NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2042, 16 October 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The night before his execution, Beckett, the Forest Gate murderer, made a* will, bequeathing a silver Turkish tobacco-box and a gold signet ring to Mr, H. G. Carter, his solicitor. An army officer has now offered to buy the box for a wedding gift to a well-known soldier peer, who is to he .married soon in London.

A novel and up-to-date mode of procedure is said to have been adopted by a West End thief, who is supposed to have used a cylinder of gas to stupefy the victim. A lady was waiting for a bus, when the noxious fumes overcame her. She was taken suddenly with nausea, giddiness and faintness, hut after a few moments was able to pull herself together. She then found that a large parcel, the string of which had been wound round her-hand, had been stolen, the string having been cut. The value of a stamp collection as collateral security is strikingly demonstrated by an episode arising out of the Bolshevik administration of Russia. A French hank representative in Petrograd wishing to return to his native land, was told that lie must not take more than 1.000 francs in cash with him. Determined to outwit the Soviet autlioriities, lie converted as much of his cash as possible into rare postage stamps. With only the stipulated 1.000 francs in his pocket, he permitted to cross the frontier unmolested, ami on arriving in Paris was able to realise on his purchase to the extent of 80,000 francs, which he would otherwise have been compelled to forfeit. Why do cows love aeroplanes, asks a writer in a Loudon paper. Recently, near Staines, I saw a very big machine make an enforced landing on a great stretch of grazing laud near (he Colne. Instead of being frightened, the numerous cows in the field ail started off at a great pace to see this strange and wonderful visitor. There was a race t rom all quarters of the field, and by the time the ’plane came to .rest it was surrounded by about a hundred curious cows. Small hoys had to he told off to disperse them, and it was only by very skilful manoeuvring that none was converted by the propeller into beef. They even started to follow it as it rose and (lew uwa v.

, A. striking' report will shortly be published in England by the Parliamentary Committee appointed to consider the work of the Stationery Otlice, which costs the country several million pounds a year. Some extraordinary... instances of otlicial waste have been reluctantly disclosed. Two instances may be cited. Both occurred during the war, at a time when paper was rationed and very scarce. The Food Ministry ordered (i,090,000 copies of one pamphlet, and when they had been printed it was discovered that an error had been made in it by a Food Ministry official —not the printer — and the whole lot became sera]). Another Ministry ordered 1,000,000 copies of a large document, of which only 20,000 have been, or are oyer likely to he, used.

The (Euvre publishes a -story, as singular as it is horrible, and which shows how a musical instrument may prove a valuable police auxiliary. A series of ghastly and revolting crimes were recently committed in the Nurd Department, and in spite of all their efforts the police were unable to trace the perpetrator of them. Shortly afterwards a Kallir, a deserter from the British Army, who was imprisoned at Hazehrouck, requested (lint he might be lent a banjo, so that lie could evoke (he aid of music to wile away the tedium of his captivity, Ihe prisoner had lus banjo, hut he also bad a guard with a taste for music and with• some knowledge of the Kaffir dialect. The guard listened at the door to the rhythmic dirge which came from within the cell. M hat he heard made him shudder. The deserter was confiding to his instrument in passionate strains the story of the crimes, for the author of. which the French authorities were still vainly searching. Il |( i Kallir was singing"*?? terrible song of love, jealousy and revenge.