MODERN METHUSELAH

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 21

MODERN METHUSELAH

CHINESE 250 YEARS OLD Li Chin Yun, who is reputed to be " a 0 years old, has left his home in far inland Sze-chuan, on a visit to the University at Chang-tu, the Szechuan capital, China Li has been invited to lecture there on the secret of his longevity. He has personal recollections of the rmgns of nine emperors, as well as the later 18 years of the Republic. TWO OPINIONS A HARD-LUCK STORY On taking his seat at the Old Bailey recently, the Common Sergeant (Sir Henry Dickens, K.C.) asked wliat happened to a man who was before him the week before, when the jury had disagreed. The Clerk: He was retried the next day m another court, convicted, and sentenced to six months’ hard labour. Sir Henry: Humph! If he had been convicted here he would have been bound over. WILY FOX! LEADS HOUNDS UNDER TRAIN Followers of Lord Yarborough’s hounds had an exciting run recently, when a fox took them down to the Humber and entered Immingham Dockyard. He passed close by some trading vessels and crossed several lines of railway, fox and hounds being once under a goods train in slow motion. Eventually the hunt reached open country. THE EXPERT i GIRL AND FALSE COINS A Post Office girl who would not accept even a bank’s assurance that certain half-crowns were genuine was proved right in the High Court cf Edinburgh. So skilled was the imitation, said the Solicitor-General, that the Mint had informed him that in no similar case on their records was such precision revealed. The detection of the coins was due to the Post Office assistant, Miss Tennat, who had the coins examined by the bank. When they said the coiDS were genuine she persisted in her belief and the coins were handed to the police. The Mint found they were counterfeit. Two men charged with the counterfeiting, James Steele and Robert Ramsay, were sentenced to three years’ penal servitude. ILLICITLY SOLD COCAINE DEARER THAN GOLD Cocaine illicitly sold in Sydney, said a detective in a case at a Sydney Police Court recently, was worth £lO an ounce —more than double Its weight In gold, which is quoted at £4 4s 8d an ounce. Doctors and dentists who buy the drug for legitimate use can secure it for £2 an ounce. As the penalty for dealing illicitly in cocaine is imprisonment, pedlars consider they are justified in operating on the principle of "big risks, big profits.” WASTE PAPER HIGHER THAN EIFFEL TOWER Waste-paper merchants in Paris have been invited to buy discarded documents of the Reparation Commission, which is winding up in consequence of the Young Plan. The Commission spent £1,600 in typewriting paper alone, and it is estimated that Its reports, if piled up, would be higher than the Eiffel Tower, which is 984 feet high, and for years was the tallest building in the world. ROUNDING-UP RHEAS ALL-SPORTS ZOO MEETING A sort of combined Rugby scrimmage and skating exhibition took place at the London Zoo recently. The occasion was the rounding-up of four rheas (South American ostriches) in one of the park paddocks, for transference to the ostrich house. As a rhea can easily outdistance either a horse or dog, and has the power of kicking in any direction, the round-up was an exciting affair. The only way in which they could be caught was by seizing them by the wings, and the keepers were dragged around at great speed as they slid over the damp, slippery soil. £1 TREASURY NOTE RECORD OF GREATEST AIR FEAT A £ 1 Treasury note that has played its part in modern history has just come to light. To ordinary appearances, it is worth just 20s. But the owner has refused a wad of 50 ordinary £1 notes for it. It Is all because of a little message on the back, a genuine record of the greatest achievement ever accomplished in the air. This note is one of three which made the long journey across the Atlantic in the pocket of the late Sir John Alcock, pioneer of all transatlantic voyagers, who made the journey With Sir A. Whitten Brown. The inscription on the back, written in Sir John Alcock’s hand, reads: “Carried across the Atlantic by the Vickers-Vimy airplane. Left St. Johns 4.28 p.m., June 14, 1919; arrived Ireland 8.40 a.m. June 15, 1919. First non-stop flight. Signed, J. Alcock, Captain D.S.C.” The owner is under the impression that both the other relics have been lost sight of.