NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 28, 25 September 1931, Page 2

NEAR AND FAR

Developmg. Tammany Hail may try to alter the Constitution of -the United States if the suggestion of* Mayor Jimmie Walker of New York is carried out. The Honourable Jimmie had been readihg some interesting stktistics. He laid them down with a sigh and remarked: "It appears that matters have just about come to the point where another Cabinet member is nee.ded." "Wbat is it?." asked Commissioner Muldoon. "Secretary of Crime." - - ■ Ruled by Spirit. A French wi'fe. has filed a divoree suit in the Paris courts. because1 she objects to her spiritualist husband being ruled — by his first wife. "I ani married to him and I do not mind his 'spirits'," she said, "but I am not married to his first wife and I do not need to be told by a voiee from another world how to cook his favourite dish, mend his clothes and keep house."

An Adopted Ape. _ A baby ape is to he brought up lilce a child of a well-to-do family under the direct supervision of Professor Kellogg, experimental psychologist of the University of Indiana. He will have a nurse "and a governess. He will be wheeled rotmd in a fashionable perambulator. !Ori growing older he will play with at least one human child of his owri age. Gorrect and snappy American speech will be taught him. Dr. Kellogg has strong hopes that he will succeed; Unless the apes lack the motor apparatus of speech, they should be kble to talk like human beings, he thinks. Thus the mistake would be avoided of establishing an animal environment and suggestion around the growing ape as is done in most of the animal laboratories and zoos.

. English Buddhist Monk. Mr. George P. Huetchesson, son of Prof. J. F. Hutcheson, now of the Ministry of Justice, Bangkok, and formerly a master of Cheltenham, has donned the yellow robe and has become a Buddhist monk at a Bangkok temple. Mr. George Hutchesson, ^ho is 24, has had leanings to wards Buddhism for several years. He revisisted England last year and while there decided on the step he has now tkken. Like every other monk he sets forth daily at dawn from the temple where he resides to beg his food from the faithful, who 'aceount it an act of merit to provide food for the Buddhist clergy.

Puzzling. The tendency of Robert Chambers to forsake modern sex stories for the field of period romance, led to a close friend to ask him why he seemed to be forsaking the field of his splendid success. "Well," laughed Chambers, "perhaps it's just a natural eraving for change of subject, just as one often likes a change of diet, but there are also some practical reasons. It's almost impossible to write a modern novel at the present time and have it still modern by the time it appears in print, Honestly, fashions change so rapidly nowadays that it's alniost impossible to recognise the girl friend from day to day except over the telephone."

Ancient City Wall as Highway. The ancient city wall of Tsinanfu, capital of Shantung Province, China, has been converted into a highway to which only motor cars are admitted. Broad approaches were built at the various city gates. These have been levelled and the top of the wall provides a comfortable thoroughfare for fast-moving traffic, comparable to some of the elevated highways that have been constructed in the United States.

Unwashed for Fifty Years. A well known Norfolk hermit, Edwin Ernest Colman, aged 78, was found dead at Gissing, near Diss (England), recently, with a bruise on the head. He was turned out of two homes and an effort was made to evict him from a shed in which he took refuge. As the result of a public petition, however, he was allowed to remain, A whist drive was held, and with the proeeeds and donations Colman's shed was remodelled and he had since lived peacefully there, looking after his poultry. It is reported that he had not undressed for years and had not washed for fifty years.

Monkey Steals Horse. Mischievous wild monkeys which live in the mountains around the historic Japanese town of Nikko are worrying villages by raiding fields and poultry yards. The worst depredations are reported from the Fukushima Prefecture, where, according to villagers, the monkeys are chasiiig into the hills. A Japanese Zainiwazuka, recently, reported that while cutting hay his horse disappeared. He gave chase and saw the pack animal in a distant valley with a monkey leading him into the hills.

Etching Signed Rembrandt. Mr. Ernholm, a curio dealer, of South Yarra, bought a set of old hooks in Tasmania recently and in one, dated 1765, he has found a small etching signed Rembrandt. Many connoisseurs have carefully studied the print and most have expressed the opiniori that it is an original Rembrandt, and a rare state of the plate, Landsd[ape With A Ruined Tower (Paysage en Tour) . For the last discovered print of this plate £145 was paid in London. The probable date of its creation by the etcher is 1665. A Large Coin.

Five shilling pieces, large and heavy coins, still put in an appearance at Christchurch banks now and then. They are not, of course, in regular eirculation there, a bank official states. The 5s pieces are usually very well embossed coins. Crocodile's Meal. A erocodile killed in Lake Tanganyika was found to contain eight screws, a tin-opener; a piece of rope, a packet of pins and a tin-can. The local mystery of a missing Ford car has thus been cleared up*. — Purieh.