NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 33, 1 October 1931, Page 2

NEAR AND FAR

Titania's Palace. A 2-in model of Sir Francis Drake's ship, th© Gloden Hind, is the latest addition to Titania's Palace, This miniature palace, supposed to he the home of Titania, Queen of the Fairies, which was built by Major Sir Nevile Wilkinson was recently on exhihition in London. The proceeds from the exhibition went to charitable associations interested in child welfare. The tiny model of the Golden Hind has been placed, under a glass case, in one of the rooms of the palace. Another new addition to Titania's Palace is a gold towel rail in the royal hedroom. Machine Guns. A rusty machine gun, the second that the police have secured during the past fortnight in Christchurch, was removed by detectives from the yard of 329 Madras Street, the home of J. Edwards, a member of the Christchurch Communist Party, on Friday afternoon. The first machine gun belonged to a boy. Canine Cookery. In King's Road, Chelsea, I came upon London's "doggiest" restaurant, reports a Daily Mail eorrespondentIn the window two wooden dogs support a hoard on which is written:-r-Little dogs, 3d; big dogs, 3d; outsize dogs, 4d. The menu follows: Raw or cooked meat, vegetables, potatoes, hrown bread. A dinner de luxe — a cut off the joint — rnay be had at additional rates.

New Stamp Machines. ' The London Post Office is ahout to try in. the provinces a stamp machine in which you insert a two-shilling piece or two single shillings. and receive in exchange a book of stamps. This will undoubtedly be a great conIvenience. Lion's Skin Coat Often one hears of a squirrel or lamb coat, hut an American woman who was in London for the Derby has a lion coat. The curious thing is that it is quita- harmless lookmg. From a distance it resembled yellow satin, as theqskins are treated in sueh a way as to resemble satin, not fuf. The price of the coat was £400, which does not seem a lot in the circumstances. Bright Ideas. It must be very difficult to thinlc of something really new in the way of adornment for Ascot, but a film actress intends to wear a necklace and three hracelets of electrie lights on ■Gold Cup day. The bulbs look like large beads and the batteries are arranged at the hack and covered with a tassel. When , lit up the necklace and bracelets look charming. It is the only set of its kind in London, though th&re are several in Vienna and at Hollywood.

Relic of Great Soldier. A relic of the great soldier the Duke of Wellington deposited in the museum is a small folding case of waterproofed canvas lined with silk, which he carried in the pocket of his uniform during the Waterloo campaign. The case holdg a pocket-knife with a mother o' pearl handle, one ordinary blade, a blade for manicuring and the tortoise-shell comb with which he smoothed his hair. It also contains a gold pencil case with an adjustable lead, with which he wrote his orders, another, with a short length of cedar pencil, evidently a stand-by, and his gold penholder with a quill nib. Water Nymphs at Maidenhead. Floodlight bathing is the latest addition to the luxurioug amenities of the Hungarian River Club at Maidenhead. A bathing ipool, 7 feet deep, with a spring-hoard at one end, has been constructed in the grounds, and at night the water is brilliantly illuminated, Bathers, fair and beautiful, dive, splash and swim in the water, which rippl&s like a lake of silver, and all round in the deep shadow sit an audience of less adventurous people. It is a.very pleasant diversion for a summer evening.

Terrific Thunderstorm. A terrific thunderstorm which lasted more than two hours hroke over Blackpool recently. Streets were flooded and water entered many houses to a depth of from ona foot to three feet. In Whitegate-drive the flood assumed river-like proportions, running a course of over a quarter of a mile. It ripped up the road for twenty yards, causing several tramcar.s to leave the rails. The service had to be suspended for over an hour. Passengers alighting found themselves knee-deep in water, and men carried women to the footpaths, which were in many places a foot or more under water, Motorists who tried to plough their way through the flood had the bonnets of their cars almost covered by water, and could not procced until the flood had subsided. Between one and six o'clock the rainfall was 1.53in. — as much ag Blackpool had during the whole of May.

Imminent Restaurateur's Bislikes. "I dislike intensely," said Mr. Sovrani, the well known London restaurateur, "the lazy grumbler who has no will to work, no decision or courage when things are bad, and who is only pleased iwhen things are good. Even the unpleasantly and aggressively energetic are preferable. I also dislike sneezing on Monday mornings before hreakfast, because I find this unlucky for the rest of the week, and, perhaps naturally, I dislike all forms of mutton dressed as lamb." Pay it in Pennies. One of the competitors in a lightweight T.T. race in the Isle of Man, arrived at the weighing-in room a minute late and was told by offieials that under the rule3 he would he fined £1. Remarking that he could he fined only £1 even if he was an hour late, the eompetitor went to the local bank and within an hour returned with 240 •pennies, which he placed on the table.