GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2286, 7 June 1921, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Harnessing of tidal waters for the production of energy is a proble u which French engineers iiave now practically solved. A sum of £IOO,OOO has been voted by -the French Parliament for the perfecting of the scheme. A series of reservoirs will be built to store the sea water’, and the first of these will be installed on the Brittany Coast.

In Egypt is a plant called the resurrection flower. It is seen as a little ball hanging on a fragile stem, resembling in colour and shape a shrunken poppy head. Sleeping, but not dead, the flowers are aroused by being immersed in water, and then supported in an unright position. Soon the fibres begin to stir. Slowly they unfold, until, with petals thrown back, it becomes a beautiful starry flower, not unlike an aster. Professor Holmes Beckwith recently shot Professor Herman Wharton dead at New York, and then turned the revolver on himself. Both died instantaneously. They were lecturers in the business department of the University of Syracuse, the students of which had petitioned for the removal of Pro-

fessor Beckwith, who was said to have been unpopular. Dr. Day, chancellor of the university, states that he believed Wharton lost his life in a vain attempt to prevent Professor Beckwith from committing suicide. Fra Salvatore Ciavolino, the celebrated Neapolitan preacher, whose amazing career as a Franciscan friar terminated in the assassination of the Father Provincial of his order recently, made a desperate attempt to end his days. Whilst awaiting conveyance to Camposbasso penitentiary, where he is to undergo rigid solitary confinement as the first phase of his 24 years’ imprisonment, the ex-friar seized a large bottle of writing ink in the gaol secretary’s office at Naples, and drained the contents. His condition is said to be serious.

“I am waylaid and kicked as I pass every night, by a lover I rejected,” said a young wife at Tottenham Police Court recently. The magistrate: Why doesn’t your husband protect you? The husband: You haven’t heard my story. The girl I gave up to marry my wife throws stones'at me. Last night she hit me on the eye with half a brick. The magistrate: Strange, both to be attacked by rejected lovers. The wife: They plan it together, When we rejected them they married. A policeman was sent to caution the couple complained of. While playing on the bank of the New River, near Edmonton, England, Arthur Taylor, a boy of four, fell in and was drowned. At the inquest at Edmonton, his brother said they had crawled through the railings, and Arthur stepped into the water. A man passing heard his cries, but made no attempt to save him. He walked on. “I can find no language strong enough to express my contempt for the miserable man who passed by unheeding the little boy’s cries,” said Mr Charles_. the coroner. “Such a being of human shape, so absolutely devoid of human instinct.”

Nearly 200 gramaphonc needles, pieces of tin from a sardine box., and a pen nib were l‘ounci in the stomach of a girl who was operated on at the Harrogate Infirmary. When, suffering intense pain, she was seen by- the family doctor, he said she bad swallowed a piece of tin. X-rays revealed a solid mass of foreign matter about the size of a match-box. The medical men were surprised at the little perforation of the internal organs. As some of the needles were rusty and others bright, it is assumed Ihev were swallowed ai intervals. She has been discharged from the hospital cured. Among the poor rales defaulters summoned at Chichester County Court recently was the Duchess of Rutland. She had declined to meet the demand for £4l Is 4d, the rates on her residences at Aldwieli, Bognor. The collector stated that the duchess was extremely’upset about Ihe large increase in the. amount of the rates. When he handed her the demand notes she threw them hack at him, be said. A long letter was received from the duchess, but Ibis (he magistrate declined to read, and sought the gist of the contents from (he collector, who said that the duchess complained about the condition of a ditch near (lie bouse, the Bench made the usual order for payment in 14 days.