GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2213, 9 December 1920, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Described as “the heaviest woman in the world,” Lucy Moore has died at Bristol, aged 43. In her youth she l weighed 47st. 101 b. (0081 b.). She appeared at exhibitions in many parts of (he world. Nine men were needed to lift her into the ambulance wagon which conveyed her to Bristol Infirmary. Her chief measurements were; Height sft. 4in, waist 83in., neck 25in., arm 27in., and calf 25in.

A party of five bandits entered a lumber camp at Barrows, Manitoba, and raided a poker game, escaping with 1000 do]. The scene of the robbery was- on the shore of Bed Deer Lake, a few miles from the Saskatchewan boundarv. fifty re-

sidents of (he district joined the police to assist in the capture of the bandits, and in the light that followed nine members Of (he police force were injured. A woman of 72 (lew front London to Paris in a Handley-Page aeroplane. She slated that it was her first flight:, and without the slightest sign of nervousness she ensconced herself in a comfortable armchair in the aerial Pullman. She plied her knitting needles industriously during the (rip. As she took her leave of the pilot on landing at Le Bourget, Iter-last-remark was: ‘T sec no-

thing in flying to make a fuss about!”

II: is announced that English, Arabic and Hebrew are recognised as the official languages in Palestine. All Government ordinances, notices and forms will be published in these languages, and correspondence may be received by any Government department in any one of them. .Hallway and road not let's will be issued in I lit' three langu-

ages. They will also be used in areas where there is a considerable Jewish population, the guiding principle being the presence of not less than 20 per cent, of dews. Palestine stamps have just been issued with the word “Palestine'’ in Arabic at the lop, in English in the centre, and in Hebrew at the bottom. The offer of a reward of 25 centimes fur the body of each rat killed in Paris has not been long in producing the inevitable swindler. The authorities had specified that tails were insufficient and that the bodies must be delivered whole in order to prevent the possibilities of swindling. A bright individual, however, had been delivering tails —which, it now appears, were fabricated pieces of siring and skin —at the rale of 50 tails daily since the opening of the rat offensive. When asked for the bodies, he explained that he had discovered a new rat exploded after a few hours, leaving only the tails of the vermin as evidence. The explanation for a while was accepted, but the swindler has now been arrested. In his house 7,000 artificial tails have been found.

The story is told hy a New York correspondent of an encounter by the American liner Philadelphia with a whale when 800 miles off the Irish coast. The 500 ft. leviathan was on tiie yacht-like prow of the liner, Happing furiously against the port how with its tail, as though to call attention to its plight. This action released the gigantic iish, which headed below and made.off as fast as it was able. Captain Herbert Candy, commander of the liner, confirmed the statement of passengers and crew concerning (lie occurrence when the liner docked at New York. In all his thirty years experience of the sea, the captain said, he had never heard ol such a happening. “It was at 3.30 in the afternoon of Sunday, August 22nd, the day after we left Cherbourg,” he continued. “Several whales had been sighted alter lunch hy the look-out, and it was evident that the one caught by the ship’s bow had been trying to get the barnacles scraped off his hack against the steel plates, and got in the way. The skin of the creature was shaved down a bit on the back, but it did not appear to be much hurt. I slopped the ship aud went astern, and the whale sounded aud disappeared. The passengers had a line chance to lake snapshots of a rare event at sea.”

Antelopes, when pursued, cover ground at the rate ot 60 miles per hour, while the African cheetah can maintain an even greater speed for a short time. An American naturalist who desired*, to obtain speed records of various animals, once had an interesting race in a car with an antelope across the Mongolian Plains. The speedometer on his car registered an, average of 80 miles an hour for 45 miles, so keen was the animal on evading capture. The Island of Formosa has sent £5,000,000 worth of lily bulbs each year to the United States, and as the bulbs are packed in Japanese soil the United States Government 1 has, by a recent' order, forbidden

(heir importation. In order to overcome this embargo the lilies are to be landed in Vancouver, and then re-packed in Canadian soil, and sent on to the United States free from the Japanese soil which now prohibits (heir entry. One year’s supply numbers 1,000,000,000 lilies.