LOCAL AND GENERAL

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 February 1912, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

There will be a meeting of the committee of the Horowhenua Mineral" Prospecting Association this evening, when, we understand, arrangements will be made for the sending out of the prospectors. The Freelance (Wellington) says: "An enterprising man up Otaki way lias imported & liearso and the local paper says he is filling a long-felt want to town and district. We may expect to hear of Otaki residents dying off in scores now." Sixteen gallons of a most effective disinfectant for Is 6d sounds a cheap proposition. Yet that quantity can be prepared with a quart bottle of " Universal Disinfecting Fluid," one of the most powerful disinfecting fluids yet produced. Obtainable from C. S. Keedwell's Pharmacy.—Advt. A now tomato lias "been evolved by Mr. G. A. Put at his Northern Wairoa orchard. It has been obtained from a seedling, and after two year's culture has proved a giant in size and perfect in flavour. It produces fruit weighing a pound and a half, and plants of the variety will be marketed. Rev. D. C. Bates' weather forecast states that present indications are for moderate! to strong westerly winds, the weather cloudy and unsettled at times with showers nnd squalls in parts and specially about Cook and Foveaux Straits and in the Northernmost districts. The barometer is very unsteady. A temporary rise is taking place in the South. in his sermon on Sunday night, tho Rev. Barton Ginger, Lo»ver Hutt, said: "I am glad that"' Australia was beaten in the last test match, not because I am less interested in Australians than Englishmen, but it will do them good. Even New Zealand will play bettor cricket in the future, as a result of the 'slashing' Australia has got." Mumps are not usually looked up on with any degree of pleasure (says the Timaru Herald) but the chairman of the Waimataitai School Committee had a good word to say for them on Tuesday when he stated that but for the epidemic of ; mumps at the end of last year the committee would be worse off financially, as they would have been under an obligation to buy a great j many more attendance prizes. An amusing story is told on the boulevards about a fraud perpetrated on a famous society woman, who is bitten by the craze for extremely , small dogs now prevalent in Paris. A few days ago she bought from a : street hawker for a large »um what . looked like the smallest griffon ever seen. When she took it home it promptly ran up the curtains, and . when it was recaptured by the ser- . vants it turned out to be a rat, Bewn into a dog's skin.

The discovery of a pocket book containing over £8,000 by a man who was trimming a hedge opposite the railway line near Paii had an extraordinary sequel. The owner of tlie pockctbook is M. Gaston Vingliot,, who threw it away in a fit of religious frenzy on his way by train to Lourdes. He threw all bis clothes out of the window after his money. He was arrested and sent to a sanatorium, whence he waa released as cured. When it wae announced to him that his money bad been recovered, M. Vinghot, says the Matin, relapsed into mental delusion once more.

A Home pnpor reports a pleasing instance of philanthropy on the part of an elderly man who spent a. whole day in Exeter playing the part of Father Christmas. He collected all the children he oould find, and went north, south, east, and west distributing the bounty. When he had got the children crowded into a fancy shop he told them to choose anything they liked up to the value of sixpence. His fame soon spread, and at the last shop he visited there was suoh a swarm of children that fl crowd surrounding the door waiting their turn to go in. In one district he could only find a few children, most of them being at tea. He employed those he found as scouts. "Meet me here in half an hour," he said /'and bring as many more as yon can." Half an hour later a crowd of children met him, and there was another joyous raid on a shop. At the end of ?he visit someone ashed the stranger who ho was, hut he would not tell. All he said was: "I have emptied my pockets, and T am going home. T have had the day of my life."