LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 29 July 1924, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Hawera Hospital Board yesterday considered tenders for the painting of the inside of the operating theatre, and that of Mr. Lock, of Alanaia, was accepted. With an average grade of 94.98 during the past season, the Maketawa Co-operative Dairy Company has once again headed the Dominion grading averages.

Experiments have proved that wireless can be heard 3000 feet below the surface in a mine and to considerable depths in water, so that continuous communication can be maintained with both miners and divers.

A French Government report gives the estimated number of cripples resulting from the world war as more than ten millions. The country with the largest number is Germany, with 1,.>37,090, France ranks second with 1,500,000, and Great Britain third with 1,170,000. The terrible conditions under which some people exist in Taranaki was referred to at a meeting of the Hawera Hospital Board yesterday when Dr. Boyd, of Kaponga, speaking of maternity cases which had come under his supervision, said that for pure filth he had found in his district worse conditions existing than those lie had witnessed in the slums of the big cities in the Olu Country. A manufacturer of small goods in oamam confided to a North Otago Times representative the other day that the reason that the Government had issued regulations in regard of the manufacture of sausages was that in some townships these goods consisted of nothing more than meal and water, with a little seasoning thrown in.

It was announced at a recent, conference of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows at Folkestone that Princess Mary had signified that she was glad and proud to become an Oddfellow, and that she would be enrolled’ as a member of the Harmony Lodge, Knaresborough. Within a few days of his birth. Princess Mary’s son, Master Hubert Lascelles, was made a mem her of the Earl of Harewood Lodge.

Mr. Thomas Moore, an old man who for 20 years showed visitors the famous major oak of Sherwook Forest, six'centuries old. has died at the age of 83. He was proud of an accomplishment which he used to say no other gamekeeper had acquired, for he could tame pheasants. His peculiar whistle would attract them from the forest, and they would walk up to him fearlessly, and eat cake from his hand.

Deposits at tlie 43 post office savings hanks in the Wanganui postal district during the last quarter reached £331,939 l4s 7d, and withdrawals were £6325 Is 8d more, or £338,234 16s 3d. There are nineteen postal districts in the Dominion, and at the end of June quarter six returned an excess of deposits over withdrawals, and 13 an excess of withdrawals.

The Gazette issued on Friday evening contains regulations intended to prevent the contamination of food during manufacture and sale. The principal articles of food dealt with are bread and pastry, meat, fish, milk, ice cream and ices, cordials, ‘ syrups, aerated waters and beverages, and eggs and e Sg-P l dp. The new regulations affect persons handling the food articles, and deal with the cleanliness, etc., of the shops and premises in which the foods are sold or stored.

Aii amusing illustration of the lure of golf was given- at Wairoa a few days ago (states an exchange). When members of the Gisborne team were motoring across to Napier the question arose as to whether a golfer could drive a ball across the width of the river. One player declaring his belief that he could succeed, he was promptly challenged to make the attempt. The good people of Wairoa were amazed to see a party of golfers rush from the centre of the town to the bank of the river, where one player essayed the feat of driving a hall across. The wide river won, however, and after three balls had been sacrificed the player admitted that the widtli of the river was greater than he estimated. The challenger also made an attempt', hut soon concluded that it was a waste of golf halls, the river winning every time.

Tq be hooted off the platform of the Sydney Town Hall was the somewhat embarrassing experience of Mr. Clarence Raybould, pianist with Mr. Charles Hackett. interviewed in Sydney after his successful season there, Mr. Hackett expressed his amazement at the enthusiasm of Australian concert audiences. He had sung before more demonstrative audiences, particularly in Italy, where disapproval wa s even more strongly expressed than approbation, but for sustained applause and repeated demands for “More,” Sydney was unapproached in bis experience. “You might say they were insatiable,” said the tenor. “At the end of' the eleventh concert —which was realiy three concerts, for there were three or four encores after each, song—well, after '23 or 24 numbers they still refused to go. j sent my accompanist to play “God Save the King,” and they hooted him oh' the stage. .1 had to come back and sing two more songs. They had absolutely no mercy.”

