GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2335, 29 September 1921, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Four hours’ rain, which fell nrouiul Medicine Hat, near Toronto, Canada, enabled Hatfield, the rainmaker, to complete his contract to provide four inches of rain during the summer, and to collect’£2,ooo from the United Agricultural Association.

About twenty thousand artificial teeth and a quantity of scrap gold and platinum, valued at £4OO, were stolen from the premises of Mr David Mistlin, a dentist, of Battersea. It is believed that the thieves hid themselves on the premises before closing, and sawed through the hinge of a safe containing the properly.

A Japanese giant, 7ft. 2in. tall, and weighing 22 stone, has aroused considerable interest in Japan, as no woman can be found in Japan who is willing to become his wife. 110 married, it is staled, when 24, bill his wife died shortly after the marriage. The Japan Times declares that the giant, who is now 41, has searched the country in vain from one end to the other for a wife. Miss Gertrude Bugler, Dorchester’s country girl actress, who, in spile of her success as one of the Hardy players, refused ail offers to go on the London stage, staying at home instead to help in her father’s pastrycook shop, is to he married this summer. She will still be Gertrude Bugler, for she is to wed a cousin of the same name, who lives in the Dorset village of Beamington.

A riot broke out recently in the Western Penitentiary, Pittsburg. The guards were compelled to fire on the prisoners, many of whom were wounded, and some seriously. The prison was set on fire, and a large part reduced to rums. State and city police were summoned to quell the disturbance, and civilians helped the garrison guards. Prisoners were seen clamouring behind the bars in the parts of the building left:

standing after the fire. It was said at a Poplar inquest, that a three-year-old child had died

from a “kind of spasm of the throat.” Remarking on the e\’enk the coroner said it was a curious thing, but the medical profession did not know the cause of the trouble which had caused the child’s death. Dr. C. Spurrcll said the child was taken to the institution in a dying condition from what was considered as acute asphyxia. No Trace of a foreign substance was found at (he post-mortem examination.

As the parish vestry has found it impossible to spend £1,00(1 to make the building safe for use, 81. Mary’s Church, in Old Portsmouth, is to be demolished. Application is to be made to the Consistory Court, for a 1 acuity to sell the structure for £OO (o a local marine store dealer, who desires the material for the erection of a cinema. Permission is also being sought to level a portion of the churchyard, on the site of which it is proposed to lay out tennis courts, bowling greens, and quoit pitches.