GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2370, 20 December 1921, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

After bathing in a river in East Africa, a white hunter suffered from temporary blindness, supposed to be due to some peculiar element in the water.

The ocean bed, to a depth of seyerajjmiles, can be tested and graded by means of a little appliance which can be lowered, and which grabs a sample of the sea bed. An international and anti-prohi-bition conference met recently at Geneva, behind dosed doors, to organise for a light against the “dry” campaign throughout the world. Delegates from 12 countries, including the United States and Great Britain, were present. It is proposed to establish a publicity bureau for the publication of statistics in an endeavour to refute the statements made by organisations favouring prohibition. English was eliminated from the languages which may be used at the session.

There was a pitiful scene in the Auckland Police Court on Friday, when a very young, frail-looking woman, attired in black, faced the Magistrate on a charge of having attempted suicide. It was a sad story, listening to the telling of which the unfortunate young woman collapsed and fell heavily to the floor, whilst her little child screamed in terror and her women relatives burst into weeping. She was hurriedly lifted up, and removed into the openjiir, and the Magistrate mediately declared the woman to be “convicted and discharged.” Her story was that the accused and her husband both contracted influenza. The man died, and though the wife recovered, she was terribly depressed by her loss, and took poison.