GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2426, 9 May 1922, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The Harrovian, Harrow School magazine, gives the following among the latest “howlers” from examination papers: —“During the desert: march of the Israelites they were always breaking God’s laws, so He wrote them out for them oh two tablets of stone which could not be broken.” “Luther was a great preacher in Germany who preached against the Pope. • The Pope sent him a papal legate, but he tore it up and never read it.” “Give the context of ‘This is indeed the judgment of God.’ —rThis was said by Richard 1., when Ivanhoe and Rowena were married.” “Who was Cervantes? — Cervantes is another name for the devil.”

A story of a fight put up by two children to save their father from a marauding lion has come to light at Nairobi, East; Africa. An elderly. Masai native was attacked by a lion which was x-niding the cattle he was tending, and the beast inflicted terrible injuries on the man, who had used his spear to defend his charges. As he lay on the ground with the lion standing over him, his two sons, aged 20 and 1,2, came lo his help, armed-only with short swords. They threw themselves upon the animal and drove their weapons several times into its body, inflicting fatal injuries. Then, while the animal was yet alive, they dragged it from (lie body of their father and went for help. A story that discloses the resourcefulness of the young New Zealanders, besides emphasising the strong sense of duty, comes from Gisborne. Owing to unforeseen circumstances’a country school within 50 miles of Gisborne bad been suddenly left without a teacher. The children, however, had agreed to “carry on,” and one of their number, a lad of about twelve or thirteen years, had been selected by the scholars to carry on the duties of ' the teacher. The school comprised of 12 to 15 pupils', and when the wife of a committee man visited the school a few days ago the actingteacher was endeavouring to in - "struct a little toddler to count his coloured beads. The children it is reported, were observing admirable discipline and attendance under the circumstances. The ease of a wounded soldier who bad to have frequent haircuts inside his'mouth was described by Dr'Pereival Cole, surgeon at the Seaman’s Hospital, Greenwich,, recently. He had lost part of % the mucous membrane of bis mouth, and this was replaced by a graft of skin from bis own scalp. It did not give him much trouble, but-at grew so many hairs that he had to have haircuts inside his mouth almost as frequently as he shaved. According to messages received in London from New York a Rugby boy, Francis Francis, benefits to the extent of nearly £2,000,000 from the will of his grandmother, who reeferttly died in the United Slates. Tlui boy is 15 years of age. It is stated that the first information he received of his great fortune was the result of questions put to him by school-fellows some time ago. He is a. very quiet, unassuming boy, small for his age and has so far nof taken a prominent part in school life. i That, the monsters of the deep fight in groups, as well as engage in personal encounters, is testified to by Captain G: Evered Poole, a commissioner in the Gold Coast Survey, who writes concerning an experience during his voyage from England: —“Between Sierra Leone and Sekondi, we steamed through, for over an hour, a blood-red sea, and saw hundreds of whales dead or dying on the surface of the water. Some were just able to move slowly along-: few, if any, could- move quickly. There must have beeu a sanguinary battle, supposed to have ' been put up by swordfish. It was a most -appalling sight, and the expanse must, have represented the death of many more whales than were visible.”