GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2087, 7 February 1920, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The £200,000 diamond necklace presented by Napoleon to the Empress Marie Louise, forming part of the crown jewels of Austria, is now the object of judicial investigation in Paris. In 1912 the court of Austria was desirous of Peiping the royalist party in Portugal, and being short of fluids, decided to sell certain crown jewels, among which was the famous necklace. A special envoy was sent to Prance, and the jewels were entrusted to the lady for her to arrange a sale. No receipts were given or asked for. The war began while this sale was not yet complete,.and now the lady is bringing fin action against the diamond merchant, and the Jailer in his coun-ter-claim asks for £J,200 commission. By means of what the Marylebone magistrate described as a eleven’ device, Detoclive-Sergcant Lawranee arrested a man whom he accused of stealing’ a wallet from his overcoat pocket. Lawrence attended the gymnasium of the llinistry* of Pensions at Lancaster (tale, and left his wallet in the coat ' pocket when he went in for treatment. Before lie left, however, lie attached an electric wire lo the wallet, a batten - being’ at one end, and a loud *°, * \ buzzer at the other, tie had been gone for only a short time when the buzzer sounded, and immediately scenting theft, returned to his overcoat to tind Frederick James Jones, a .Blaekfrirars man, standing near

by i;i amazement. One of tin; most ioni;irlcn 1 jU* improvements in diToc-tiuyv airmen at night lum been announced by Godfrey Isaacs, of the f annuls Marconi wireless company. This invention is a new wireless searchlight, but with, no light. What actually happens is that by means of a patent transmitter the wireless waves arc concentrated into a wireless beam of a searchlight. These beams- will bo placed round towns and will regularly and automatically hash into the skies the name of the town, guiding airmen in exactly the same, way as a lightship or lighthouse guides a seaman by the intelligent hashing of light. So long, for example,'ah an airman is flying over Loudon he will receive the signal “This is London.” Ho will know his position just as well as the railway passenger does reading the names on the platforms he passes through. Mere bigness of voice in itself makes no musical appeal, but if accompanied by- fidelity to pitch, is unquestionably cxhilirating, cv*m to fastidious ears. The record big voice of history unquestionably belonged to Stentor, a herald of the Greeks in the Trojan war, ivlio.se voice was as loud as that of fifty men shouting together. It is to he regretted that Homer tells its nothing of its musical quality. Towards the end of Hie eighteenth century there was a bass at the Paris opera, named Clieron, who in earlier life had been a blacksmith. This modern Stentor, by blowing into a drinking glass would crack it, and by singing in it his mighty upper i) could r burst it . The biggest singing voice of the last century belonged to Luigi Lablachc, the greatest, bass singer tlml ever lived. His upper D, like Cherori’s, was overwhelming in its sonority, and could dominate both chorus and orchestra at their full power. But he never confused bigness wifh beauty of tone, and could moderate his tones to the softest pianissimo. The biggest and noblest voice that this century has listened to was Edouard de Esszke’s, now forever silent. GENERAL NEWS ITEMS. A rabbit catcher at Mudgee, N.SAV., after robbing a bees’ nest, stumbled on what he found to be a 141 b. nugget of the shape of a Maltese cross and of practically pure gold. The red tunic of the British soldier’s dress ■ Uniform is likely to be abandoned for blue or khaki. Army life and pay are so improved that authorities think bright colours an unnecessary lure. Alive or dead, Charles M. Dickstem refused to lose two quarts of perfectly good liquor. He fell off the gang-plank of a ferryboat at Pittsburg, U.S.A., with a bottle in each hand, -and when he was hauled out of the water he still held the bottles. i There has been a revival in Honolulu of the native drink, okolehao, a" distilled liquor of great potency, which retails for 8s a quart. I ederal officers are arresting vendors of okolehao. A native girl, 12 years old, drank some of the shift and swam out. in a heavy sea and killed a man-eating shark with a jackknife. % Bailors who have recently relumed- from the Gulf of Mexico report that the Gulf Stream is almost at the boiling point, and that existence on deck, is almost unbearable

while ships are passing tlirbugh it. Water dipped from the stream is almost warm enough to poach an egg, they assert. The temperature 100 miles oitt-to sea is’loo degrees ab'ove zero. Charles Leslie Hulatt, who is said t<f have a lengthy criminal record, has been sentenced to a year at liai’d labour, for passing fraudulent cheques. A merchant victim explained: “He was such a serious looking young' matt that I never mistrusted him. After lie had picked cut ‘Abide With Me’and ‘Rest in the Lord,’ which he explained were Ids favourite songs, I cashed his cheque without question.” A barometric spring, gushing from the rocks close to the summit of Zeigler mountain, 5,500 ft. above sea level, is attracting considerable attention in the United States. The spring has proved unvarying in the positiveness with which, it records the approach of storms. During normal periods the spring flows steadily. hut when a storm is brewing the water rises about Sin. Forest rangers consult, the spring frequent !v.