GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2458, 25 July 1922, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The discovery of gold in Devonshire is announced by Dr. W. T. Gordon. He writes: — rt l had occasion recently to conduct a party of my students from King’s College, London, over the Devonian rocks in the neighbourhood of Torquay, and had the good fortune an interesting occurrence of gold in a rock near Hope’s Nose. It is intended to proceed further with the matter in case it may prove worth exploitation.” Gold is found in several parts of Great Britain, but generally the veins are not uniform or continuous enough to make min* ing a profitable speculation. A young prisoner, named Charles Scott, made a daring escape recently from Bow Street Police Court, London. The man who was charged with loitering as a suspected person, was remanded and placed in the netention cell where two other accused persons were awaiting their appearance before the Court. When the gaoler went to fetch them, Scott hid behind the door. Believing the cell to be then unoccupied, the gaoler failed to relock the door, and Scott calmly walked out along the corridor to the public waiting room, which gave him an easy access to the street. The long-whiskered championship of the world is claimed by John J. Tanners, 84, for more than half a century a resident of Brighton, Michigan. His beard measures exactly nine feet from chin to tip. Ordinarily Mir Tanner controls it by thrusting the ends inside the band of his trousers. More than fifty years ago, when Mr Tanner’s beard was only two or three feet in length, he decided to seek the championship and to taiis end he braided his beard and tucked it inside his vest. He hopes to attain a growth of twelve feet.

A pack of wolves with large appetites and’roving dispositions have been infesting the outskirts of Rome.' The inhabitants turned out with shotguns to protect their homes. A few weeks ago a gigantic wolf was shot by a Roman, near the Rocca di Papa, the famous rock which the neighbourhood thought was toppling at the time of the late Pope’s death. The animal’s body was carried in state to the Piazza Garibaldi, where it was viewed all day by curious crowds: An equally ravenous pack of wolves have been frightening farmers near Naples. A story of a desperate struggle with a tiger came to light owing to the death of Girendro Nath Dutt, a zemindar and sportsman, in Calcutta. A man-eater had for a long time past been creating terror in the village of Sikarpur, and Dutt set out with a rifle to track him. He came face to face with the tiger and fired, but only wounded him. The infuriated beast sprang at Dutt, and a death struggle raged in the junsat down td an unusual exotic lunester pluekily rushed in with a clasp knife, slashing the tiger in the neck. The tiger, turning on his new adversary, relinquished his hold on Dutt, who regained possession of his rifle, instantly shot the animal dead. Badly bruised and lacerated, Dutt was brought to Calcutta, where he died.

A man who had tramped 500 miles round the country, pushing his two young children (a girl of eight and a boy of six) in a box on wheels was brought up at Bristol Police Court. The charge against him was that of wandering. JJe had £9 in Treasury notes, the of his savings. Asked why he had not got lodgings, he said he had kept the money because he feared destitution. Cooper explained that he started his tramp three months ago for the benefit of his health, his wife having died at that time. The children who were in Court looked the picture of health. Among the places they had visited were Southampton, Bournemouth, Salisbury, Gloucester and Bristol. They had.spent two nights in the New Forest.