GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2314, 11 August 1921, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The so-called German carp swarming American rivers are not of Teutonic origin. That is one ease iri which blame is misplaced. They are Chinese fish, - and only Chinese eat them if other people know what they are to get. The carp is a humorous fish, and a gathering of them will play like boys on a vacant lot.

An empty taxi-cab on the road between Eastbourne and Seaford burst into flames as a result oi. sparks caused by brake friction. JViliiam Dust, the driver, became enveloped. His clothing caught fire in several places, but with great presence of mind he pulled up and leaped from his seat on to the side of the road, where he rolled about on the grass. By this means he extinguished the flames, although be suffered from burns and shock. His taxica'b was destroyed. The Paris police are now busy searching for a toy terrier which is said to be wearing as a collar a necklace valued at £1,200. A Parisienne, Mine. Schulbatz, enti’usted the necklace to a jeweller for repair. According to his own statement, the jeweller understood the lady desired to sell it, and lie found a purchaser in the person of a music-hall artist. When questioned by a magistrate, the jeweller said lie sold the necklace to a music-hall dancer, who bought it as an ornament for her dog. The whereabouts of the dancer and her pet arc at present unknown. , '

Mr William Hughes, one of the honorary secretaries of the London Business Houses Amateur Sports Association, was standing near the starter at a sports gathering when the pistol was fired. He immediately felt a sharp pain in the thigh, but did not take any notice of it until he returned home, when, the

pain still persisting,' he sought medical attention. The doctor discovered that a bullet had penetrated his thigh. An operation was performed, and the bullet successfully extracted. Apparently there was a live cartridge in the starter’s pistol. A family of ten is living in an open shed at Hill Farrance, a village in Somerset'. The occupants of the shed are a. man and his wife and eight children, and they are all reported to be in good health. Wellington District Council, in whose jurisdiction the village of Hill Farancc is, have acted in the matter with a view to getting them moved out of the shed. It has been found, however, that nothing (fan be done, The council have been advised that as the children arc all healthy and living in good open-air conditions, they cannot be disturbed. An unusual course was taken in the London High Court when a commercial expert sat on the bench to assist the Judge. Mr Justice Roche heard an action between two city firms as to the quality and shades of colour of a parcel of crepe de chine. The question in dispute was essentially one for experts in the goods, and his lordship called l for the assistance of Mr A. F. Harvey, a silk expert. The only other instance of an expert being called (apart from Admiralty cases) occurred many

years ago, when in an engineering

dispute the late Lord Ridley (then Mr Justice Riillcv) had the help of Mr J. Swinburne, the engineer. Which is the greatest grievance, to be missed by a census officer, or required to till in his return ? In the Brockley district a whole street, containing about 200 families, was reported to have been overlooked while there have been some few gape in the distribution of schedules elsewhere around London. ‘'As soon as we heard that Geoffrey Road had been omitted, the matter was put straight,” said the departmental official to a Daily Chronicle representative. "Really, there have been very few slips. Every district has been studied, with the aid of maps, by people thoroughly conversant with it; but, after all, enumerators are only human.” Leeds students are to be asked to pay an additional £lO a year in fees, in order to increase the income of the University. Sir Michael Sadler, the Vice-Chancellor, told the University Court recently that the University was in danger of bankruptcy. The deficit of £14,000 on the current year could be wiped off from savings, but it was estimated that on July 31st, 1923, there would he n deficit of about £16,000, tending to increase. Salaries of staff were still far below the required level, and in this respect a further expenditure of £IO,OOO to £15,000 a year was needed. After 1923, therefore, the University would be incurring an annual debt on maintenance, apart from capital expenditure, of £26,500 to £31,500.

We are used to stories of how an elephant occasionally upsets a circus, but it is rare we hear of an orgy of destruction like that which occurred in the Malay Peninsula. A herd of wild elephants attacked a railway station, pulling down the stationmaster's kitchen and bathroom. They did the satire to the clerk’s quarters, and then tackled the station while the office force looked on from trees. One elephant took off an automatic weighing machine as a souvenir of the raid, but finding it heavy, threw it down on the track. One of the elephants trumpeted the recall, and they all went back into the. jungle except one, who fell in a well, and had to l»e cut out by human aid, but was not detained. By the time help arrived after a general telegraphic alarm, the huge beasts had entirely disappeared. A grace danger threatens the Douglas Fir, a splendid North American tree extensively used in British forestry schemes. A recenf*is-

sue of Nature describes two enemies which havfc destroyed its reputation for resisting insects and disease, and may cause great disaster to.the new plantations. The attacks of the woolly aphis or plant louse have spread from the New Forest to Peenlesshire since 1914, and a second enemy is a new species of destructive fungus observed in many parts of Scotland. .The American white pine qan no longer be commercially planted in Europe, because it is unable to resist a certain deadly fungus, aud the new scourge is a blow to the hopes of modern foresters because the Douglas Fir produces a large volume of timber in a few years. Instant burning of affected trees is recommended for stamping out the fungus.

Rapid progress is being made in developing Palestine under British government, for the Holy Land is now governed under a mandate. There arc 600,000 inhabitants, of whom only 100,000 arc Jews. The Turks did everything possible (luring the war to ruin the country. Palestine is a very small country, and an agricultural one resembling in topography Sapin or Southern Italy. There is much waste land, which will be'reclaimed by irrigation. It is believed that a second California can be created. Palestine now exports barley, oranges, olives, olive oil and wines. There are lavo growing seasons in the year, and the soil when irrigated is most' productive. Near Jaffa there are 1000 acres of vineyards. Almonds arc grown there, and wonderful oranges and grapefruit. The colonists are just beginning to develop the fruit-growing possibilities, but today throughout Palestine one can see the terraced hillsides that made the whole country a garden 2000 years ago, and it will not be difficult to make the country a garden again.