GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 April 1920, Page 11

GENERAL NEWS.

Ono of the oldest find best reputed grocery Arms of Wellington will end its existence to-day, when Die firm of Messrs.. David Anderson and Sons will cease to do business (here. The firm lias been in existence for uDout 70 years. Word has been received that tne Public Works Department is purchasing two additional turbines for the- Ifora. Hon hydro-electric works, which means a further -1000 h.p. These will be installcd by the time the new scheme is in working order. Two boats with hardwood poles are now on the way, and more following, and it is hoped a 50,000 volt transmission line will soon be under construction. In rnspct to a recent report that the financial market in America was unsettled, and that merchants were advised to act with caution in regard to the sending of consignments to the United States, John Burns and Co., Ltd., cabled to their New York agents for information. They have received a reply that there was!.no financial crisis. The markets for hemp, copra, tallow and wool were all good,'the- only depression being in rabbit skins, ami this liad been expected, ft was added that tile' railway strike was delaying the dispatch."ofshipments. "

The annual report of the Victoria University Graduates' Association states thai the committee ascertained that the College Council had decided to pay air Friedrich Franc Wolter the balance of the money payable to him under a Jacob Joseph Scholarship won in the year 1014. Owing to the fact that Mr. Wolter had been interned as an enemy alien during the war the committee felt that whether he had good legal claims or not to the money" the Council was not justified in paying it to him, and the committee accordingly wrote a letter of protest to the council on the matter. This letter lias not yet been dealt with hy the College Council. The destruction of the harbor works and fortifications of Heligoland, snvs Renter, although progressing to the satisfaction of the Allies, has not yet been completed. The Germans estimate that another years' work will be necessary. This may be so owing to shortage of labor. Work has been in procress for over a year, and all the guns have been dismantled, so that Heligoland has ceased to be of any military value. Now, of course, every single detail is exposed of the astounding defences which were constructed at a total tost of .035,000,000. During j,], P visit of the Allied Commissioners the destroyer Turpuoise, which is the fastest craft afloat, entered the harbor. She in the first British warship to enter for :10 years.

Students of strange happenings in Nature will find nnicli to interest them at Lake Coleridge (states a Christcluirch paper). Although the water intake is fairly finely meshed, it is a common occurrence for eels to find their way into the pipe lino and finally into the water turbine, where they are chopped up into convenient lengths and ejected into the outfall tanks. Small iis'h the size of whitebait are on occasions found in great quantities in these outfall tanks, having made the journey from the lake per tunnel, pipe line, and Pelton wheel without mishap. Two professional men from Christchui'ch, who were recently on a visit of inspection to the lake, discovered a large-sized trout in the surge chamber which connects up the tunnel with the pipe line. He must have got in when small and grown up there.

Speaking of conditions in England, Mr. E. R. Picot, manager of a large manufacturing business in Sydney, who was a through passenger by the Makura, which arrived at Auckland recently, said he was convinced' that the present inflalion of prices had not yet reached ]U zenith. "It is likely that the English people, will again be rationed this year, and that fact, pins the scarcity of accommodation, makes England' a good place to keep out of just now. 'The largo numbers now travelling make accommodation almost impossible to procure, and, when it is procured, the prices are fabulous. In Franco and Belgium, a central committee has been formed to attempt to handle the tourists, who, numerically, are almost out of hand. Waiting lists of passengers to the colonies, however, are interminable, so that the influx into the ok! parts of the world is almost balanced."

The writer of a letter from London says: Apparently the house famine in London, although still somewhat acute, is not quite so bad as some months ago. when small crowds of ghoulish houseseekers used to follow the undertaker's van round, or when, if one pulled down , the blinds in the front windows of one's suburban residence, a moderate queue of eager inquirers promptly assembled in your front garden. But it is, as I say, pretty acute. So a man I knew, wlio has long been seeking for a house conveniently situated for business and school purposes, was very elated the other day. He had found'quite a nice, empty house in a good part of London. And next door was a promising-looking college! It seemed, as he said, almost incredible. The family moved into the new house, still almost doubting the reality of its existence, and found everything in order, and no gliosis even. But when the lucky householder called at ilie college next door to arrange about sending the boys there he found it was not a college, but a lunatic asylum! That explained the milk in the cocoanut—or the "To Let" in the window. An interesting story of one of the most revolting crimes committed in Great Britain in recent years is revived by the visit to Wellington of the big White Star liner Megan tic. Some toil years ago the Meg-antic, which recently visited New Zealand waters for the first time, carried Hawloy Harvey Crlpper, the-American wife-murderer, on his last voyage. Crippen, after the death of his first wife, married a beautiful American girl, who was appearing at the music halls, under the professional name of Belle Elmore. They went to England, and lived in a cottage at Camdenroad.. Crippen started business as a "medical specialist," employing as his typist an English girl. Miss ' Ethel !e X T evc. Suddenly Mrs. Crippen, who had become very popular in London, disappeared, and when inquiries were instituted Crippen and .Miss le \>ve hurriedly left for the Continent.' When the police inspected Crippcn's house, evidence of a. revolting murder was found, and larje rewards were offered for the detection of the murderer- The fugitives, it, transpired, had booked passages to Montreal, where, owing to the observations of the ship's captain, they were skilfully arrested. Crippen and Miss le Neve were brought back 1o England on the Megantir, and tried.at the Old Bailey by the Lord Chief Justice. Crippen, after a trial of five days, was found guilty on the charge of murder, and executed on November 23, 1910, Alias le Xeve w»s acqultte