The late Sir Waiter Buchanan was a. man of many parts (writes “Mereutio” in the Auckland Herald). In the Wairarapa, and to a lesser extent in Wellington, he was an institution. Unlike many others in such circumstances, he was not the subject of many stories, hut there was one told with great gusto bv the Hon. F. M. B. Pisher. In the days when Mr Buchanan —not yet knighted —was a member of the House of Representatives, he never took his wife to Wellington with him. He had no wile to take. On one occasion, said Mr Fisher, there was a certain official function open to members and their wives only, and no more than one wife each. Mr Fisher went, accompanied liy his wife and a lady friend of theirs, whom they wished to get past the sacred portals. At the door they were stopped by an attendant, who said : “I know you well enough, Mr Fisher, and Mrs Fisher, too. But who is the other lady-'” “That’s all right,” answered Mr Fisher promptly. “This is Mrs Walter Buchanan.” “Well, if you say so, I suppose it is all right,” said the attendant, “hut he must he a gay chap this Mr Buchanan. That’s the third Mrs Walter Buchanan I’ve let through already.” LAST WEEK OF SALE. Our real sale ends on Saturday, 2nd August, so be wise and make your purchases now. Men’s, women’s and boys’ boots and shoes, underwear, shirts, braces 1/6, trousers 14/6, buckskin trousers 10/9, men’s pyjamas 11/6, boys’ pyjamas 8/-, gents’ overcoats 29/6, 39/6, boys’ overcoats, men’s and bpys ’ feeding-out coats, buckle leggings, dairy boots, bail slippers at the New Zealand Clothing Factory Sale, Hawera. —Advt.

A hard-up ex-patient of the Hawera Hospital yesterday wrote ; forwarding 30s in reduction of liis account, adding that he hoped to send a similar amount next month “if spared. 5 ' Members of the board stated that they hosed that the gentleman in question would be snared.

A paper “devoted entirely to maintaining the splendid traditions, history. freedom and inspirations of Scotland’’ is the editor’s statement of the objects of “Tlie Scottish. New Zealander,’’ and the following have l>een constituted a. local committee to promote the interests of the publication: Messrs AY. G. Simpson, L. A. Taylor, B. C. Bennett, AYm. Oliver, J. B. Laurenson, James Taylor, and Robt. Mor block. The Adelaide Herald, a Labour newspaper, which for some time w T as the only Labour paper in Australia, has ceased publication. In discussing the end of his paper’s career, the chairman of. the. board of management referred to financial difficulties encountered and the fact that the capital was far too small to begin with. Unions had assisted at various periods, but no help had been forthcoming for some time" now.

The missionary sale of work advertised in this issue is a bazaar run by the Hawera. Methodist Women’s Auxiliary. This society, with its sister branches throughout the Dominion, is responsible for the salaries of sisters and nurses at present working in the Solomon Islands and among the Maori people here. The head mission station in the Solomons is equipped with a wireless plant, printing press and sawmill. Fully trained sisters, teachers and nurses are already on the field, and a much-needed doctor will be leaving New Zealand shortly

The native of the South Sea Islands, for sheer unblushing trickery, is difficult to eclipse (remarks the Manawatu Times). It is related by Mr. John Collins, of Palmerston North, who arrived recently from the islands, that in Samoa, the plantations are infested with a pest- called the rhinoperous beetle, and the native workers are called upon to bring in a certain number daily in an endeavour to eliminate them. When the. scheme had been in operation for a. while the natives began to return their quota with unfailing irregularity, and it wa® thought that much good was being done, till one day it was discovered that the dusky tricksters had commenced to breed the beetles in order to he able to account for them on demand.

A somewhat heated argument took place outside a certain garage in Napier the other day, when the owner of a car asked for a refill of his petrol tank. Having given, the order (remarks the Telegraph) he walked away, and on returning shortly after drove off, only to find that his (as he thought) newlyfilled tank had . again been verv mysteriously depleted of benzine. Returning to the garage he remonstrated, but was assured that the tanly had been filled. Subsequent enquiries elicited the fact that the man detailed off to the job had obligingly filled the tank of’another car that was standing near. The owner of the latter vehicle is now (it is rumoured) going about singing the praise of his car, which, he declares, runs on practically no benzine at all.

Dr. Charles H. Miayo, the (noted American surgeon,- made the following statement recently in the course of an interview at New York: .“New Zealand has the finest race, of men in the world to-day, physically and meritally. They have been drawn mainly from British stock, and the immigration is highly selective. The New Zealanders live out of doors to a great extent, and their lives have few artificial elements. They are strong and healthy, clean of mind and body, and far outrank their progenitors in the British Isles.”

* The problem of what happens to the superannuated cows which every sale day appear in the yards appears to he solved. Speaking to a Levin Chronicle representative recently. Mr W. G. Slomon explained that' his 2700 head of poultry necessitated such large quantities of meat foods that he had installed a special boiling plant, in which every week during the laying season he boiled five to six cows for this purpose. An eight horse-power boiler provides the power for the plant, and from this steam pipes lead into vats in which the meat is placed, about eight hours being required for the cooking. The hones after being stripped of the meat are used for fuel, the residue, which is practically pure phosphate of lime, being then crushed for grit * for the fowls