GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2081, 24 January 1920, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The laziest of birds is the frogmouth. He sleeps all day. and at night, instead of Hying about in search of food, he sits on a limb and literally waits for the insects to come and feed him. He is such a sound sleeper that one can jiush him olf his perch with a stick and ndt wake him. He inhabits Australia and the islands of the Indian Ocean. Too lazy to liy for his food, like other birds, he crawls along the limb of a tree, opening his wide month and snapping it shut, catching what Hies and gnats come within his range.

One might (ravel far and .find no more picturesque, and at the same time raodernly convenient community than the village of houseboats, which an American newspaper describes as having come together on the Willamette River, Oregon. The settlement is not a summer colony, but an all-the-year-roimd village of hundreds of homes built on pontoons. The ('(.immunity has, been built up by some 500 residents within convenient distance of Portland. The homes are moored to piles driven in the river-hed, and the houses face toward the middle of the river, wifh (heir hack doors looking toward the shore. As it floats on the Williameltc. the village of little 'white houses, many with (lowers at the windows'and with all the wodern conveniences iiimde, from leiephone'To gas range, is at least exceptional; and in Ibis day of high rents it offers a practical suggestion to people living in a crowded city near a suitable river.

Among the Romances of the war and after, there is not one more amazing than the career of the latest Roumanian Duke. Mr Doyle, of the Yukon he was; the Due de Jassy he and his heirs male are or will he for all lime lo come. Doyle is an IrishCanadian, and he first emerged about 20 years ago, as the ‘manager of Frank Slavin, the pugilist. He and fho lighting man went up the Yukon- at the time of the Klondike boom, and both “struck the yellow,” and made fortunes. When war broke out he raised in Canada, a machine-gun corps. He did many things, original and hold, and there is one story of how he helped the Russians to get out of East Prussia when (hey were so severely defeated by Hindenburg. After the armistice Colonel Hoyle went to Rounumia. Here he shone as the saviour of that country. When the Bolsheviks were marching against that kingdom, the king sent some notables, lo the invading army to try lo make peace. These pea.ee envoys were seized and sentenced to death. Now came the diance of Boyle of the Yukon, He Hew into Ihe Bolshevik’s camp, he signed a peace with them, he saved the envoys, ajul lie returned to Bucharest, the hero of the hour. The king made him the Due de Jassy and a royal aide-de-camp. The Queen nursed him when he was ill. He admitted himself he preferred Bucharest to the Klondike. Four aeroplanes are being Used lo survey the extensive forests of Labrador to determine the value of the Avood pulp represented by the growing trees. Aerial photographs will tie" taken of many parts of the peninsula for use in compiling statistics. The surveying parly, which left the United Stales recently for Nova Scotia is composed of -10 per- , sons, -and is headed by a man who served two.years as a captain in the British air forces.

Thomas Ernest, Moore, aged 20, a lance-corporal in the Middlesex. Regiment, was remanded, at Tottenham, Police Court on a (‘barge of “unlawfully killing” his brother, aged-three, by shooting him with a revolver. Lance-Corpora 1 Moore Avent to the Edmonton Police Station in a state of excitement. and said: “.Please semi a doctor lo my house. I have Just shot my young brother Avhile playing with a French revolver. 1 shot him just over the eye.” The injured child avus taken .to the Prince of Wales' Hospital, Tottenham, Avhcre he died. The soldier had just returned from Fniime, and avus romping Avilh ins. little brother, when the revolver went oil.