NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2421, 27 April 1922, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES

Pines of £lO 10s, with £1 Is costs, on each of 87 summonses under the Trade Boards Act for failing to pay his workers the minimum wages, were imposed on Fredrick Simmons-, perambulator manufacturer, of Bermondsey, S.E., at a London Court a few days ago. The total of titles and costs was £IOO7 18s. Notice of appeal was given.

As one Magistrate said “ to show our contempt for the proceedings,” penny fines were imposed by the Weymouth Bench on several shopkeepers summonsed under the Lord’s Day Observance Act (1677) for selling chocolates on Sundays.” The alternative to paying the penny fine, it appeared, was two hours inthe stocks. The Mayor said he had instructed the clerk to communicate to the House Secreary their ability to carry'out such art obsolete Act as the Lord’s Day Observance Act. The Duke of Atholl, newly appointed Lord Chamberlain, is the only person entitled to maintain a private army in the British Empire. Queen Victoria gave permission in 1845; to the then reigning. Duke to maintain three companies of infantry and there is in existence to-day an Atholl army of 300 men. This “army” figures chiefly on ceremon-ial-occasions at the Duke’s great house, Blair Castle, Scotland, but many of its members fought beside the Duke in Gallipoli, where, as a Brigadier-General, he led the Scottish Horse.

Charged with neglecting to notify the guardians of the receipt of a child for hire and for parting with the child without notice, Kathleen Kifford, 49, a widow, of 2, The Barons, .Twickenham, Middlesex, was sentenced at Brentford Police Court; to one month in.the second division. She was also ordered to refund for the benefit of the baby £lO6 of the £2OO which, it is alleged, she received for taking the child. The allegation against her was that within a week of getting the baby she transferred it to another woman whom she paid £4O. The story of a dog's devotion to its master was told at an inquest at the London Hospital on Robert James Dow, formerly a licensed victualler, of Mansell Street, Whitechapel, E.*, who committed suicide by throwing himself oul of a window. In a letter written just before his death he said, “My dog Teddy follows me about.. He knows things are very bad for me . I do hope he will be taken, care of. As I pace •up- and down my room he walks with.me.” A witness said that the dog was very fond of its master and always seemed to understand when he was worried and in trouble. After four days- of deep and strange slumber a girl named Marie Louise Paganelle has awakened in the Paris hospital whither she was taken after having been found asleep in a street. The doctors woke her by the mechanical stoppage of her breathing for an instant. She says she was dancing in a saloon with her fiancee when it was raided by the police and all the dancers were taken to the police station. Released at 2 a. m. she started to walkhome, but became very weary, and she remembers nothing more. She had a similar prolonged sleep last year, she added. Thi-ee out-of-work King’s College (London) students, two of whom are Bachelors of Science, are members of a professional jazz band known as “The Mysteries.” There are nine members of the orchestra, all King’s College students. They wear yellow masks and aTe.all nameless. The organiser is known as “Query.” “The orchestra was 'started at King’s College in 1919, when the principal instruments were tin whistles and mouth-organs.” “Query” told a Daily Mail reporter, “at one time Captain Hussey, of the Shackleton Expedition, played a banjo in the orchestra.” Intimation that the Home Secretary has ordered the release of a man named Fredrick Benton, , who 'was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment by the Wood Green .justices in January, was received recently by Mr Arthur Bryan, barrister. The remainder of the sentence has been remitted. Benton was arrested with a man named Alfred Dearman on January fi, it being alleged that they were in Palmer’s Green for the purpose of house-breaking. Benton was dealt with summarily, but Dearman, at the Middlesex Sessions on February 7, was found not guilty, the defence.having satisfied the jury (hat the men were there in connection with the purchase of a house. It appears that the French blacktroops are not as black as they have been painted, even in the eyes of the Germans. In the. course of the i-e----arrangement of the military positions of-the Army.of Occupation on the Rhine it happens that all the troops were withdrawn from a little town of Doppard and only a gendarmerie post was left. The townsfolk are resentful over their departure, especially the loss of the comfortable sums hitherto spent by the garrison. Accordingly they have forwarded a complaint to General Degoutte protesting .against such neglect and adding final they have a •population of 6,00 ft, well able to provide for .the comfort of-fhe troops. The complaint further adds that if other troops are not available they will be quite pleased with black ones. Boys are more intelligent than girls, but the feminine sex provides fewer lunatics, according to Dr R. R. Rush of St. Andrew’s University in speaking at the London University College. He declares that under The first skyscraper in Germany will soon be constructed in the old business section of the city of Hamburg. It will be sixteen stories high,

