GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2316, 16 August 1921, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Aeroplane police, to regulate aerial traffic, assist in hunting bank robbers and automobile bandits, and to patrol the lake front for persons and vessels in distress, will be added to the Evanston police department, Chicago. Two aerial policemen will be sworn in, and their beats will be “in the air over Evanston,” which is ,an exclusive residential suburb. A Chicago landlord named John Clark was found dead in the gastilled kitchen of his apartment. Clark had been despondent over legal troubles with tenants. “I did not think John would kill himself,” Mrs Nora Clark, his wife, said, “hut if he did he was driven to it by tin? unreasonable actions and demands of his tenants.” Clark had raised the rent on his apartments, and was forced to go into Court by Id's tenants.

Swinging doors like those which were once the welcoming portal to many liar-rooms were removed from the entrance to lhe Health Department of the District of Columbia recently. Officially they were removed to prevent them swinging back and forth in the faces of visitors. But unofficially and right, from the thirsty-tongued member of the Health Department, they were removed because they brought back memories of (he pre-Volstead days and prevented department employees from concentrating on their work.

Five pounds sterling, and no more, is to be the price of n wife, according/to a recently-rnlilied convention between the Governments of Great Britain and Liberia. This convention regulates the relations between the tribes living on the border line between Liberia and Sierra Leone. Woman’s rights are to lie recognised, even in the West African jungle, for it is expressly provided in (he convention that no claim can he made in respect of n woman except by her husband, and that no woman can be compelled to return to a claimant against her will.

You may be able lo go without food for week' and week', but if you are deprived of sleep for only a few days you will die, says Dr. Anna Lipinski, who lias been lecturing before French medical societies on the value of slumber in therapeutics. Dr. Lipinski herself has gone three weeks without eating, although she managed to keep her strength at ;i fairly normal scale by frequent drinks of water. She is continuing her experiments in a laboratory on the outskirts of Paris, despite the fact that she lost her sight several years before the war, and has given a mass of evidence to the doctors which is expected to reform the treatment of many neurasthenic and digestive maladies. A woman charged at a New York Police Court with burglary pleaded that “my glands made me do it.” Her doctor testified that she was

suffering from “hypothyroidism.” This disease, he explained, is an affection of the thyroid gland, causing a lack of certain oils that secrete in the glands of the larynx, and is sometimes responsible for criminal tendencies. The magistrate said it was not clear to him how an affection of (.lie gland could have any connection with a person’s ability to differentiate right from wrong, but doubtless (ho medical fraternity knew best. He released the woman under recognisances to enable her to undergo treatment.

Tlie Berlin Stale Opera gave a performance of “Madame Butterfly” dial was transmitted by wireless and could be beard by all European wireless stations. Micropbones placed on die stage bore tlie music to a wireless station at Koenigswuesterliaiisen. The experiment was organised by die Post Otlice -Department, which intends to establish a concert and opera service by telephone for villages in the rural disI ricts as a means of raising revenue. If the new device for the .transmission of music works out satisfactorily, telephone subscribers will lie furnished with performances at state?! times, and all they will have to do to hear the best artists of the German capital will be to take up their telephone receivers and listen. A given wave length will be used exclusively for the transmission of these performances by wireless, to avoid interference by other wireless sending stations. A driver alighted from his don-key-cart in order to take some refreshment at an English country inn recently. His chat was interrupted by the sound of Heehaw! Heehaw! Evidently he was accustomed to. his donkey's summons, for lie came hurriedly out of the inn shouting, “Shut up, yer old idiot, can’t yer wait a bit ?” He then returned to finish his drink. Heehaw! Heehaw! The donkey became impatient, for he kicked viciously at the kerb, and finished up by dragging the cart, on the pavement. His master came out * with a mug of beer in his hand,

saving, “Ob, ’orl right ; ore’s yer ‘arf pint.” The donkey swallowed his drink with relish, receiving at the same time a friendly dig in the ribs from the butt end of the whip. The innkeeper told his customers that it was a frequent occurrence for the driver of the donkev-cart to call and order “drinks for two.”

Fortune-seekers from all parts of Canada and various parts of the United States are gathering for their wash into the far north oil and mineral fields when navigation opens. Edmonton, Fort MeMurray, arid Peace River Crossing, the latter two being gateways into the Mackenzie river basin oil-fields, are showing signs 'of great activity, with large fleets of river steamers and gasolene boats getting ready for the short summer transportation season. The little town of Fort MeMurray lias already doubled its population since last autumn, and with the opening of navigation, it is expected to reach foul 1 times its- previous size. Ten Government parlies are getting ready at Peace River, or have already taken the field from ibis point, including topographical, geological, and astronomical survey

parlies. Another Government parly will milke an exhaustive report on I lie possibilities of the new oilfields.

When war again appears on the world’s horizon, soldiers in trenches or in the air will not fire rifle bullets at the enemy, but will be able to discharge half-pound or pound grenades for a distance of a mile or two from an ordinary ride equipped with a light recoil apparatus, according to military experts. They say this has been completely demonstrated by Sava Rogqza, a Rumanian inventor and engineer. M. Ifogozn is now negotiating with several Governments in connection with the use by them of hi> discovery, and, according to army men. bad bis invention been finished early in the great war il would have stopped the Prussian

masses within n month. When they were first told of (lie inventor’s ideas his French associates laughed' ami

threatened to send /him to an asylum for the insane, but finally affected peril nps by his enthusiasm, granted him a small monthly allowance with which to purchase materials. Last month, on the plains outside Paris, M. Ifogoza fitted his

invention to a French army rifle. The spectators remained a quarter of a mile away, expecting to witness a tragedy. Instead, the grenades’ course through the air could be distinctly traced, while they landed far beyond the point they were expected to strike, and exploded with terrific force.