GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2058, 22 November 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The King- of Italy has reprieved the 40,000 .soldiers now in prison for long'terms. Many Hying passengers are yielding to a superstition that if they throw a silver coin to earth as the. aeroplane is ascending, lack will attend the flight. Il is said that many passengers on the first of flic Paris trips -did this. One wonders who was the enterprising groundsman who started this profitable idea. Two young Swedish .students of geology, named Wadell and Ygberg, after an adventurous nine days’ expedition in Iceland, have discovered what is believed to he the largest crater in the world, measuring eight kilometres long and five kilometres wide. The two students further claim to have discovered some warm springs.

Mention was made of the sectarian issue at a meeting at Middle Park (Victoria) recently addressed by Captain Cull, the Nationalist, candidate for the Albert Park seat in the Legislative Assembly, The Chairman said dial an elector told him that he wmijd not vote for Captain Cull because he-was not a Protestant. In referring to (his, Captain Cull said that he had in his mind's eye the scene at Sanctuary Wood, where lie had charge of about 80 men, with orders to hold a trench at'all costs. "I sec Bft men,” continued Captain Cull, “who professed one religion—and that was their country. (Applause.) My religion is my country, and its doxology is legibly inscribed on my body.” (Renewed applause). No stronger proof of the oft-re-peated statement that New Zealanders are essentially a meat-eat-ing people could have been found than in the appearance of certain Queen Street shops, Auckland, on Saturday morning. A popular butcher's establishment was crammed to the doors, and policemen had to guard the entrance while the men inside worked at fever-pitch for hours together. Next door was a fish shop, its windows and counter filled with a splendid assortment of fish, smoked and fresh, and while men and women almost fought for place in the meal shop the fish shop girls stood chatting to one another in the intervals of serving the occasional customers who passed in and out. The usual volume of business was done, but there was not the slightest indication that fish would replace the customary joint on any of Auckland's dinner tables yesterday.—Herald.

An inpuesl was held at the Sea Mew Mental Hospital on a very old patient —“the oldest inhabitant” — so to speak, of the institution (says Saturday's Grey River Argus). The patient in question was admitted to (he institution on May 2(ith, 18(ift, being transferred from the lunacy ward of the South Spit Hospital. He was then a young man of 33 vears, in good ohy-ical health, and he died on Wednesday afternoon, at the age of 84 years, after being for fifty years and seven months an inmate of the mental hospital.’ He was the sixth patient to enter the hospital, over hail: a century ago. Up to till 1 liis health was good. At the outset he was a robust man, and a great worker. Since lftl-1 lie has been failing, and the last few months rather rapidly. Ho was confined to bed since September last only. He had a remarkably line physical constitution. He had no relatives in the country. 'What constitutes a record for an aeroplane carrying passengers and goods was accomplished recently by one of the Hying expresses of the London-Paris air service. Piloted by Lieutenant IL Shaw, the machine, which carried two passengers and a number of parcels, made the journey from Paris to Hounslow in one hour 50 minutes, arriving at her destination 25 minutes before she was due. The speed works out at 14ft miles an hour. The importance of the feat lies in the fact that the official Air Ministry weather report showed that the wind was blowing at the rate of over 100 miles an hour. A sixly-mile-nn-hour wind is reckoned as a gale, and 100 miles an hour is pvac-

lically a hurricane. Xo flight lias been previously made by a commercial machine against a wind of anything like this velocity. Just as a goods train was getting under way. near the French town. of. Dijon, a discovery was made that the train —composed of 40 trucks, all loaded with American Army supplies, including cooking and heating stoves and utensils and cases of shoes, clothing, chocolate, tobacco, and preserved foods —bad been emptied. Only the empty trucks remained. What is claimed to be the largest aeroplane in the world is stated in the newspapers as having been built at the aviation works at Leipzig. It has made its first (light. It has a span of 134 feet, and is 09 feet in length and 20 feet in height. It is equipped with two Benz motors of 500 h.p., and two of "250 h.p. The aci’oplane is capable of carrying a crew of six and 18 passengers with luggage. A small meeting, said to be representative of several thousand believers in the prophetess Johanna Southcotl, was held at Camberwell recently, to demand the opening of the mysterious box containing prophecies; etc., which the prophetess left in 1814 with the stipulation that it was not to be opened until its opening was demanded by 24 bishops. It was slated that the hiding place of the box could not be divulged because the American branch of the believers was anxious to secure possession of it at all costs, Mrs Barnett, of Devon, denied that Johanna was an illiterate servant girl. ' She had, the speaker said, foretold near-

ly all the points about the war, includiilg the coming of the Zeppelins and the danger to London from the I skies. She declared that if the | bishops would only read her writi ings they would open the box at once. The speaker further stated that a message was delivered through supernatural channels to the Into Bishop Boyd-Carpenter to the effect that in the mouth'of October things wore going to be terrible in England unless the .box was opened. It could only be opened between May and November. A novel and ingenious method of catching and landing sharks has just been adopted at Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Everybody appreciates the danger of landing these monsters, quite apart from the difficulty of hooking them, hut to obviate this danger the idea was conceived of hooking them direct to a crane —one of the large hydraulic contrivances used at that port for loading and discharging cargoes. In one month four big man-eating sharks ranging in size from 7ft. Gin. to lift., have been caught in this manner. To the hook at the end of (he crane chain a stout line was attached, with baited hook. The crane driver then took his place and awaited a bite. Before long a-tremen-dous tug on tlie lino and chain told him that the bait had been taken, and he hoisted as hard as the machinery would permit. As the dripping brute readied the level of the top of the truck in readiness for its reception ho swung round the arm of the crane, and in less lime than it lakes to write he had landed it plump into the truck. He was only just in.lime, for as it touched (he Hour, the line, not made for such a strain, parted, and the shark was free to struggle and Hap as it would. But several men were wailing to give ii its quietus,-and a few vigorous blows on the nose ended its activities.