GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2084, 31 January 1920, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

As part of memorial services for unknown sailors who died at sea in (he great war, and other conliicts, ;; battleship of the monitor type, covered with flowers, was sank a short distance off shore by patriotic organisations of an English eastern coast city. When the ship went down the blooms remained floating on the surface of the water, a tribute to the men of the navy whose bodies were buried iit sea. More than 1,000 sailors took part in the ceremonies. Several Polish refugees,'' who were about to take a train at the Gare do I’Est, Paris, on their way home, were, leaving the special canteen for refugees when i oue of them who had called a porter to carry his luggage, showed the latter a German bomb-thrower fuse. This, he said, had been given him by a friend who Rad been a soldier at the front. The porter examined the fuse, and, not aware that it was loaded, worked the : mechanism. • The fuse exploded and the porter and the Pole wore killed on the spot. Three ether Polish refugees were seriously injured. In Giorgio, L’.S.A there is a bike which' disappears every three or four, years, and then comes back again, no matter what the weather is like. The hike G three miles long and Three-quarter.-- of a mile wide, with an ave.rage depth of 1 till. of water. There are natural subterranean passages beneath it. through whieh the water passes off. ft lakes two or three weeks to disappear. when a mammoth basin is left,in its place, whieh furnishes a beautiful sandy 'beach. After a month or so I lie water begins return, and then in a couple of weeks it is (he same tnagnilicenc stretch of water as it was before 1 . Compared with Patrick O’Connor, Albert Brough, who died a shori lime ago, and who, owing In Ids 7ft. 7in., was reported to lie the lailest man in the world, was a midget. O’Connor, who Is at present, in South Africa, is staled to be the biggest man on earth. Certainly, be is the tallest British subject. A veritable modern Hercules, O’Connor is almost Si’t. high, and a -person (iff. bin. high can walk beneath his arras when outstretched horizontally. He has a chest measurement of 55in., and weighs 3571 b., while, the'ring which adorns the ipdex linger of the giant's right hand is so large that a florin can pass easily through it. ■ No whit overawed by tin* majesty of the law, a child of two amused himself in the wilmr-s-box at Bow County Court, into whieh he had been carried by bis- mot tier, by pulling down her hair and screwing her nose. As lie left the box he waved, his hand to the judge, and blew,him a kiss. The child was suing through his father to recover --CB3 against Mr Bird, butcher, of Forest Road, , Waltbeiustow, by whose horse and cart he had been knocked down. The horse was frightened by a children's jazz band', and bolted, and the judge held that there was no evidence of neglect on the ’part of the driver, who did his best to pull up the animal. It ivas a very unfortunate accident, and he was sorry for (he parents, but. there would be a verdict again.! them, with costs. For six month,- ri lire Ims been raging 'underneath a coke slag ftp at Messrs Andrews and Co's steel works at Ncepsend, Sheffield, writes a correspondent .from London. If nmv threatens a number of steel warehouses, an overhead travelling crane, and railway sidings. Pumping operations are in progress night and day, the firm’s workmen being assisted by the city lire brigade to cope with the' outbreak, which was caused by spontaneous combustion. Noxious fumes are given out by the lire, which is burning fiercely in parts. Several workmen have been overcome, and children have bad to be sent home from the neighbouring school. Local residents, too, have been afflicted with sore throat and violent headaches as the result of the fumes. Thousands of square miles of territory in the interior of China tire tit the mercy of brigands. With tin unpaid army and a bankrupt treasury, the Chinese Government makes no attempt to deal with bands of reckless freebooters, They 'descend upon market 'towns and villages, seize farm products, domestic.animals and cash, ami carry off men. women and children to be held for ransom under tiircat of death, The bandits range' far, and Urns elude .such amateur efforts as are launched to punish them. By the time a community is aroused to the point of organised volunteer constabulary, tin; bandits move on. The fatalism, which is the national trait of the Chinese, exposes them to the exploitation of outlaws. Cholera and fahiine have also devastat-

ed wide area.', and the Chinese insist that the worst is yet to eome. They believe that new and terrible visitations will take place in 1923. Mizpah is a word from the Hebrew, and its frequent uye as an inscription on ring’s is based upon the words voiced by Laban in the 23rd chapter of Genesis in connection with the setting up of the heap of stones by Jacob and his brethren as follows :—“The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another.” ‘ Most wonderful is the nest of the hornbili. The hen bird lays her eggs in a lioUoav in a tree, and as soon as she is settled on I hem the male bird walls her in with clay, leaving just space for her head to stick out. He feeds her, and (here she sits, not only until the eggs are hatched, but until the young are big enough to come out. Dark-haired people, so says an authority! gel married sooner than fair-haired individuals. He has shown by statistics that an overwhelming majority of those women who live and die spinsters have fair hair.