GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2504, 9 November 1922, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

A lovers’ quarrel is alleged to have led to the firing of revolver shots in a drawing room of a house in Caversham Street, Kentish Town, London. A clerk, Robert Shortnll, 19, of Kentish Town, visited his fiancee, Miss Lena Fitzgerald, 23, and quarrelled with her. Shorfall is said to have pulled a revolver from his pocket and shot the girl. The bullet dislodged a chandelier hanging in the centre of the room which fell on the girl’s head and she received scalp wounds. Afterwards it is reported, Shortnll shot himself in the right temple. He died later in hospital. The new Canadian Pacific liner, Montclare, (10,400 tons), sailed recently from Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Canada. The Montclare is an oil-bumer, and many new features have been introduced in her construction. The cabins have been fitted with patent nonjaminable doors and locks thus removing the possibility of passengers being imprisoned in their cabins should an accident arise. The vessel is fitted with a surgery and an operating theatre, a playroom and nursery for children and a cinema installation.

In connection with Weybridge, Surrey, regatta, a number of prizes wore attached to the holding of certain programmes. Some mild amusement was caused by the fact that the Rev. Spencer Bailor, the rector, who was president of the regatta, held a copy numbered 242, and this entitled him to six bottles of whisky. The tradesmen who promised the whisky as a prize, carry on business directly opposite the rectory so there was no great difiiculty in effecting the delivery. Mr Bailor stilted that lie, in turn, would present the value of' the whisky to the local cottage hospital. The reconstruction of Enfield Lock, England, lias been invested, with romance and the men engaged on the work are searching feverishly for a ring with a history. Before the river was closed for the widening scheme which is now in progress a. young man look his girl for a row and they passed through this lock. Contrary |o the usual practice of river courting The couple disagreed, and, proceeding down the river came to violent words. The climax was reached at the lock, where the girl, in the height of her anger, tore off her diamond engagement ring and threw it into the lock basin which is nearly 20 feet deep, declaring that no man would ever have either her or the ring again. The old lock has been drained preparatory to its demolition, and all eyes were keen on finding the ring. Picks flew faster and shovels moved more quickly in the anticipation of a find.

A distinguished Scottish divine now resident in London, well-known ns a prohibition lecturer, tells the following amusing anecdote of an adventure which befell him while addressing meetings in North Wales. Arriving at a railway station some miles from the place in which he was booked to speak, he found there was no one to meet him, and not a vehicle of any kind to be had. Just as he had made up his mind that he must walk and arrive lialt-an-hour late, there came on the scene —a brewer’s van, laden with crates of beer and bound for the same place as himsell. Overcoming his scruples, he was soon perched on a crate of beer bottles and scanning bis notes on prohibition. He discreetly descended before entering the village. How a party of anglers in a seaplane made several big catches, including an 801 b. shark, is told by the Angler’s News, quoting an Amerieon newspaper’s story of a flying fishing expedition off California. “A school of albacore was sighied from an altitude of 500 ft. and the pilot brought, the seaplane to rest- immediately over the lish. Two lines were east, and the Hying boat taxied over the surface trolling the bait. Results were instantaneous, two s trikes of albacore furnishhing excitement. for twenty minutes before the lighting lish were brought to the gaff. Having taken their share of that school the flying fishermen took to the air again and located another tinny tribe within a few minutes. Again the ship volplaned to the surface of the sea, and once more the fishermen got busy. Two more albacore and an 801 b. shark rewarded their efforts this time.”