Around the Wide World

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19721, 11 December 1926, Page 16 (Supplement)

Around the Wide World

Clippings from Varied Sources

POLICEMAN’S THREAT GIRL WHO ATTEMPTED SUICIDE A novel method of preventing a girl from committing suicide by drowning was used at Strasbourg recently by a young policeman. He saw a young girl named Marguerite Scheider threw herself into the river. He could not swim himself but knew that the girl could, so he pulled out his aiming it at her, shouted. “If you don't come out of the water I will shoot you.” The frightend girl promptly swam to the bank, where the policeman escorted her back to her parents. FOREIGN MATCHES ADMIRALTY SET-BACK TO BRITISH INDUSTRY A new Fleet Order announces that foreign matches are to be sold in British naval canteens. This step follows the adoption of American razors for the British Army. “The action of the Navy Canteen Board is a great surprise and disappointment to my firm.” said a director of Bryant and May, the British match manufacturers. “We have hitherto supplied enormous quantities of! matches to the Services. Considering, the much better quality of our product, I we maintain that the difference tn j price is not sufficient to warrant the adoption of foreign matches, particularly in the Navy. It constitutes a set back to British industry.” An official of the Army, and Air Force Institute stated' that the sale of foreign matches was due,, to a strong desire by the men for'.a-eheiiper match. GERMAN SHIPPING BID EOR ATLANTIC TRAFFIC I Great prominence was given in Berlin recently to reports that the Cunard and White Star lines have decided no longer to make Hamburg a port of call for their vessels. The decision is represented as an admission of failure on the part of the British-American lines to capture the big Central European traffic and goods trade which radiates from Hamburg, and as a corresponding triumph for the German lines, notably the HamburgAmerican, now back to its pre-war vigour and enterprise. The Hamburg representative of the Cunard Line, however, declares that his company does not propose to make a complete withdrawal from Hamburg: only winter service restrictions are contemplated. WOMEN’S CIGARS CLUB TO POPULARISE HABIT Wallasey has started the latest ultra-modern feminist movement by having to its credit—or discredit a club formed to popularise cigar smoking among women. In London, however, cigar smoking among women is already an established fact. “We have a cigar made in a special size, and in several brands, solely for women,” said the manager of a large West End wholesale and retail tobacco firm last month. “We occasionally have women customers in our shops for these, but the demand by post is greater, and it has certainly grown lately. There was hardly any demand for tobacco of any sort by women before the war. “We also manufacture pipes, pouches and tobacco especially for women, and there is quite a big demand for them. Pipe smoking among women is undoubtedly growing in favour.

NEW BRITISH ENSIGN FLAGS FOR AIR LINERS In order clearly to distinguish British air liners from those of other nationalities, Imperial Airways are now experimenting with flags which, fastened to the struts between the wings, spread out behind the machines in the 100-mile-an-hour wind created by their passage. When the'most suitable material has been found a special British commercial air flag is to be designed and fitted to all-British air liners. BUSY LONDON REBUILDING THE CITY. Anyone who goes much (about the London streets this autumn must have pondered over the fact that, while the coal strike is steadily throttling all business and many of our manufacturing cities are almost smokeless because of their idle factories, new buildings in London (are springing up in all the business quarters at an astonishing rate, says a London newspaper correspondent. The re-bulidning of Regent Street and the completion of Kingsway and, Aldwych. all offering well-lit, well-ven-tilated, and spacious .offices for business, have reacted more quickly than one expected on the City office landlords. They are now making a determined effort to save the City from a western exodus by rebulding stretches of the City streets that have housed business for a century or more. A good deal of the City is still eighteenth century, with its accompanying darkness and airlessness and inconvenience, and in the quarters near the Stock Exchange the pressure for ottices there is still so great that what may be well described as office slums will continue to exist until rents go down. THE FREE STATE A NEW COINAGE. The issue of the new Free State coinage, is being awaited with some curiosity in England. Business men in Ireland generally dislike the innovation, looking upon it simply as another barrier in the way of smooth trading with Britain and Northern Ireland. The extreme Nationalists, on the other hand, welcome it as another broken link of Empire. The (artistic side of the matter has been in the hands of a committee presided over by Senator W. B. Yeats, and the designs are not likely to meet with the storm of criticism which greeted the Free State postage stamps. EXPLORERS’ SNAKE EXCITING RECAPTURE AT PADDINGTON. An 18ft long boa constrictor, one of a number of specimens brought by Air Mitchell Hedges and Lady (Richmond) Brown, the explorers, on the botat train from Plymouth, caused considerable excitement on arrival at Paddington (London). Going to the special van in which the specimens were carried Mr Hodges, found that the snake had escaped from the box which it had shlared with two other snakes. Within view of an excited, but somewhat nervous crowd Air Hedges and a porter pulled out the box. which they placed, partly open, at the entrance. Air Hedges then held the snake’s neck with a woollen garment, while Lady Brown picked up the creature’s centre coils, and together they forced the larger portion of it into the box.

