GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2338, 6 October 1921, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Owing to a cabin boy’s passion for neatness, 149 passengers in the French liner Savoie were without passports when she arrived in New York. During the voyage the assistant purser, who was engaged in writing up the-ship’s manifest, left his cabin for half an hour to go on deck. The boy who waited on him entered the cabin, and, finding it, apparently, in a state of confusion, tidied up by the simple expedient of throwing quantities of what Ire imagined to be waste-paper out of a port-hole. Among the “wastepaper” were 149 passports. Passengers to whom they had belonged were allowed to land pending the issue of new ones.

\ Dr. yon Rothe, a Berlin surgeon, has just invented a cinematograph apparatus which, he claims, will be of' (he utmost importance for teaching and comparative purposes. Film records of surgical operations have been attempted before, but have all suffered from the disadvantage of having to be taken in the operating theatre, and disturbing the course of the operation. An ingenious dev vice invented by Dr. Rothe suvmounls this difficulty. By means of a ciicular case let into the roof of the operating theatre, the film ?-an be taken from the same point of view as the surgeoirs , and reproduces his movements exactly as they are made, but enlarged. The necessary rays of light are provided by means of reflecting mirrors from outside the theatre. It is estimated that 3,000 marriage licenses, both civil and ecclesiastical, have been cancelled during the past 12 months in Britain. “There can be no doubt that 2,i\00 couples out of the 3,000 changed their minds and decided not to get married,” said a London registrar. Young couples especially talk about marriage in a semi-serious manner, and when, after deciding to get married, they come and see tlre registrar, their feelings undergo a complete change when confronted with bine documents. Many of the special ecclesiastical licenses are cancelled because the consent of the girls’ parents cannot be obtained. A great number of church marriages are with girls who ar“ under age. At the registry ollice the man swears an affidavit that lie has obtained the girl’s parents’ consent, and is given a form to get signed by the parents. Then the trouble begins. Sometimes the man realises that it is impossible to get the form signed, and nothing further is heard from him.”