GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2406, 18 March 1922, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

A few weeks ago Don Luigi Giovanetti, parish priest of the village of Calvola, Italy, had a, quarrel with Mario Pasini, a peasant, who tilled a plot of land on his property. Some days later, while the priest knelt before the altar saying Mass, Pasini entered the church and fired at the priest with a shot gun, wounding him, amid the terror of the congregation. Later Pasini gave himself up to the police. At 12.30 one day recently, 160 unemployed entered a Lyons restaurant at Clapham Junction, S.W. They ordered food, and were served. After eating their meal they sang the “Marseillaise, displayed a red flag, and made speeches. At „2.30 p.m. they left the premises, each man paying 3d at the cashier’s box. “Threepence did not cover anything like the amount they ate,” a representative of the firm told a reporter. “They were ' quite orderly. They threatened that they were going to the West End the next day.”

A bee has a right to roam at will, Judge Nelson E. Johnson ruled recently in the Circuit Court at Kansas City. Judge Johnson was hearing an aippeal in the case of Lee Cooley, fined £lO in the Police Court some time ago on the ground that he “harboured vicious bees.” The complaining witness at that time asserted that one of Cooley’s bees had stung a child five times. Judge Johnson, after listening to the testimony of bee experts, announced he was convinced that a bee could sting but once. He held a city ordinance restricting the wanderings of bees was unconstitutional, and ordered that Cooley’s fine be remitted. Sixteen children, eight belonging to Ignatz Rambowski, of Detroit, and eight to his wife, Mary, a widow whom he married last July, caused such an ear-splitting turmoil in their home that they have had to separate. Mrs Rambowski told Judge Richer the story in applying for temporary alimony. She was granted £1 a week to assist in bringing up the children, over the protests of the husband’s attorney, who characterised the allotment as “exorbitant.” The Court refused to rescind the ruling. All the cliildreYi are Tinder sixteen. The wife’s children, being mainly husky boys; won most of the battles alleged to have been staged in the home, it was testified.

Mrs Anne Crump, of 12, Paradise Row,. Worcester, who died on October 15th, aged 101, and who, it is stated, parted from her husband on their wedding" day, left £6,729. Mrs Crump lived in a well-furnished villa and was stated to be of good family, but she was very secretive about her personal affairs, and never mentioned her husband or the circumstances of her marriage, which took place more than 70 years ago. It was believed that, her marriage was a romance of only a few hours, the version generally accepted being that she parted from her husband at the wedding breakfast table in consequence of - some note which was sent her, hinting at another woman. She was a familiar figure about the city on account of her mid-Victor-ian style of.dress. The council of the National Farmers’ Union of Great Britain have adopted a resolution in favour of cheaper and purer beer. They call on the Government to reduce the duty so that the price can be decreased by 2d per pint, and to introduce a Pure Beer,- Bill. The farmers’ contention is that the high retail price of beer is restricting the demand for malting barley, and is Thus: directly helping to cripple employment in the rural areas. . Moreover, the workers cannot afford to buy beer at its present price, caused by a duty which is 13 times more than in pre-war days, with, wages on a descending scale. A Pure Beer Bill which laid down the constituents' to be used in brewing beer, would stimulate the demand formalting barley as well as protect the public. Although the franc gold is rapidly being adopted throughout Europe as the basis for postal and other official settlements, it is only recently that the first franc-gold piece was minted. So costly was the operation, according to the League of Nations financial experts at Geneva, that the coin is hardly ever likely to come into popular use, as, although normally its value is just one franc, the preparation of the dies, plus the value of one-third gram pf pure gold, brings the cost to more than ten francs. The new coin, which is extremely small and thin, about a quarter of an inch across its octagonal face, bears the inscription: “League of Nations, 1921.” The little gold piece will be kept in the Geneva Treasury as a model to be used if ever the League of Nations should become powerful enough to issue its own money.