NEW DEATH TEST NO NEED TO BE BURIED ALIVE. There seems to be a cure for everything at the London Medical Exhibition, which opened tat the Central Hall, Westminster, last month, except for a common cold. There are the latest vaccines for dealing with various serious illnesses and preparations of all kinds for restoring practically every organ in the bony; but when a London “Daily News'’ representative, who entered the exhibition blowing his nose and left it sneezing violently, asked if there were a cure for a common cold, the faces of the stall attendants fell perceptibly. However, there are other aspects of the exhibition that are more cheering. It is now possible, for instance, to know definitely whether one is defed or not. On the stand of Messrs H. R. Nappy, Ltd., a preparation aptly named “Obiturin” is shown. Those who are afraid of being buried alive need only arrange for a simple test to be made, with •lis. All thfet is necessary is for a small quantity to be injected. If one is dead there is no change at the point where the injection is made. If still alive the skin within a few minutes becomes tinged with green. There have been tests before, but it is claimed for the new one that it is far quicker, simpler, and less expensive than feny other. 1 Perhaps the most cheering thing in the exhibition is the progress shown in the production of insulin for the treatment of diabetes. Only three years ago insulin sufficient for ten injections cost 255. The same amount is now only 2s Bd. JUST REHEARSING "LUCIA” ST ABTS PANIC IN HOTEL. The “mad scene'’’ from “Lucia” has won for many an operatic luminary the wild plaudits and bravos of an audience that clapped and called from the other side of the footlights, but that scene, rehearsed behind the closed doors of a suite on the sixth floor of the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, early last month, won for Mme. Lueila Melius, one of the flavourite songbirds of the San Francisco Grand Opera Corn-, pany. what was probably the sincerest compliment of her triumphant career. Her audience, unversed in operatic lore, was fe group of terrified maids and bellboys, who gathered panic-stricken in the hall outside her door, from which poured piteous sobs and snatches of heart-breaking music. The little audience had collected at the terrified call of Elsie Martin, a new mfeid, who spread panic by her report that “a poor lady had gone crazy in 656.” A “hurry” call brought John S. Mitchell. managing vice-president of the hotel, post haste, to the sixth floor. “Just practising, •” laughed Mme. Melius when Mitchell’s knock broke in upon her “big scene.” FROM RUSSIAN WARSHIP ANCIENT CANNON FOUND. Two ancient cannon, said to have been thrown overboard from a Russian man-of-wfer when she went aground in the year .1808, have been discovered in Haleiwa Bay, near Honolulu. fhe guns, which were discovered lying in 15ft of water, are deeply encrusted with barnacles and other sea growth. The discovery was mfede by an army officer from Fort Kamehameha. The probable history of the cannon is given by Albert P. Taylor, librarian of the archives of Hawaii, who says thfet at the time several pieces were thrown overboard to lighten the weight of the ship. One gun was recovered several years ago, and is now in the grounds of the Haleiwa Hotel, fe beach resort.

MUSICAL POLICEMAN MOUTH ORGAN CHAMPION. Mr 8. Heywood a London policeman, has just been declared “the champion mouth-organist. ’ ’ The mouth organ has a more aristocratic pedigree than is generally recognised, for it can be directly traced back to the syrinx, which was the god Pan’s particular instrument. It may seem a far off from a god to a policeman; but it is a pretty fancy to speculate as to whether Pan would have been placed above or below Mr Heywood by the adjudicators for proficiency in performance. HEAVY BAIL MOTORIST'S MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE. A chartered accountant, Henry William Franklin, aged thirty-eight, of Tavistock Road, London, was committed for trial on a charge of manslaughter by the Coroner at a Leatherhead inquest ou October 18. The inquiry was into the death of Edward Groombridge, a Clayton bank clerk, who was killed when his combination came into collision with a car driven by Franklin. Mrs Groombridge and her seven year-old daughter, who were in the combination, are still in the hospital. The jury, in returning a verdict of manslaughter, found that the collision was caused by the negligent driving of Franklin, who was under the influence of drink nt the time. William Hook, a civil servant, said that he and his wife saw Franklin’s ear come along on the wrong side of the road. It narrowly missed his car. Immediately afterwards it collided with the motorcycle combination. Neither Frtinklin nor another passenger who was in his car lifted a finger to help the injured, said witness. Franklin was admitted to bail of £lOOO and one suretv of £lOOO. REVIVAL OF MUSIC MUSSOLINI AND MUSIC. It seems that—the Government cf Mussolini is anxious for a revivtal of Italian music, more especially of opera. Various theatres have been re-acquired, and now the Government is appealing to native composers, and prizes (are being offered by the Minister of Public Instruction for new operas. The maximum prize is to be 100,000 lire for each new work, of which 80 per cent, goes to the theatrical management which produces the work and 20 per cent, to the composer and librettist. NORTHERN AUSTRALIA GOVERNMENT RESIDENTS. Another step towards carrying out. its plans in connection with the control and development of the Northern Territory, part of North Queensland and part of North-Western Australia, has been taken by the Federal Cabinet, when Colonel W. O. Mansbridge was appointed Government Resident for North Australia, with headquarters at Darwin. Air J. C. Cawood was also appointed Government Resident for Central Australia, at Alice Springs. The respective salaries are £9OO and £750 a year, with an allowance in each ease of £75 in lieu of quarters. Colonel Mansbridge is at present Government Resident at Broome, Western Australia, and served with distinction in the war. Air J. C. Cawood has been for many ydars in the Lands Department of New South Wales, and has had extensive local government experience in that State.