ITEMS OF INTEREST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 41, 18 January 1944, Page 8

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Rush on Hats ''You can expect a good supply of hats in New Zealand shortly," said Brigadier L. M. Itiglis, in an interview in Timaru. "When we arrived in Ttaly, wc found, that the Germans had taken everything except fountain pens and Borsalino hats. These hats: could be. bought for about five shillings each, and they were rushed b.v the troops, so many, of them are sure to find, their way back here." Reappearance of Apples Alter a long absence, apples have once again made an appearance in Wliakatane fruit shops. There is very little variety of. the new seasoil's apples are Red Astrakhan, G ravens tein and cooking apples.. Ever since word was: passed around town the. apples have been selling very freely and there is apparently no rationing on the part of shopkeepers;. In Pioneer Days The descendant of a pioneer family at Waiuku,, speaking of the decline in the birth rate, tells how in j the good old days one married couple could boast of having 2-t j children to look after. The. offspring j of this large family were now scat- j tcrcd over a wide district. More recently one family at Waiuku totalled 22. lie had heard it said that the birth rate of the township now almost totalled the number of the largest of some of these big families. Hard Fishing at Taupo The. large 'number of holiday anglers who visited the Lake Taupo district tliis year experienced very hard fishing conditions under the hot,, sunny weather prevailing. The. lake is being held at a fairly high level and the rivers are maintaining a normal How but the fishing is unlikely to show much improvement till rain has* fallen. The trout caught continue to show good ■ condition, and a trolling party returned to Taupo recently witll two line specimens which weighed 81b and J)lb respectively. Uneasy Conscience Government departments often acknowledge the receipt of what is j known as "conscience money," that is. money sent in payment of some tax or debt which had been evaded only at the cost of an uneasy conscience. People who make, payments of this sort generally prefer to remain anonymous. A case of uneasy, conscience which was off the usual run surprised the manager of an liivereargill .store the other day, states the Southland News. A man came into the shop and handed the manager a small article worth a few shillings. The man explained that 15 A r ears before, when he. was quite a youth, he had stolen the article from'the store at Christmas time. Ever since his conscience had troubled him and this Christmas he had definitely decided to return the article and confess his fau.t. The article appeared to be almost as good as new.