NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3032, 6 May 1926, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Ministry of Labour has announced that, on Marlh 1, the total number of persons recorded on the registers of employment exchanges in Great Britain was 1,107,100, a decrease of 18.6G0 compared with the previous week and 128,158 less than a year ago. A stone from Stratford-on-Avon Church has arrived in New York, and will be incorporated in the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Bishop Manning has stated that the stone may be built into the ‘arts bay’ of the cathedral, but that will be determined by the trustees and the architect. Sir Harry Lauder, speaking in Birmingham a few weeks ago, said he owed everything to enthusiasm. There were only four thinks worth enthusing over —God, work, home, and kindly neighbour over the garden wall. It will soon be an offence for a motor vehicle to pass a stationary tramcar on the near side in Birmingham. A by-law to this effect is to be made owing to the large number of accidents which have occurred to tramcar passengers. Bacon, beer, pies, tea, tripe, beetroot, corned beef, and pears constituted the diet of a dock labourer, of West Hartlepool, who died two days later of food-poisoning. The widow sought to obtain damages for herself and her two children from the licensee of an hotel where deceased obtained two pork pies, but failed.

The Invercargill police have received word that Robert Shand, a single man, aged 43, employed on Argyle station, Waikaia, has been missing since S turd-ay, when he left the homestead to bring in the cows. He had to cross a river and it is thought he may have fallen into the river and been drowned, as his horse returned without him. The Canadian newspapers publish a despatch from Dundad, in Ontario, stating that numerous minnows have been found on window sills three stories high, and also swimming in half-frozen ditch water. The theory held lo : cally is that the minows dropped from the skies during a heavy wind and rain storm by which they had been picked up elsewhere. The fact that, although a man had his skull broken into fragments and his brain exposed, he survived his injuries for a month, was disclosed at the inquest held by the Lambeth coroner in John Morgan, a labourer. Morgan was injured at a railway accident, and it was stated that a fortnight after an operation he regained his speech. News has reached Rangoon of the success of a small expedition into the far Huk Wang Valley, under Mr. T. Bernard, of the Burma Frontier Service, to secure the release of the slaves still held there. “Generous terms” have been offered to the masters, and arrangements have been made for the release of nearly all the slaves, many of whom are staying on as free men. Two girls fell overboard from a ferry launch coming from Devonport as the launch was nearing the port (Auckland) as the launch ' was nearing the Queen’s Wharf at 2 a.m. on Sunday. Another passenger went to their assistance and they were got on board again. On arriving at. the launch steps, both girls fell into the harbour again, and swam till they were helped ashoqe. They were later arrested,, and charged with being drunk.

A New York power company has installed a huge condenser to convert the exhaust steam back into water. It is thirty feet high, weighs 500 tons, and has 51 miles of tubes.

The death has occurred at Southsea, at the age of 90, of Mr. John James Goldsmith, who served in the Navy during the Crimean Wfcir, and the Indian Mutiny, and was taken prisoner in the former campaign. A resolution by school children that they “would not have” the new spelling advocated by the Simplified Spelling Society, even if the authorities adopted it, has been recorded at Churc-htown schools, near Matlock.

Forty years of service as a county councillor is the record of Mr. W. Ritchie, Brunswick riding’s representative on the Wanganui County Council. Mr. Ritchie was first elected to the County Council in 1884, and his record of service is a remarkable one. For nearly as long he has been a member of the Wanganui Hospital Board. He was a member of the Board when the nucleus of the present buildings was begun, and his name is on the foundation stone, laid in 1895. — Chronicle. History repeated itself in Auckland last week, when a sea captain who is an assessor on the Court of Inquiry appointed in connection with the wreck of the Karu failed to appear at the hour when the Court was to sit. For half an hour those engaged in the case waited, more or less patiently. Then came the news that the captain was playing bowls. Unlike Sir Francis Drake, who continued to play bowls despite an important engagement with the Spanish Armada, the captain was oblivious of his appointment.