NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3505, 1 July 1926, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

The cliff where more sea birds are said to build their nests than in any other place in the world is on the coast of Norway. It is 1000 ft. high, and goes by tlie name of Svoerhaltklubben. The ordinary bluebottle fly moves its wings about 330 times a second. The bee vibrates its wings at nearly twice this rate, while the wings of the average butterfly move at the rate of nine times a second. Electric contacts placed on the railway line, which operates a signal inside the cab of the engine and warns the driver that the" signal is against him, are in use on French railways. They are known as crocodiles. Some foods are harmful to certain constitutions. Cases have been known of rheumatism, nettlerash, gout, and arthritis being caused by patients partaking of foods which to the vast majority of people, are harmless. Much discussion has been common of late on the question whether the age of -chivalry is past, says a Canterbury paper. A splendid example of modern manners was witnessed by a Geraldine motorist on a public road the other day. It was getting late, and semi-darkness veiled the land, when he discovered that a tree had fallen across the road and had completely blocked it. A good Samaritan, lie stopped and warned 40 motorists of the obstruction. Only two of them, remembered to say “Thank you,” and many were irritable at being slopped! An epoch-making machine without magneto, sparking plugs, valves or gear box, the design of which were acquired by spiritualistic means, was mentioned at the Marlborough street Court, London, Avhen Malcolm Owen was charged with fraudulent conversion. The plaintiff, John Kefe, said that a medium, Mrs Farrow, had supplied the designs while in a trance. Crossexamined, lie said that spiritualists at Bornemouth had provided Ihe bulk of' the capital. Fart of the engine already had been produced, and it was expected that it would be completed in a few months. Plaintiff vehemently denied that the medium had been plied with whisky out of the company’s funds. Owen said he had refused to hand over the money in question because he had discovered that the thing was a swindle. The summons was dismissed.