HOME AND FOREIGN NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 188, 28 December 1912, Page 4

HOME AND FOREIGN NEWS.

ITEMS FROM ALL SOURCES. The following items have appeared la the Sydney Sun's special cable service:— CAVE MEN IX EXGLAXD. London, December 18. Speaking before the Royal Oeolugieal Society, the discoverer of the palaeolithic skull which was found in Sussex said that it was the first evidence of an ancient human type. The skull hail a steep forehead like that of modern man. The neck was the same shape as that of the ape, and the brain capacity twothirds of that of present-day humanity. The mandible differed remarkably from that of modern man, and agreed exactly with that of a young chimpanzee. His general conclusion was that the cave-man was a degenerate off-shoot of early man, and had probably become extinct, while the surviving modern man might have arisen directly from the primitive source, represented by the discovered skull. LOST COXTIX EXT FOI'XD. London, December 18. Hcrr Frobcnius. an explorer, who recently returned from Africa, lectured before the Kaiser to-day. lie de velopedi the theory that the lost continent of Atlantis existed to-day in Xigeria. FREXCII "LOYALIST" STAMPS. London, December 18. The Royalist party in France has issued millions of stamps hearing the portrait of the Duke of Orleans (the descendant of the Houses of Bourbon and Orleans, and claimant of the throne of Fiance), and other stamps bearing cari* eaturcs of President Fallieres. The inscription on the stamps is "Long live the King." The idea is that Loyalists should stick these stamps on letters beside the Republican stamps. The Government considers that the stamps are dangerous to the Republic, and has ordered postmasters not to deliver letters bearing them. WOMAX'S DELIBERATE SUICIDE. London, December 18. An extraordinary suicide is reported from Woking, in Surrey. The best-known crematorium in England is in that town, and yesterday a lady drove up to the lonr of the building, and left a letter with the porter, giving instructions that it was not to be opened within the next hour. She then drove off in her taxi-cab to an adjacent wood, and took her own life. When the letter was opened it stated' that the writer was suffering from cancer. She did not believe that she would live until Christmas Day, and she asked that her body should be incinerated, and the ashes scattered to the winds on that *«. T. ,

BRIGANDS IK PERSIA. London, December 19. A grave situation is developing in Southern Persia. Modern rifles are said to be as common as blackberries among the Persians there, and ammunition is available in huge quantities. Robbery has become a national profession, and the fact that no punishment has been meted out has led to open outrages being committed. A number of bands live by plundering and lawlessness, and everywhere, local government has collapsed and is incapable of restoring order. CLAIMS OF FRENCH SEIGNEURS. Washington, December 1!).

The members of the ancient -Seigneurihl Court of Canada, which consists of the direct descendants of the original French feudal lords, has presented to the State Department, a petition begging America to intervene and make Great Britain submit their claims to the con-, sideration of the Hague Tribunal. They hold that they are the seigneurs of vast properties in the border States of Canada, of which they were unlawfully dispossessed by swarms of English peasantry which overran the country after Canada was ceded to England. PROFESSIONAL SUICIDE. London, December 17. A man was rescued from an apparent attempt to commit suicide in the Seine. Paris, this morning. He was pulled out of the water, and the sympathetic bystanders were about to take up a collection for him when he was recognised bv ft man as a person who made a comfortable living by pretending to drown himself and then receiving money from the charitable-hearted who saw him rescued. The crowd became infuriated at being duped, beat the deceiver, and flung him back into the river, leaving him to rescue himself. He proved himself to be a* excellent swimmer. WHITE GIRLS AND CHINESE. Vancouver, December 17. The authorities at Prince Albert. Saskatchewan, in response to an agitation which originated in the Labor Council several months ago, have induced all white girls employed in Chinese restaurants to quit their positions. The Chinese are strenuously protesting and threaten to invoke the aid of the law.