GENERAL NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 7 March 1913, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

TAiimG AGAINST TIME. Tih'6 record I'oi' Parliamentary obstruction must surely belong to che A'ustrian (,'h;tinbei\ now that full particulars of an oratorical achievement in December, last are to hand (says the Westminster Gazette). On J)ecornmber 17th the Rut'henian Deputy, M. Gostincar, spoke for thirteen hours ami a half without a pause, which is surely an achievement in itself. But it only served to stimulate the rivalry of the Czech Opposition, with the following amazing result. After M. Gosti Dear's feat( M. Fresl, a K a - dicjal Czech publicly watered 100 kronen that he would speak in obstruction ,for twenty-four hours. Ho lost liis bet after a desperate strangle with fatigue. He commenced at 8 p.m., and concluded the next day at five minutes past noon, his record

being 1(3 hours 5 minutes. According to the report tho Austrian Chamber looked very strange during this midnight speech. Except a few members of his own party, everybody left die Chamber, including the official short-hand-writers (for tiie speech was made Czech). His friends employed themselves in passing him coffee and champagne at intervals of a quarter of an hour; while he was closely watched by one devoted member of the majority in order to move the closure.-

A MONSTER CANNON

Authorities tell ias that the Turks flwo their reverses in the recent lighting to their weakness iu artillery (says the Westminster Gazette). In l-103 it was by virtue of tin'ir ar!.:llerv that th°v captured Constantinople. In 1-152 a Hungarian named O'hfin came to Con-vaiitinople and offered his services to the Greek Einperor as the "ablest founder in history." Constantino offered him unsatisfactory conditions, and lie escaped to Mahomet 11., who commanded him to cast a gigantic cannon as proof of his talent, Orban took three months of the and the cannon was called (probably as an omen) "Basiliean." Tho Sultan issued a warning proclamation concerning tho day on which it would be tested -n Adriaur.ple, with good reason, for the explosion was heard thirteen miles around. The size of the cannon was heroic. Fifty yoke of oxen were necessary to move it, 200 men marched at the side to support it, 200 engineers went in front to level the road, and fifty carpenters to male" bridges. Thus the ''Basiliean" crossed Thrace to Constantinople, and caused consternation among the defenders, not unnaturally, for it threw a. granite cannon-ball a. yard in diameter near a mile. Eight times a day the cannon discharged these missiles, some rf vbic'h arc 3 ' said to be still visible in ditches near Constantinople. ft had caused considerable havoc before it burst and killed its maker. Another Hungarian, however, recast it, and succeeded in demolishing the fam •ous Baktatinea Tower. The Gren>defender spent anxious nights in the effort to repair the breach with beams and isacks of wool, but after fifty-four days of continuous bombardment, tin which 1 200 minor cannon assisted), the walls which had been considered impregnable for centures were reduced to ruins, and Mahomet Tf. ordered r,be assault which made Constantinople Turkish.