GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2248, 8 March 1921, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Some alarm lias been caused in commercial circles in Napier by the receipt of a cablegram Jrom London concerning the prospects of profitable sales in England of New Zealand,.-* products (says the Telegraph). The cablegram stated that wool was practically unsaleable, and that meat and other products were so unstable that it would be advisable for freezing works to close down. Such a decision, of course, would have a far-reaching and calamitous effect, as it would remove an immense source of revenue from a large body of workers. It is stated that the position is to be considered at-an early date, but in the meantime further advice from London as to 'the condition of affairs there is being sought. The Blackburn Swift, a new tor-pedo-carrying airplane, passed its tests at Brough, near Hull, recently. Built by the Blackburn Airplane Company at Leeds, the machine, with a torpedo between its landing wheels, swept from a great height and went direct lo its target. The Air Ministry is to acquire the tor-pedo-plane, which is remarkable for its high performances and carrying capacity.

When Frederick Burton, a Kushall (Staffordshire) farmer, wa i summoned for keeping a dangerous dog, which had bitten a child, it was argued for the defence that prosecutor had brought the case because he believed in the curious superstition prevalent in Staffordshire, that a child bitten could not recover unless the dog was destroyed. The Bench ordered the dog to be destroyed.

An interesting discovery has been made in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives (writeii the Times Cairo corresp-, ondent). The garden is in the hands of the Franciscans, who, in the course of digging the foundations for a new chapel, came across the remains of a medieval church, of which it has been possible to make out the whole of the original design, while added interest hai been afforded by the discovery of some of the original mosaic pavements.

Having been awarded the Military Medal for carrying a wounded comrade under heavy fire, Sergeant Harry Camm, R.A.S.C., of Nottingham, is said to have received from a record office a typewritten letter, on which someone had written in red ink: “It was .probably issued with the rations.” Replying t«» Lord Henry Bentinck, M.P., in Parliament, Sir A. Williamson (for the War Office) denied that the offieer-in-charge of the records had made such an aspersion, adding that the matter was being further investigated.

As a result of eating knives and spoons, Miss Margaret Shaync, aged 27, an actress, died in the Hudson River State Hospital, Poughkeepsie, U.S.A. A correspondent says Miss Shayne had been confined to the hospital for three years, and her death followed an operation for. the removal of the articles. Recently, when she was taken seriously ill, her ease was diagnosed as peritonitis, but when the operation was performed the silver ware was found. The doctors said the knives and spoons had been swallowed about two months ago. Two nine-inch knives and three spoons, all bearing the hospital mark, were found in her stomach.

A system of distinguishing old pictures from modern copies by means of X-rays was described recently to the French Academy of Science by M. Pippman. The canvas is placed between X-rays and a photographic plate. Old pictures, in which mineral pigments were always used, show brush marks on the plate, while modern colours leave no trace. Retouches on old works have been discovered by this method, which, it is believed, will make forgeries of works by old masters easy of detection, Tim inventor of the process is Dr. Andrf Cheron.

There has just come into the possession of the Berlin Museum a group of ancient Roman objects which were discovered in the tomb of a little girl of the period of the Emperor Tiberius —that is to say, some 1900 years ago. The objects, which must have been placed there by the little girl's parents, are in nearly as good state as they were when the child lay dying with them in her arms. There was a coin of Tiberius in the dead child’s hand — the fee to give to the ferryman for the crossing to the other side. There was a box containing her little dolls. There was a little doll's table, 100, a doll’s silver cande-stick, and a doll’s tiny glass “amphora.” Th* little girl had dressed her dolls and bad “made them up,” for there was a little box of cosmetics with a pici ture on the cover.