LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 49, 13 March 1937, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL

Missing Napier Man. A clue tq the whereabouts of Mr Regelado R-ells, a Napier watersideWorker, has now been found in a letter from him tp a neighbour, in which he asked the man to tell his wife not to worry and that h© would be away for some days. As the postmark on the letter is a Napier one, this seems to dispose °.£ suggestion that the missing man, who has not been seen since h© left his home at 105 Nelson Orescenf, Napier, on Monday night, had gone to Wellington. Easter Shopping Holidays. Friday, Saturday and Monday will be observed as . holidays by retailera in HastiugS, Napier and other parts of Hawke's Bay during Easter week. ;-Shops will remain open lat© at night on Easter Thursday, while such establishments as dairies and confectioners will remain open as usual during the holiday period. Butchers of the province will observe their usual half-day, and will be closed on Easter Friday and Monday. Napier Watersiders Benefit. Several thousands of poUnds are to b© distrihuted to Napier watersiders on or befor© March 19, as a Jresult Of an award ratified in the Arbitration Court last week, which stipulates that increased wages shall be m&de retrospective to Octo-ber 1, 1936. Definite iigures are not available, but it is stated that the amount will be Several thousands of pounds. This good foftune affects members of the Napier Watersiders' TJnion and aleo non-rinion-1st labour, R.S.Ai Pionic. The Returned Soldiers' Associations from Wc-odville to Napier are holding a picnic at Waipawa on Sunday, March 21. Special trains will be run from both Woodville and Napier and special low fares will be charged. Hot water and milk will be provided at the grounds, and an in^eresting programme has been arranged. Conveyances will assist women and children from the train to the grounds. The returned soldiers will march to the grounds halting at the War Memorial to lay wreaths. More detailed particulars will be advertised later. Solicitors and Clients, "The only solicitor who Is any good is the one he has just met, who has not had time to send a bill," said Mr. Justice Callan in the Supreme Court at Auckland, during the hearing -o-f a case in which reference was made to a tes* tator's grievances against various legal hrms. His Honour said that such people were sometimes encountered by members Of the legal profession, and it was impossible to deal with them for long without some differen.ce arising. He had had experience of sueh people in his own practice. Fast Shaving. A cable published recently referred to the amazing skill of an Hungarian barber .who could shave a man in 24 seconds. This will recall to many old Wanganui residents the early days of the war, when there appeared in a local hairdressing saloon an Austrian barber who could give a man a clean shave in less than half a minute, says the Wanganui Herald. He could shave one side of the face with one continuous stroke, and would have the job finished in the time that it took another barber t6 lather. Often he would havo three customers lathered, waiting for him to shave them, and as soon as he had finished one man he would start on the nest, almoat without pausing. Eventually, however, customers became frightened of the racing barber, not so much because of the rapidity with which he worked as for the startling tbings said while wielding the razor. The fact that he was an Austrian and that it was war time also contributsd to the uneasiness of some customers, and he eventually left Wanganui 'and started in business on his own elsewhere. A Professor's Hobby. English language and literature are the profession of Professor I. A. Gordon, Ph.D. (Edinburgh), who has arrived in Wellington to occupy the chair of English language and literature at Vietoria University College, but other janguages, both ancient and modernj are his hobby. Professor Gordon has been a lecturer in Edinburgh University for six or seven years, but he has found time for a considerable amount of travel on the Continent, where he etudied l'anguages. "Languages are my hobby," he said when interviewed. "I started off with dead languages and studied Latin, Greek, and old English, and then I studied modern languages. I know French, German, and Italian, and recently I have been studying Eussian." His most recent specialised work, Professor Gordon said, wae the study of English poetry of the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, and he had written a biography of John Skelton, Poet Laureate to Henry VIII. On the sporting side, Professor Gordon likes tramping and hockey. Mrs. Gordon, who aceompanies her husband, is also a graduate of Edinburgh University, liolding thc same degree as the professor.