NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, 31 August 1931, Page 2

NEAR AND FAR

Scouts Drowned. The second triple drowning- tragedy of a recent week occurred the other .day, when two Boy Seout brothers, WTlliam and Albert Butters, - were eaught in a current at Berwick-on-Tiveed, Engiand. Scoutmaster Adams .attempted to rescue the brothers, 'who pulled him down. A Girl Guide from a nearby camp dived repeatedly and pluckily, until pulled from the river exhausted. Ghastly Fate. Five couples left Montreal early the other day aboard a motor-truck, for a picnic. While three men built a fire and prepared lunch in the country, the remaining two men and five women wandered into the forest aixd found an unused cabin. Ingide was a red box, which they brouglit outside, and opened. The box contained explosives, and suddenly the powder caps exploded a. dozen sticks of dynamite inside. Both men were killed outright, and the five women were knocked down and. hurled about the( gi*ass. Their eyes were seared by the' fiames, and, all except one, were totally blinded. Dental Clinics. . > The school dental service in New Zealand has only been in operation for eight years, the first dental clinic being opened in 1923. To-day there are 200 dental "clinics. Atgthe pfesenf time 65,000 children are reeeiving reg'ular treatment at the clinics, and when it is remembered that there -are 225,000 children attending the primary schools the service will have to extend a good deal yet beforefit can eope with the work. The 65,000 children attend 950 schools. The Killing Machine. . "The killing machine is fading into the background," said Professor Gilbert Murray to delegates from 3000 branches of the League of Nation^ Union in Blackpool. "At the Disarmament Conf erence next spring we shall knoy/ how much farther it will fade out like the Cheshire cat in 'Ali'ce-in Wonderland,' with a grin on its face and perhaps with a few teeth left. War has become a much more imphobable factor than it was before the Great War.- War is definitely receklIng a good deal into the background." For the Future. , A party of scientists from Adelaide University which has been exploring Central Australia has returned to Adelaide with plaster casts of the faees and hands of aboriginals, and gramophone records, which it is proposed to preserve for the information of future generations. Origin of Gargoyles. The origin of gargoyles, with which so many buildings are decorated, appears to have been lost, states the Christchurch Times. Originally gargoyles had a very definite, meaning, but it is not known now entirely what was meant by them. A great

, deal of research was being made into the subject. Weird beasts were to be found all over Gothic buildings. There was no doubt that in the later Gothic building, although the use of gargoyles had been continued, their ..meaning had been lost, and the gargoyles had ended up by being just funny: Grim Cruise. A grim cruise is being made by a 17 ton lugger, which leaves Brisbane on a 1000 mile cruise to Darwin, carrying* four white and 17 hlack lepers, who are being transferred -to the Commonwealth Government's new lazarette station at the latter place. Hopeful Sign. v "In another six weeks or two months things will begin to brighten," said a Christchurch business man to a Sun reporter the other day. "For the past four months prices have remained steady. Most business people consider that this stabilisation of prices at even such a low figure is a hopeful sign. Wages will never be as high again, but that will not impair efficiency. I can remember the Weka Pass railway being put through in good time, by men earning from 2s 6d to 3s 6d a day. And there wasn't a grumbler among them." Brufal and Unsporting. Objecting to what he regarded as "brutal and unsporting" methods, a ratepayer wrote to the Wellington City Council asking that more strict control be imposed regarding wrestling matches in the Town Hall, the use of which, he said, should be debarred unless the sport was conducted on better lines. The letter was considered by the council on Monday evening. The Mayor, Mr T. C. A. Hislop, said he had asked the police to see that the rules and regulations were strictly complied with. If they were not the council would take drastic action. It was not proposed to take other steps. New and Good But — Someone sent the manuscript of a story to a literary friend, with the request that he would criticise it. The friend returned it with the following. note: — -"My dear Blank, your hook contains much that is new and good, but what is new is not good, and what is good is not new." France Aloof. "French reserve on the subject of the Hoover plan was to be expected, for there is to-day no European country which traditionally maintains on the whole so aloof an attitude to international economics. 'France,' wrote Dr Grothkopp, in his recent analysis of European tariff problems, cis of all European countries the most autarchic and her trade the least expansive.' Her unemployment is also lowest, and therefore the detachment with which she regards the American proposals *is inevitably greatest." A Long Telegram. A paragraph taken from a paper published 50' years ago states: The heaviest telegram ever transmitted to a single newspaper was sent recently to the Chicago Times. It consisted of the entire New Testament (the revised version, of course), word for word, from Hhe beginning of Matthew to the end-of Revelations. This ihimense telegram occupied nearly 89 columns and is a feat in the art of telegraphy that has never been equalled. The time occupied in its transmission from New York to Chicago was from 5 p,.m. to 11.30 p.rn., 19 wires being used up to 9 osclock and 21 after that hour. The numher of words was 835715,