News Items From The Homeland

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 502, 3 November 1928, Page 28

News Items From The Homeland

(THE SUN'S Special Mail Service.)

Coloured £1 Notes. By the time the summer holiday season comes round again the present Treasury notes —“Fishers”— .will probably have well-nigh disappeared and will have given place to new £1 and 10s. Bank of England notes. The actual date when the new notes will come into use has not yet been decided, but preparations are already well forward and it is to be not later than March 31 next.

For many weeks past the new Bank of England notes have been printed at the rate of over a million a day at the printing department of the Bank in Oldstreet, E.C„ and have been transferred to the bank’s strong rooms to await the “appointed day.” Nearly 400,000,000 new notes have ordered and of these practically half are ready for issue. A £1 Bank of England note will be a novelty probably to the oldest person in the country. It will be no innovation, however. since from 1797 until 1826 the bank issued both £1 and £2 notes. In 1826 the issue for any note for under £5 was prohibited. The old £1 bank-notes were of the same size and design as the present £5 notes and were printed in black. The new notes, it is believed, are the same size as the £1 and 10s. currency notes and are printed in colour. Dog Rescues Dog.

Betty, a rough-haired terrier, belonging to Mr Charles Abbott, of Richmond Road, Kingston, Surrey, rescued another dog from drowning in the Thames near Kingston recently. The second dog became entangled in a line holding together two pieces of wood which it was retrieving for its owner, a little girl. It was unable to swim and held on to the wood, beating the water with its front paws to save itself. Mr Abbott, who was on the bank, called to his dog, “Go in after it. Betty. ’ She swam out to the piece of wood, which was about 16 yards from the bank, gripped the free end, and, encouraged by her owner, swam ashore, dragging the other dog with her.

Girl Shot Dead From Train. A remarkable story was told in the Sheriff Court, Glasgow, when a Territorial named John Daly, was sentenced to three months* imprisonment for shooting a nurse-maid from the compartment of a train on July 7. The nurse-maid, Miss Torrance, was going along a quiet country road in the Catkin Braes district of Glasgow, which is flanked by the railway line. A shot was heard and she fell to the ground, dying later in the infirmary. On inquiry it was found that the bullet had passed the head of a young man walking behind Miss Torrance, grazed a young woman’s sleeve, and then ricocheted from the roadway and struck Miss Torrance.

Daly, when challenged, frankly admitted his guilt. He had been practising on the rifle range, and that out of 20 rounds, one jammed in his rifle. He took out the cartridge and put it in his pocket. He thought he had better get rid of it before he reached home and fired it out of the railway carriage window at some crows. He admitted that his shot was in the direction of the road on which the girl had been w r alking. ’Although he heard of the accident later he did not think he had any connection with the affair at all. Marquess Of Bute’s Son. The Earl of Dumfries, heir of the Marquess of Bute, celebrated hjs 21st birthday in his Scottish home in the island of Bute. It is the first time for five generations that the head of the Bute family has lived to see his heir attain his majority. At noon he was presented with the freedom of Rothesay, the ceremony taking place in the Council Chamber, on the walls of which hang portraits of his ancestors, one of whom filled the Provost’s chair as far back as 1712. Instead of the customary casket he received a sporran. In the afternoon the Earl attended the annual Highland gathering of the North Bute Shinty Club, at which he was presented with a silver-mounted caman or shinty stick. Largest Ice-Skating Rink, r

The largest covered skating rink in the world will be opened next October in Richmond, on the Middlesex bank of the river Thames. There will be a skating area of 24,300 square feet and a balcony and promenade for two or three thousand onlookers. The rink will be the headquarters of the Richmond Ice Skating Club. Private skating rooms will be provided for

members, a private landing stage for those travelling to the club by boat, and special parking arrangements for automobiles are included in the facilities to be provided. £14,000 And No Will.

Mr Alexander Goodall, of Forest Villas, High Street, Starbeck, Harrogate, who died at Ramsey, Isle of Man, on May 22, intestate, a bachelor without a living parent, brother, or sister, or grand-parent, left estate to the gross value of £13,314, with net personalty £9789.

Failing any relations, including uncles and aunts and their issue, who are entitled under the Administration of Estate Act, 1925, to share in the distribution of an intestate’s estate, the estate goes to the Crown.

Socialists Ban Tattoo. Because members of the Socialist Party in the Leeds City Council do not approve of a military tattoo, Leeds will not see this spectacle next year. After Inquiries by the Lord Mayor, Alderman George Ratcliffe, the Northern Military Command intimated that next summer, following the presentation of a tattoo at Newcastle, they were willing to consider an invitation to give a performance in Leeds. The Socialist Party, however, objected, and the scheme has been dropped. Twenty Thrown Into Water.

When passengers returning from a motor-boat trip at Southend-on-Sea were walking across a landing stage to get ashore a woman stooped to pick up her purse which had fallen. The obstruction brought all the people to the centre of the stage, which suddenly broke in two and 20 persons were thrown into the water, which was 4ft deep. They were soon helped out, all thoroughly soaked. Bronte Museum Opened.

Sir James Roberts, of Stratliallan Castle, Perthshire, on August 4 handed to the Bronte Society the deeds of Haworth Parsonage, near Keighley, Yorkshire, the house in which the famous sisters spent their lives. Sir James, who is a native of Haworth, recently acquired the parsonage by providing money to build a new one. The old house is. to be used as a museum for Bronte relics. Sir Edward Brotherton, of Leeds, president of the Bronte Society, formally accepted the deeds, and the parscfnage was opened by Lady Roberts. Snippets. A 40ft-long whale in the Wash was chased and shot at by fishing parties, but escaped. “The Island Princess,” a new musical comedy, was played at Manchester Opera House recently prior to the London production. After 44 years as carpet-mender in the House of Parliament, Mrs Annie Thornton retired.

At the age of 87, Mr B. J. Westlake is still working at the toll-gates of the Grand Pier, Weston-super-Mare. Three members of the Shanghai Fire Brigade spent a week-end in Birmingham and examined equipment and precautions against fire in the chief places of amusement.

Miss Mabel Kitson, the 16-years-old “railway queen,” went to France to address railwayman" of France in their own language as ambassador from British railwaymen in the interests of international peace.

For permitting cruelty to a mule stated to be blind and 20 years old by allowing it to travel 14 miles in an unfit condition, Frederick William Parratt, of Wrecclesham, Surrey, was fined £l ° r A Whitehill. Jomi James, aged 103, has died in Llanelly Workhouse Infirmary. Major Otway Mayne. Chief Constable of Buckinghamshire, has retired after 32 years* service. A death’s head moth, with a wingspread of four and a-quarter inches, has been caught at Wigan. Four bellringers of St. Mary’s Church, Torquay, Devon, have been ringers in the same tower for 50 years or more. “Grannie** Ward, aged 95, a successful applicant for a show site at Mitcham on August 13, has not missed a fair there for 87 years.

A special service for cyclists was held in the grounds of the Bishop’s Palace at Ripon, Yorkshire. The Bishop (Dr E. A. Burroughs) stood on the terrace to conduct the service, and had a congregation of more than 200 cyclists. The music was provided by the Ripon City Band. The weather conditions were perfect. Miss Annie Steel, aged 17, who fell from a train between Carnforth and Lancaster on Saturday with a baby in her arms, was seriously injured, but the baby was found toddling about on the permanent way. A royal sturgeon more than Bft long and weighing 3cwt was caught in the River Dee at Chester.

Thirteen thousand people attended Plymouth Navy Week display, and the total for the week was more than 67,000.