GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2260, 7 April 1921, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

AA’ork has begun at Bombay on a reclamation scheme which is believed to he the most ambitious of its kind in the world. The area to lie reclaimed from the sea comprises 1,100 acres, and it will he enclosed by a, sea wall four miles long, at' an approximate cost of £4,000,000. The work is expected to he completed in seven years, and it will make available valuable building sites, and greatly relieve the presentcongestion. The work constitutes the most important part of a giganr tie scheme for the development of the city,-which includes the electrification of railways, new docks, trunk roads, parks, and the provision of housing for half a million people. The East Surrey coroner held an inquiry recently into the death of

Sir Ralph Percy Ashton, of Reigate, who was found dead in his bathroom with a bullet wound in the throat and a rifle by his side. It was stated that lie had worried a great deal about business affairs. The coroner said Sir Ralph had .written a letter in which lie stated that "his brain had “gone west,” and it was not right to pretend to carry on responsibilities which he could not discharge. He concluded: “It is a. terrible disgrace for one who began life with high ideals.” Dr. Baker said the deceased had an erroneous impression about his business affairs.' A verdict of suicide while of unsound mind was returned.

At AYest Ham Police Court, Henry Mockford, a quartermaster on the P. and O. Liner Nankin, and George Roberts, machine driller, were each sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for being concerned in stealing and receiving a piano from the music-room of the vessel. The Nankin was lying in dry dock at Tidal Basin, and one night it was stated, Mockford was left in charge with two lascars. At midnight seven or eight men came on'board, entered the music room, and proceeded to remove the piano. A lasear went to Mockford and said, “Robbers in music room,” hut he replied that they had come there to work. The piano was removed in a handbarrow, and at 4 a.m. a police sergeant found it in a passage, with Roberts and three other men sitting' round it and perspiring. Mr Justice MeCardie commented sharply on the verdict of a jury at Northamptonshire Assizes, when Charles Frederick Ford appeared on a charge of attempting to murder his sweetheart. The jury found the man guilty of unlawful wounding only, and the judge, in passing sentence of four years’ penal servitude, said that it was a verdict which a responsible jury ought not to have found. “I entertain no doubt that they should have returned a verdict oi attempted murder or wounding with intent to inflict a grievous bodily harm,” he said. "The man inflicted a wound an inch deep and five inches and a-lialf long, and within a fraction of an inch of the great artery. 1 have no doubt,” he said, “nor could any intelligent person doubt, that the man intended to kill, or at least to inflict: grievous bodily harm. If the jury had found him guilty of attempted murder the sentence would have been twelve years’ penal servitude.” In all. 75 days —and between £70,00(1 and £BO,OO0 —have, been expended in litigation concerning a Welsh landslide in 1910. -The action was concluded recently in the House of Lords. Mr Justice Sargent, after 38 days' hearing, had supported the contention of the urban district council that the colliery company (Cory Bros, end Co., Ltd.) were liable for damages. In the Court of Appeal, after 10 days’ hearing, that judgment was reversed, and the slide I'eld to he due to natural causes. In the House of Lords the appeal of the council was allowed, and the judgment of Mr Justice Sargent restored. Arguments lasted 21 days, and about 20,000 words were required to express the opinions of the. live law lords. Lord Buckmaster dissented from the finding oi' Lords Haldane. Finlay, Atkinson and Shaw.

A .quantity of Georgian silver plate, among the most treasured possessions of Brighton Museum, has been stolen from a showcase. The chief constable has reported that the plate lias been broken up and part sold to a jeweller. Recently, before the local justices, a young dentist named Charles William Saunders, admitted the theft.

Many sea birds, principally gulls and divers, were picked up dead recently on the shore west of Diner, with their wings and bodies smothered in heavy black oil fuel, fishermen report great quantities, of this oil fuel on the sen surface outside Dover, and numerous dead sea birds. 'The oil is probably from an old wreck which is breaking up.

An Egyptian cashier in a Paris jeweller's shop, who was accused l>v his employer of having stolen 1,200 francs in note's, lias reveiled his guilt in curious circumstances. The prisoner had apparently persuaded the police officials of his honesty, and was about to he released, when he suddenly turned pale, then became very sick, and presently the missing notes —each of which he had rolled into small pellet s and swallowed —telling too much on his digestive organs? were recovered, and the man was sent to prison. “Corrosion of iron in' the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral lias displaced stone, and lifted tlie whole of the dome three-quarters of an inch,” said Mr AY. A. Forsyth, at University College, recently. The western towers of tlie Abbey also suffered, lie said, from excess of iron. Some Government departments were using ferro-conerete in repairing old abbeys. This would cause disintegration, and prevent other builders from effecting repairs. A Government department, lie thought, was not an ideal organisation for repairing old structures. Either British or German postal authorities, or perhaps both combined, have just established what surely must he a record in epistolary history. Fifty years ago, to he exact, on August 3rd. 1871, a Berlin bookseller .sent a letter to a relative in Liverpool. Years passed, so many that the writer eventually died without receiving an acknowledgment. Recently, however', a surviving member of the family there was handed by the postman a fatiguedlooking communication addressed Liverpool, and marked on the envelope “unknown.” On examination

he found it was the letter described as written by his ancestor 50 years

A crew of five, taking the. Cardiff steamer Loch Neil (123 tons), laden with sand, to Chepstow shipyards, had a narrow escape from drowning recently. In trying to make the entrance lo the River Wye, the vessel was carried by the strong current on to a mud hank off Beachley Point. It then overturned, and the crew .were thrown into the water, but managed to cling on to the bottom until the tide receded sufficiently to enable them to get ashore, For three hours the men were in a perilous position, and the force of the current was such that they were repeatedly washed off. The vessel became a total wreck.

A dog which accompanies a Barkingside policeman on his beat at night has made a capture. Constable Pike endeavoured to arrest a man, but he ran away. As the o£ficcr was exhausted, he sent his dog in pursuit, and the animal taught the fugitive and pulled him to the ground. Pike told the West Ham magistrates that when he reached the captive the latter said, “Call the dog off, and I will go quietly.” But, on releasing the man, the latter kicked witness. Henry Burrell, who was accused of being a suspected person and assaulting the constable, was sent to prison for four months’ hard labour on the latter charge. A claim for 14 guineas, the price paid for a wedding dress, was made at AYestminster County Court by Mrs Edith Elmes against Edward Newling. Plaintiff said she ordered a ereijm serge l costume for her wedding, She had Iw’o fittings, and paid the money, hut, when the costume reached her home, she found the coat was dirty at the collar, and too big for her. Next day she said she took it back to Mr Newling’s shop, and lie said he would dean it, hut she pointed out that it would not he in lime for the wedding. ‘She had to buy a ready-made costume for the ceremony. Mr Newling denied that the coat was dirty when sent off. Pudgment was given for tho amount claimed, with costs. Twenty-one hoy and girl members of Ilemyock (Devon) Call' Club — the first institution of its kind in Great Britain —were each presented with a line young Shorthorn calf as a prize recently. The calves will he subject to regular inspection, and expert advice will he given to tho youthful owners; At the end of 12 months the animals will he sold by

auction, and whatever they make over their present value will he given to the members of the club who have had charge of them. It is hoped to start similar institutions in other parts of the country; All the members of the Hamyoek Call Club are the sons and daughters of local farmers, and their ages range from 14 to 13 years. A hoy of 17 presides over their meetings.