GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2503, 7 November 1922, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Millions of daddy-long-legs from the marshes of the Saonc eovered the railway line at. St. Jean de Leslie a few weeks ago, and brought the Paris-Geneva express to a standstill, the wheels of the engine failing to grip the rails made greasy by the crushed bodies. An eleven-year-old girl, living at Montreuil, France, was returning home from market with a basket'of fish, when about 20 wild and starving cats attacked her in a frantic endeavour to reach the 'fish. The girl clung desperately to her basket and the animals scratched her arms and face severely, nearly tearing out one of her byes. In an article in the London Evening News on “The Next Air Raids,” Admiral Mark Kerr, who acted during the war as Deputy-Chief of the Air Staff and was a major-general in the R.A.F., writes: —In the future the air attack will probably be the first and most important operation by an enemy. Poison acids will be sprayed from the air, and fall like rain. A broken overhead tramway-wire became entangled with a motorbicycle and side-car’on the London Road, near Crayford, Kent. There was a shower of sparks and (he driver, Mr West; a chemist, of Dartford, was warned by shouts not to stir as the wire was “live.” Tn the side-car were his wife and child. The insulation afforded by the rubber tyres saved them from electrocution, and they remained in their places while officials with rubber gloves removed the wire. The members of the Mount Everest expedition have sent to the Pope, who used to be an enthusiastic mountaineer, a fragment of rock taken from the highest point reached by them on the mountain, 27,200 ft. The fragment has been mounted on an ebony stand decorated with silver bears, and having a carved dedication to the Pontiff. The Pope has sent to General Bruce who was the leader of the expedition, the gold medal of his pontificate, together with an autograph letter of thanks. After a cruise round the world, which lasted nearly two years, in a 1-29-lon yacht, a party of Swedish naval officers arrived in Cowes, Isle of Wight, a few weeks ago. Their yacht, Fidra, was built at Southampton 3(1 years ago and formerly belonged to Lord Dunraven. She is ketch-rigged and has an auxiliary motor. The yacht left Sweden on September 25, 1920, and in the course of the voyage has coveroil nearly 45,000 miles. Mr John Archibald Clmppel, aged 41, of Brockley, London, who was spending his honeymoon at Ilfracombe. died after being crushed in a lift. Mrs Chappell entered the electric lift at their hotel to go to her rooms and her husband was following her, when the lift began to ascend and he was caught hetween the floor of the lift and the wall. He was badly injured and wjis taken to hospital. Mr Chappell spoke lightly of the accident, remarking that he supposed he would be a little stiff in the morning. He died during the night. A pedigree pig, reared .in Yorkshire and bought for a French breeder's stud, was carried by air from London to Paris recently. | Members of the Hying staff, assig- • ned to the task of embarking this unusual cargo, had no trouble with the animal. He calmly walked up the gangway, and entered the aerial I cattle truck with the air of a seas- ! oned flying traveller. Other curious | air cargoes that have passed -bej tween the two capitals recently inI eluded a consignment of lmirpads, crates of live lobsters, underclothing, hair lotion, bronze statuettes, face powder, perfume, antiques, and a picture that was exhibited in the Academy. At a cost of £400,000 the Gouin Dam, on the St. Maurice River, Quebec, has now been completed. It forms the largest artificial storage of water in the world and is, in fact, an artificial lake of 300 square miles, storing four times the quantity of water held by the Assuan Dam in Egypt. The water power of this river has been developed to a very great extent, and the waters of the new reservoir will be used to adjust the wide variation in the flow of water at different seasons of the year. The dam is named after Sir Lomer Gouin, for many .years Premier of Quebec, and now Minister of Justice in the Dominion Cabinet.