mooting of supporters of tlio Homo, Battersea, it was staled that an advertisement was recently published offering to dispose of a dog in the home, and applications by letter were received from J,5.10 people, while there were 128 telegrams to (he same effect, besides numerous offers on (he telephone. In all there were about 3,000 applications for the dog, at prices ranging from Ids to eight guineas. Finally the animal was restored to its owner, who had lost it some months previously. Special interest attaches to the announcement that some lucky babies will shortly be wheeled about in prams, the framework of which will be made from the , tubing of crashed aeroplanes,, some of them, no doubt, Genuan ones. The scrap value of the metal tubing was found ■to be on£y £5 a ton. Then it occur** red to someone that the tubing might be put to practical use. The idea developed, and now the undamaged portions of the tubing are cut off and sold for making the framework of baby carriages at no less than £9O a. ion.

In the French wanton of Ibrnl-medy-Meuse there were 10,492 inhabitants before the war, whereas to-day there are but (1,305. The population of the district of Muntinedy the day the armistice was signed was 13,389'; before the war it was 48,193. There are no inhabitants left in the canton of Dun-sur-Meuse; while the canton of Domvillers has only 357 persons left out of a former 5,074. The population of Verdun has shrunk from 67,171 to 6,165. The cantons of Charny, Etain, Fresnes-sur-Meuse and Yareunes are now deserted, while before the war their populations were respectively 10,337, 9,561, 9,011, and 4,980,