INTERESTING ITEMS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 205, 11 May 1915, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

A TRAGIC GOODBYE. A verdict of "Accidental death" was returned at an inquest at Lambeth on Elizabeth vVoodley, 40, of Berkeley Street, Scmers Town, who, while seeing soldier relatives off at Waterlco, fell between the carriage and the platform. As the train moved off, the woman wa s seen to be clinging to the handle of a door, and then she fell. The train was stopped, and she was extricated, but she died from her injuries. SUBURBAN SNOBISHNESS. A London correspondent says: "I hear that the War Office is being simply besieged by men wanting commissions, and that 'waiting lists' have now reached huge proportions. This thirst for commissions is not good for recruiting. At present the surest way to the officers' mess in the new armies is through the barrack-room. An officer told me the other day that he was disgusted by the demands for commissions from men who had absolutely no qualifications, but were inspired by a certain suburban snobbishness."

FRENCH AIRCRAFT GUN. The new French 4-inch gun for attack on aircraft has proved to be a very efficient weapon. 'lt fires a projectile weighing about 361 b with a muzzle velocity of 1870 feet per second. The sighting is by means of a panoramic glass, and tho gun-pointing is done similarly to that of the well known French 7.5 gun. The carriage remains fixed, the gun recoiling to a ) distance of one meter and returning i:u battery by moans of compressed air. The weight of the piece in action with its armoured screen is about 2 1-3 tons. "BANDED" BY GERMANS. An Antwerp magistrate, in a letter received at Birmingham, states that the Germarig have initiated a system of branding civilians whom their military authorites have selected for service. Children are being branded on the <dieek under pretext of inoculation, "but," adds the letter, "obviously the purpose is disfiguration, otherwise the arm or leg would be selected." The magistrate who reports these outrages has till recently been taking refuge with his family at Birmingham. He has now gone to Holland under a threat from the Germans that they will wreak vengeance upon him unless ho returns to carry en hi s factory near Antwerp. HATRED OF PRUSSIA. A Captain Mellish, a native of Hanover, emigrated to th 0 Cape in 1857, and did not revisit his native country till 1879—the time of the Zulu war He seems tc have made an extended tour through Germany. Shortly after his return to the Cape, ho and others wiere on e evening talking over iceal events and the trend of politics -;?i Europe. Captain Mellish surprised all by vehemently exclaiming: "We ; 'i.n Hanover hate the Prussians, but since ISG6 we cannot help ourselves. I am an old man, and won't see when Prussia will prove the ruin of Germany." Thorp, have been many prophecies much less likely cf fulfilment than this GERMAN SUBMARINE TORPEDO.

When the German subroar-no h" been rible to get librae its-torpedo i!in 3 effected the. destruction of the ship attacked, practically at the first blow. The deadly character of German submarine attack is due to the fact that a special type of torpedo has been designed for submarine use. We are informed on good authority (says the "Scientific American") that the air capacity and engine power of the submarine torpedo are very much smaller than those of the long-distance torpedo. Weigjht saved in the air flask and its contents and the motive power is put into highh explosive, of which these torpedoes carry no less than 4201 b. The racking effect of 4201 b of trinitrotoluol would be sufficient to loosen up the internal structure of a ship so badly as to make her foundering a question only of time. SCOTTISH PRISONER'S TRICK. Ruhleben prison camp, where fjhe interned have established a Burns Club, is in the Imperial black books just now, and the unfortunate prisoners have had to suffer the, loss of a good many of the luxuries which helped to sweeten tjbeir monotonous life. It seems that on the Kaiser's birthday the prisoners were ordered to heist a German flag over their exercise yard, so that they could better , appreciate the might of the German i Empire. The hoisting ceremony was to have been quite an imposing affair, but it was turned into glorious farce by an ingenious British lad, who tied knot s m the halyard, so that the flag, after it reached half-mast, stuck fast, and all the fuming and fretting of a dj'nzen pompous Landisturnters could neither move it up nor down. The British enjoyed the joke hugely, but they are paying the penalty now.