GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2040, 11 October 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

. In making a.-bequest to: bis son, Mr Henry Kavanagh Bone, of (lie London Stock Exchange, .wrote in his will:—“l.express my strong wish That he .will leave the Stock Exchange at my death.” ' The estate is*valued at '£(>-1,206, which goes to .(lie testator's son, except for about two or throe thousand pounds left chiefly to servants.

The Petit Journal gives publicity to rumours that: the 'champion French ace, Boyati, is still living. He disappeared on September 18th, 1018, just after securing his 35th victim, who fell in flames, lain efforts had been made to find 80-' van’s grave. Recently a letter was received from a man who says he was in the same hospital as Boyan, who was wounded, but in no danger of dying. The Red Cross has made public a report dealing with the work of the allied anti-typhus train which has been operating in Siberia under the direction of the American Red Cross and in charge of Captain Rudolph Bukely. “The Ureal While Train," as it is known, is now at Perm. The reputation of the tram as an etteeii\'e weapon in fighting typhus has spread far ami wide. The report stale-; that 20,000 men have been handled by the personnel during the six months the train has been out, f Who wants to Imy a magnificent castle, “overlooking the Atlantic Ocean,” as the advertisement reads? Lord Carhery has decided that (lie old place isn’t what it used to be to him, so Iftis given notice that he is willing to dispose of Castle Preke, Ireland.. Tt is a mosl historic and beautiful spot, ami stands near .(he picturesque remnants of Rathbary, which was surrendered to (hiplain Harvey for Queen Elizabeth in the somewhat remote day aml date of 1002. The place simply reeks with tradition.

When the Princess Royal opened a hostel in London for limbless men, Lieutenant-Colonel Gpenshaw declared, that a man could swim belter without bis legs than with them. Striking evidence in support of this contention was forthcoming at the recent aquatic spoils held in. connection with the Bright on Limbless Hospital, among the prize-winners being a corporal with both thighs severed, and a private legless below the knee. Other swimming prizewinners were one-armed and onelegged. The latter class ran races on crutches far faster limn on their feet, while men with no legs at all raced in their wheel-chairs.

A very neat capture was recently effected by the Dalstou police, who had received an anonymous postcard stating that at Hva Place workingmen were in (he habit of assembling and gambling away their earnings at the game of “pieman” —betting on chance that two half-pennies spun from a flat piece of wood would reach the ground "in pairs of heads or tails.” Securing a van, it was driven up to the entrance of 11 va Place —a enl-de-sae. The' doors at the back opened, and 20 policemen surprised 14 men inlent on Hie game. They were quickly placed in the van and driven to the police station.

Using the entire earease of a horse for bail, a Honolulu sportsman went fishing recently in a pow-er-boat. and returned with a fish weighing 2,500 lbs. and measuring 20 ft. from lip to tip, the largest shark killed in Hawaiian waters for many years, Shark-fishing, or father hunting, as it is conducted in Hawaii, is a thrilling sport, not entirely. larking in danger to the hunter. In fuel, a death bailie with a harpooned shark, according to big game hunters, is about as safe as a midnight combat with a hungry tiger. shark-hunter first obtains a dead horse, and if it has been dead a week so much the better. The power-boat tows Hie earease outside the harbour, and the hunt is on. Sharks, attracted by the odour of the bait, gather in large numbers, and soon begin striking at llio earease, ripping huge chunks of flesh from it. At this stage the hunter endeavours to work his boat near enough to permd a shot with the harpoon. Once securely harpooned a big shark will tight tor hours before succumbing.

, Infant being discovered in England almost daily. One of the youthful marvels is Pamela Bianco, a 13-year-old girl urlist, whose drawing were given the place of honour in an exhibition at one of the principal London galleries. Critics dealt with them quite seriously, and said that the work was suggestive of Botticelli and some of the other old masters. Pamela is an Italian girl who was horn in Kayland, and never had taken any drawing lessons. Bonnie Ron Hedge, four years * old, little more than a baby, whose parents know nothing of music, has enjoyed six months of tuition on the violin. At tlie Grimsby College of Violinists recently he outranked 43 competitors, most of them in the twenties, and scored 110 points in a possible 120. Professor Danlon describes him as a miracle. Little Bobbie Day, aged seven, of Brighton, son of a motor mechanic, has wonderful powers of clairvoyance. Blindfolded, he described a number of articles. These included a Treasury note, giving its colour, numbers, and writing on the hack, the colour and texture of a piece of fabric, he had never seen, the correct answer to a complicated sum in mental arithmetic, the figures written down at random. After " live minutes’ test he complained of feeling icy cold. “I just see little pictures, and I just say them,” is Bobbie’s explanation.