INTERESTING ITEMS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 226, 14 June 1915, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

SIXTY YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT. , “Altogether he has been sentenced to about sixty years’ imprisonment.” This was stated to be the record of George Symonds, 74, who was given | six months’ imprisonment for shop-lift- | ing at Marlborough Street Police I Court. He said he did not want to | come into the world again, I BLUEJACKET’S FIERCE FIGHT IN | COURT. | It took five constables to overpower I a bluejacket named Robert Nielsen at | Hull Police Court the other day. After | striking a policeman in the fac e he I fought fiercely to escape, and his strugt gies in the confined space of the dock f with the constables were extraordini arily violent. H e was finally carried \ below to await an escort back to the [ warship from which he was an absentee. TIRED OF LIFE AT FIFTEEN ' After drinqing a bottleful of laud- ' anum and jumping from a train while it was passing through a tunnel, a fif-teen-year-cld hosiery (hand j 'named s Amelia Smith failed to do herself much harm. At Nottingham Police Court she was allowed to be sent to a rescue home. It was stated that she had said, “If I have a chance I shall do it again.” A TOPIC OF CONVERSATION. In an address to the Malton and Norton Volunteer Training Corps, the 1 Vicar of Malton (the Rev. H. L. Ogle) said he feared that in that district and elsewhere there was “treating” cf soldiers, including wounded eoldiers.This conduct belied the name of Englishmen. While the war was taken seriously in France, it was regarded as only an interesting topic of conversation in England, They boasted of business as usual, and evidently it was so with the churches, for the churches were empty as usual. BEER ON A WARSHIP. Sentence of three months’ hard labour was passed at Dover on a civilian named Richard Curran, he being charged under the Defence of the Realm Act with the novel offence of jr?-*-- I beer in his possession on one of his Majesty’s ships with intent to sell or give it away to members of the crew. The warship was alongside the quay, with a sentry on duty, when Curran clambered over certain vessels cn the opposite side, and get on to the war ship with two parcels. These were found to contain quart bottles cf beer. RAISING MONEY IN IRELAND. A new form of raising money has been discovered in Ireland, according to the International Institute of Agriculture. A farmer desirous of obtaining money puts an animal up for sale, ( which, by collusion, is bought by a friend. The purchaser gives a bill at three, four, or six mouths to the auc- ( tioneer, who discounts it in a joint stock bank, and pays the cash, less his commission, to the seller. Th e -cow is quietly taken back to the field from which she came. In other cases a farmer will buy a cow at one' auction, give a bill for the money, and sell her again the next day at another auction. I THE BIG GUNS OF FRANCE. New York, May s.—Purser Dc Beau- f fort, cf the French liner Niagara, in today from Havre, spent several days in the heart of the fighting zone in France cn his last trip home. He has two brothers serving in th G army as officers, and numerous relatives fighting for their country, many of them in : important positions. “The great bat- j ' tie in the Wocvre district,” said Be i Beaufort,■ after he had eagerly perns- 1 eel the morning papers coming up the \ bay, “is the beginning cT the great of- ] rcaslve movement against (he Germans. An important factor in this ( movement is th e French '7s’—the gun t that mows down forests and armies, c There is already on hand enough am-' i munition for these guns to allow the f tiring of 100,000 round a day for a year, t and the ammunition is still being-man- s cinctured. The next gun which will figure in the French offensive is the I 1 55-cpntir.netre siege gun, cf which an ! c

I enormous Quantify has been manufac-! ' tured. These guns will throw a- she]] I weighing- two tons. They are intended for attacks cn forts and will not be osiled into use until (he Germans are driven back to their line of fortlflca- ■ i'-ris. Prsnc-e new lias forty army cores ; n the field and each corps has 400 -5-Jis. Recently there have been cnormons shipments of what seemed to be pianos from this country to France. I * aw senae of those niano bows in,!- - loaded. Tlmv were filled with arms \ and ammunition.”