GENERAL NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 326, 13 June 1911, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS

Mr Gaynor, .Mayoif of New York, recently declared that lie had deprived the New York police of £1,250,000 of graft, meaning that he'had stopped the collection by' thc : police of hush money from gambling houses' and other disorderly places. Mr Gaynor further intimated that the columns of talk printed in the New York papers lately, alleging that a big wave of crime was sweeping over New York, and urging that it was necessary to appoint a mayor who could secure a better state of things w«re inapired by the very men whom he had deprived of tens of thousands of pounds of ill-goten gains, and who resented his action. •

Thomas Burgess, superintendent ol Kensa'l Green Cemetery, relates a story of a bee which lived underground for seventy-five years. He says: "While tow of my men wSre digging a grave and when 6y, feet down 'from the present surface'they came on the original maiden earth, which had been covered since 1836 with earth thrown out at that date when excavating for the foundations and catacombs under our church. In throwing out a spadeful of the virgin mould under this mound it split up and broke on the board and a large bee (known as the 'bumble' bee) came out of the soil. Considering that the ground above was solid, loamy clay and (i 1 /* feet deep, it would be impossible for a bee to get down -this depth. Is it possible,'therefore, that'this insect was covered up in 1830?"

"The Eskimos," says Commander Peary, "are savages, but they are not savage; they are without government, but they are not lawless; they arc utterly uneducated, according to our standard, yet they exhibit a remarkable degree of intelligence. In temperament like children, with air a child's delight in little things, they are nevertheless enduring as the most mature ofcivilised men and women, and the best of them are faithful unto death. Without religion and having-no idea of God, they will share their last meal with anyone who is hungry; while'the aged and, the helpless among them are taken care of as a matter of course. They are healthy and-pure-blooded; they have no vices, and no bad habits—not even gambling. Altogether, they are a people unique upon the face of the earth.

The newest timepiece which is shortly to he placed on the market actually calls out the hours, half-hours,, and quarters, day and night, unless shut off, and will tell you the time to the minute any hour "of the night if you press a little button at your bedside. The works of this remarkable clock actuate a stout belt which runs over a roll connecting with a sounding box. Upon this belt, or rather film, the hours, which have been recorded by a phonograph, are impressed by galvanisation on a copper plate. The mechanism which moves the hands is connected with the speaking device, and this with a funnel which reinforces the sound and projects it outward through a finely grated opening attached to the narrowside of the clock. At night a touch on a lever reduces the clock to silence. But if one wakes and wishes to know the hour without striking a light, an easily found button is pressed and the clock immediately states the time.