GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2287, 9 June 1921, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Having deserted his wife and eloped to South Africa with another woman, Benjamin Ballinger, a Hull engineer’s fitter, has now been fined £lO for making a false statement on the passport he used. In February, 1910, it was stated, he secured a passport to enable him to go to South Africa “with his wife.” At Bulawayo, when the immigration officer interrogated him, it was found that the woman was not his wife. He was deported, and was arrested on his return to England on the present charge. It was alleged that he obtained the passport by false representations to enable him to desert his wife and elope with another woman. j Some musical “howlers,” written by buys in examination papers, were recently described by Dr. Wynne Willson, the Dean of Bristol. “One boy,” he said, “trying to explain the difference between f and ff, wrote: ‘E means forty, therefore If means, eighty.’ ” Another boy stated that lie had learnt “five scales j , and one archipelago,” obviously meaning arpeggio. Another, asked what be knew of Signor Fob (the opera star who died in 1899), wrote: “Signor Foli was interned in Italy, and had low, chesty notes, but otherwise he was a man of good character.” Other “howlers” were: “Contralto is a low sort of music which only women sing,” and “an interval in music is a period for refreshments.” A merry night out enjoyed by 20 bullocks and heifers led to an action at Bow County Court. It appeared that the animals broke down a barbed wire fence and ran riot on some allotments, and by morning had either eaten or trampled down the crops. • Broccoli, sprouts, spinach, beetroot, onions, carrots, celery, and leeks vanished. One of the bul-' locks fell down a well 10ft. deep, and remained there for several hours. He was hauled up with great I difficulty, and had to be killed owing j to injuries. Four of the allotment- I holders brought an action for damages against Joseph Bird, the owner of the herd. As the defence urged that the sum of £3B claimed as Samages was excessive, the Judge adjourned the ease in order to consider the figures.

The whole question of fog-signal-n ling and the possibility of substituting other methods for the detonator systems in use in England is being considered by the Automatic Train Control Committee. It may be, says Major 0. L. Hall, in bis report on the collision during a fog at Queen’s Road, on the London and South-Western Railway, that this inquiry will lead to a recommendation to incorporate fog-signalling with automatic train control system. In these circumstances he does not make any suggestion for the general reform of fog-signal-ling. In regard to the liability of a driver to miss ’the explosion of a do- j lona tor, the inspector says that the London and South-Western Rail- 1 way has recently designed and carried out satisfactory experiments with an apparatus which indicates in the engine cal) flic explosion of a ; detonator. • ,