GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2101, 11 March 1920, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Holidays • are not so common m Hk t I’nited Slates as they are in New Zealand. In a lei tor to a friend a. Mastcrton resident who is touring America says; “The hours o(: work here are generally 54 per week. There are no half-holidays, and holidays are very rare. Christmas Slav and Independence Day are the only 1 wo observed by all.” It was just after a thunderstorm, and two men were strolling down the street behind a- young damsel who was lifting her skirt rather high. ■After an altercation as to the merits of the case, one of the men stepped forward and said. ‘“Pardon me, miss, hut aren’t you holding your skirl rather high?” “Haven’t i a perfect right?” she snapped. “You certainly, have, miss, and a beauty of a left,” he replied .at once. The elevation of two lawyers to Ministerial rank may be, regarded by many people as too much of a good thing, says Mercntio in the Auckland Herald. Generally speaking, the legal profession gets its own share of sneh plums, but Mr Massey Ims not been very partial lo lawyers. In his first Ministry he had Mr Herdnmn and Sir Francis Bell, hut sineo then all (he lawyers have come from the oilier side. In the Coalition Ministry we hud Mr Hunan, the late Dr. MeNab, and Mr M Ilford. Perhaps of ail the Prime Ministers, Mr Seddon had the least leaning towards the lawyer-member. If one can judge from his selections ho had no particular love for the'm. “lolanthe,” one of the Savoy operas, had sad memories for its composer. As he was leaving home to go to the Savoy to conduct the first performance he was handed a letter that told him of the failure of Cooper, Hall, and Co. The savings of a lifetime had been entrusted lo lhat firm, and, with the exception of about £IOO at the hank, Sir Arthur Sullivan’s whole fortune disappeared with that big financial disaster. “But. unmoved by tfie calamity/' says his biographer, “he conducted lolanthe that night as though-noth-ing had happened.” And the next day he began again to make provision for the possible rainy days of the future. For .many months now, French railway companies, like the English, have been experiencing considerable loss on account of daily robbery of goods trains standing in sidings, and of merchandise waiting to he despatched. Millions of francs are paid out monthly to owners ol goods wiio send in claims for loss. I here are also many losses for which no claims are sent in. In many eases the robbery is carried out in a perfectly methodical way. There are organised gangs, who make a living simply by robbing goods trains. One such band was caught recently at Lyons. Some twelve men are concerned, .and they carried out their

operations on a large scale, carrying off their booty in live motor- lorries. The railway companies have now taken up the matter seriously, and propose to ensure the safely of (he merchandise carried on their lines, in a way which proved its worth in the war —that is by specially trained watch dogs. Forty people were saved in Berlin from being burnt to death in a* fire and panic that broke out in a crowded restaurant in the centre of the city only by jumping from upper windows into the firemen’s nets. The number is a record one to be saved by this means in the history of the Berlin Fire Brigade.