GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2284, 2 June 1921, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Mrs Rebecca Thomas, who celebrated her 100th birthday last December, has died at kelvodon Common, near Brentwood. She lived all her life in the house in which she was born.

A man, whose identity is not known, has ottered to give a motor lifeboat, worth £7,500, to Scarborough. But the authorities have had to refuse the offer, because of the lack of facilities at Scarborough. A 40-years’ task has ended. A it h the word “zyxt” (14th-century Kentish dialect for “thou secst”) and a final flourish the compilation of the Oxford New English Dictionary is finished. The completed work will give more than 2,000,000 iiiuslrative quot a tions.

An astonishing rumour has lately been current in Paris to the effect that it was intended to give public bullfights in the Pershing Stadium, the fine sportsground presented to France by America. It is admitted that a proposal to introduce this form of entertainment into Paris'was seriously discussed by the Stadium Committee, although it was finally rejected.

A prominent Sheffield doctor, Dr. Arthur Hall, reports a curious case of a painful rash that broke out on one of his patients whenever she wore a sham pearl necklace. When worn on I he- arm the bogus pearls had the same irritating effect. Dr. Hall discovered that when they were warm the ornaments exuded a greasy substance that caused the mischief.

In Iloxton, England, there is a man of 71) walking about with a broken neck. Except for a little stiffness lie can move his head as well as the average man. He is Mr E. Mennie, and a doctor says his (•■use is the most remarkable he has ever treated. After lie had been hurl in a lift accident some months ago, X-rays showed that his neck was broken. Paralysis set in, but if was treated successfully, and a support was fitted to his neck.

The' work of picking fruit from the ground after it' has been shaken from the tree may now he carried out by a small, portable machine, the invention of a Californian fruitgrower. which gathers the fruit up in pockets placed at intervals on a canvas chute, whence it falls into u. bucket fastened lo tlie operator’s leg. The belt is motor-driven, power being obtained from a generator oil a truck.

A new note in jumpers is struck b\ a design entirely in beads. They are rattier weighty garments, nn-.l can scarcely he considered either warm or comfortable, hut perhaps they are intended for the hot days, Their colour schemes are decidedly attractive. One example in a delightful shade of Wedgwood blue is decorated with small female figures in white beads. Another jumper has a foundation of emerald green beads with a Greek square design in yellow. It sounds much more daring than it really is. Other styles have the collar, cuffs, and lower hem in a contrasting colour. “No white heron (or crane) lias been reported as having been se‘cn during the past year; but a small colony of blue herons ( Demiegretta Sucre) has settled on the Xgaliauranga reefs; six birds were noted during December last.” states the annual report of the Acclimatisation Society. “Blue herons are strictly protected, and the penalty for shooting or capturing one is substantial.”

Steadily increasing since the wav, the number of marriages lasi year in England and Wales —nearly4oo,000 —broke all records. For ' the three years preceding the war, says the Health Ministry, who give 1 lit* figures, the annual average was only 280.000. The 300,000 mark was passed only in 1015, when, owing to the cry of “single men first,’’ the marriages in the latter half of the year went up with a sudden bound and eclipsed all previous lignres, and in 1010. A sign, however, that the matrimonial wave lias reached its crest is contained in the fact that the number of marriages in the last quarter of 1020 is decidedly lower than in the last quarter of 1015 and 1910. A breezy London street scene between a policeman and the Countess of Drogheda was described at Westminster Police Court, when her ladyship was summoned for driving a motor car to the danger of the public. A constable said that she drove her ear at seven or eight miles an hour bn the wrong side of a refuge in Grosvenor Place. When he stopped her and pointed out her offence the countess replied: “Nonsense; do you know who I am? I can’t stop, for 1 am in a lmrry." Magistrate: She did not say she was sorry when she was stopped for doing that which was obviously dangerous? Constable: Xo, sir; she seemed to resent being stopped. The countess did not appear, but her counsel said that her sole object in passing on the wrong side of the refuge, was to avoid stopping a man who was pushing a heavilyloaded harrow. There was no danger. A fine of 20s was imposed. The jury at an inquest at Egham, on a woman who poisoned herself, returned a verdict of “Suicide during temporary insanity, accelerated by the scandalous conversation of neighbours.” The • woman, Miss Ethel Mary Ford, aged 37, left a letter in. which she stated that she had been “murdered by evil tongues,” and that her life had been “hell on earth in the last five years.” She wrote: “I have tried to be brave, knowing that my father was innocent, but their cruel jeers have gone too far this time.” It was slated in evidence that two women.

Airs Hunt and .Mrs Fletcher, called after Miss Ford in the street, and that Mrs Hunt made p false allegation. The Coroner, at the request of the jury, severely censured Mrs Hunt and Mrs Fletcher. A Berlin parrot recently saved the life of its mistress—a picturesque old woman residing in one of the ■suburbs, who made a comfortable living by telling fortunes. A neighbour occupying the flat above the old woman’s was startled during thq night to hear the parrot shrieking the name of its mistress at the top of ' its voice. This continued for some minutes. The neighbour became suspicious, and finally broke open the door of the old woman’s flat. He was just iu time to prevent a tragedy. A man dressed as a woman was in the act of murdering the fortune-teller, who had refused to say where her money was hidden. The parrot had taken refuge on the top of the curtain pole, and there gave the alarm.