topping the highest building in Germany at this time by five stories. Architects believe the erection of this building will institute the era of skyscrapers in Germany, and expect to. see a number of similar buildings constructed within the next few years. Unusual difficulties must he overcome, The city-water plant is equipped to furnish water only itf the eleventh .story, and this brought up the question of fire danger and insurance, as well as the probability of financial loss in view of difficulty in renting offices on the live higher floors. Despitq these difficulties the promoters have secured permission 'to erect- the structure “provided the building does not destroy the architectural symmetry of the street.” Wine said to be 2,000 years old was shown and described at a lecture given on February 23 by Dr W. L. Sambon in connection with the London Cookery and Food Exhibition. The wine has long passed from its liquid state and U new solid. It was discovered some time ago in a cellar at Boseo Reale, near Pompeii, and it is now the property of Dr Sambon, who keeps it in cotton wool. “All the moisture in ii has evaporated,” said Dr Sambon, “but it Vefains its old pungency and goodness. You can break a bit off with your fingers, put it in alcohol, and urn have perfect wine: bn I even the aroma of the solid wine itself is very nice. I should say its nearest modern is gool burgundy. This is the kind of wine about which floraee used to write bis poems.” Dr Sambon also described at his lecture some cooking implements which are as old as the wine. They include a mould in the shape- of a partridge, a wine strainer, and a pastry cutter with a beautifully made spiked wheel. This last with a lit tle oil and persuasion, could easily he used by a modern housewife. Indicative of lhc uncommon use to which a trade association may lie put in serving its members is a request which came recently to A. F. Allison, Secretary of lho."Tnfernatjonal Association pf Garment Manufacturers, New York. According to flic letter Mr Allison received, the rodent exterminator in the neighborhood of a. certain member’s plant had gone to seemingly more lucrative fields. He had hpd a contract ■for ridding the plant of rats and mice, and apparently had made a good job of it. He bad hardly left I lie neighborhood, however, before the pests again became active. After a. considerable quantity of fine clothing material had been damaged and no other exterminator being available, the member wrote to Mr Allison and asked for aid. Information on matters of that kind lacking ai the local office, (lie association members wei - e quickly got in touch with. The replies received were: almost as unusual as the request. One of the most helpful suggestions came from another manufacturer who had suffered similarly. According to the latter, he has for some lime been operating a training school for cats and dogs with such success that he has been frequently asked to supply them to other plants in his vicinity. A pair of trained young mouser.s was offered to the distressed manufacturer. The incident is believed to have established a precedent in trade association service.

A case.of interest to fanners was heard aU the last sitting of the Magistrate's Court at Woodville, when the inspector of stock and noxious weeds proceeded against Alfred Eades, for failing to clear bis property of goatsrue. The case had been previously before the court, on March oth, andjtad been adjourned to give defendant an opportunity to comply with the inspector's notice. When the case was again, brought forward defendant tailed to appear, and was lined £o, with costs 11s. William Ross, inspector, gave evidence that Eades had cleared a couple of paddocks near his house, lull only about two-thirds of the river bed land, leaving about 15 acres of river flats still affected. The magistrate, commenting- on t lie ease, held that the matter was a serious one for the community, as neglect to clear meant poisoning his neighbours’ land. The danger was particularly grave when the weed grew on river banks, since the river acted as a carrier for the seeds on to other properties.