Local and General

Chronicle (Levin), 31 March 1949, Page 4

Local and General

Safety-pin Swallowed Whiie knitting on Monday night Mrs. Jacobsen, . of Palmerston North, inadvertently swallowed a safety-pin which she was hoiding in her mouth. An X-ray has revealed that the object is proceeding a'ong normal channels and it is not expected that there will be any complic'ations fortunately. ; Food For Thought 1 Supreme Court officials ^ere chatting in Sydney with a breezy young man under 30, who had drcpped in to pay an instalment of his alimony. A frail old lady passed and an official went to help her down the steps. "I'm quite all right," she piped, "72, and still collecting my alimony." The young man went down the steps deep in 1 thought. Histoiic Epitaph A photcstatic copy of the epitaph written by Sir Ernest Snackleton for certain members of his party who perished on the Antarctic expedition has been received by Mr. C. C. Walker, of Christchurch. Mr. Walker is a cousin of the Rev, A. P. Spencer-Smith, padre and photographer in the expedition, one of the men for whom the epitaph was written. The epitaph was discovered by an American party and taken to the United States. ' j Rationing In Vancouver Otner countries have their troubies with fue1, light and power. News received by an Auckland ma'n in a surface mail lettef from a friend in Vancouver, British Columbia, is that because of nine rainiess weeks light, fuel and electric power were ratione'd, and everything was moribund. "The cost of living is pretty high here," he wrote. "Digs are hard to get and pretty poor at that, too, for what they charge." i i Homes For Old People The Awapuni Old People's Home should be truly a hospital for aged • people who were really ill, not an institution for old persons whose health was both good and bad, sai'd the managing-secretary (Mr. A. J. Phillipps) at a meeting of the Palmerston Nortn Hospital Board. Mr. Phi.lipps advocated the building of private housps for elderly people as a national policy, financed by Social Security. Their need had been 'demonstrated for many " years. Tale Of A Weddinsr Dress A girl who said she was going to be married at Easter applied at a house where a wedding dress ha'd bfeen advertised for sa e in Christchurch. The married woman sell-' ing the dress took sympathy on the girl not being able to alford a new one, and offered it to her at a ,low price. The girl asked if she coul'd take it to show her mother waiting outside. ,.And that was the last seen of the wedding dress and the girl. Both the owner and the police are hoping.to catch up with them shortly. i 1 17-year-old "Blue Baby" j A 17-year-old girl — the oldest patient yet to be treated in New , , Zea'and for the complaint — suc-' ! cessfully underwent a "blue baby"' operation at the cardio-surgical jclinic of the Green Lane Hospital | recently. She is progressing satisfactorily. The oldest patient | previously operated on in' the Dominion was 12 years of age, and the majority of operations performed have been on children ranging from three to nine years. Patients over 17 have, however, been successfully -^ated overseas.