LOCAL and GENERAL

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 May 1914, Page 2

LOCAL and GENERAL

At 1 lie evening' service in Levin Presbyterian Church un Sunday nexf the Hev. A. ('. Kanderson, M.A., will take for flic subject of Lis sermon "Tin 1 TVifcherv of Evil." Mr W. 11 uirhos will sinir "Lord God of Abraham," and a nialp quarlefte will sin,"' ""Remember Mo, Oh Mi»'hly One." Considerable irnlalion lias been paused in Dublin and throughout Ireland by flip intimation (lin paclcag-ps containing shamrock will not be admitted to Hip Fuited states this year owing to I lie existence of potato disease in Ireland. Tf Hie coiilents of packages are deelai'ed they are slopped on posting, hut senders generally have made no declaration.

At Dunedin Suprome Court sittings, John Crisp, the defaulting solicitor, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for forgery and misappropriation and failing to keep proper books. At the same court George Havelock Green was sentenced to ten years for attempting to murder his wife.

At his own request Henry Holland, sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment at Wellington without hard labour, for sedition, lias boon allowed to serve the term as a "hard labour" prisoner. This' entitles him to earn two good marks a day and thus shorten his sentence. A doctor, treating an old woman for typhoid fever, took her temperature on each visit by puffing a thermometer under her tongue. One day, when she was nearly well, the doctor did not take lier temperature. He had scarcely got one hundred yards from the house when her son called, "Come back at once!" The

doctor returned. As he went into the sickroom the old woman looked up at him reproachfully. ''Doctor," she said, "why didn't vou give me the tube under my tongue to-day? That always did me more cood than all the rest of' your trash!"

Six steel trucks ordered by the Public Works Department . of New South Wales fo be constructed by a private firm in Newcastle, were inspected the other day and found to be too wide to be carried on the railway lines. The plans were supplied by the Department, and as usual the railway authorities inspected them before the order was given for the work. The trucks were construc*ed by the private firm according to the plans, and the discovery that they were too wide was not made till an inspector visited the works to examine the finished trucks. The cost of each truck would be about £30, and it would entail nearly that sum fto alter them. The trucks were intended to carry stones up to 40 tons in weight from the quarry to the Newcastle Breakwater. As they at present stand they cannot travel past a platform.

In the presence of thousands of spectators, Rodman Law, who describes himself as a "sensation specialist," ascended a tower o1 the Williamsburg bridge, New York, a few weeks ago, and dived into the icy waters of- tlie river Hudson. The object was to rescue a pretty."-blonde, Miss Constance Bennett, who had leaped from the bridge a few minutes before, with a parachute to regulate her fall. Moving picHire operators below the bridge produced in film every detail of the daring episode, but women in tramcars, who imagined that a dreadful tragedy was happening, shrieked, and some fainted. The couple had evaded the police at the bridge, and were at the summit of the tower before the police realised that they had been hoodwinked. In the river a tug was waiting to rescue the man and woman with lifelines. Law first achieved notoriety as the "human fly." He climbed several of the loftiest skyscrapers in New York, by crawling from coping to to coping l . His next feat was to enclose himself in a metal tube and be blown from the moufh of a canon. He narrowly escaped death, because the tube cracked and Law was severely burnt.

The amount of success that attends any undertaking depends on the thoroughness with which the spade work has been done, and •o this and this only was due the fine collection of garden produce shown by the Boys' Training Karm at the Chrysanthemum Show the other week. Occasionally a load of manure is to hand, but on the area under cultivation it is hardly noticeable. The hoys with the spade lay the foundation for the crops. tinder the supervision of the gardener (Mr Williams) the ground is dug two spits deep—about eigheen inches and the boys do the work well. This deep digging conserves the moisture in summer and gives the plants a much larger amount of soil to draw nutriment from : besides only the very hard seeds survive their twelve months burial, and consequently the weeding is not such a large item m springtime. At present the ground is being turned over and everything being got ready for next season's crop. The quantity and variety of vegetables grown and supplied to the institution is surprising, and speaks well for the ability of Mr Williams and his boys in maintaining the supply. ' Their activities are not confined to vegetables; flowers of all sorts are raised. The splendid blooms to be seen along the drive to the school are all raised by Mr Williams. At present there are beds containing thousands of young plants raised from seed. Just now there is a fine bed of anemones in full bloom. The roses and carnations have finished blooming, but any one who has visited the farm in summer knows that some of the best varieties to be seen m The district are grown nn the farm. Why endure cold feet these frosty nights. A "Bungalow" stone foot warmer will last a lifetime, and costs only 4a 6d. Also the new season's supply of hot water bags just to hand in all sizes at C. S. Keedwell's Pharmacy.-- Advt.

Police taut in South Africa a 6 described in the Transvaal Leader: "The police handled the large crowds who assembled at the station with considerable tact. One obstreperous fellow who appeared to be the worse for litjuor got the butt-eml of a rifle in his jaw after grossly insulting a constable, and he was then chased off by the crowd, who appeared to appreciate the tact of the police!"

Kven the Maori woman emulates her pakeha sister m striving after effect (says the Wanganui Chronicle). On Monday, at the Waitohira sporis, a wahine with plenty of avordupois took ])art in a / poi dance, and evidently she was not quite saiistied as to her colourShe did not, apparently, consider herself dark enough, so she to work with a blacking brush, and by the liberal use of ""Day ;ind Martin's" product managed to make her face jet black. The effect was striking, and she excited no small amount of amusement.

"Civil Servant'' writes in the Freelance: "I've hoard of 'offside at foot hall, 'miming' side, in billiards, hut I've never before heard of the milking side of a hull. Yet here it is m an ad. from the Westport Times: '£1 reward. Lost, stolen or strayed, •Tersey-Shorthorn bull, about 11 months old. Colour blaclc, with grev saddle on hack.. Branded W.N. Y-shaped piece cut out of ear on milking side. Above reward will be paid for information leading to recovery of the animal. W. Newman, Fnirdown."

There are tricks in all trades! All Eketahuna sheepowuer, discoursing 011 the subject-of culling, stated some owners (not in the Eketahuna district, by the way) had a great scheme for increasing their reputation as sheep breeders. It would be advertised that their culls were to be offered at auction (says the Express). From a fairsized flock they would cut off a small mob that were a fair sample of the flock, and these would be sold as the culls. Of course the quality would be prime, and it was a great advertisement to have it reported that Mr 's culls brought a price ruling for the best luality sheep in the yards.

Mr T. "R osc. of Levin, was appointed one of the vice-presidents of the Now Zealand "RugTTy Union ('for the Horowhenua liua-bv Tu•on) at the conference of tire former body now being held 111 Welkin e'ton. • There are good grounds for believing that Germany and the United States are on the brink of diplomatic difficulties in connec'ion with the impending 1 "confiscation" of the German properties of the Standard Oil Company. The "Rieichstag (says the , Berlin correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph) has been discussing in committee the Government's nroject to create n State monopoly ■)f illuminating oil, which would immediately drive the Standard Oil Company out of a most profitable branch of its trade. As soon as the monopoly is formally creat"d Mr 7? ookef oiler's (Tprman cornoration will bo compelled to sell its vast distributing system at. a nrice which will practically be fixed by the Government itself as buyer. The United States Government is inclined to look upon the proposed procedure as tantamount, to confiscation and illicit interference with the trading nghts of American citizens in the German market.

Dairy farming-, or as it might be more rightly designated, mixed farming, with, its greater laboriousness, is fast superseding the old method of crop raising as the principal form of agriculture, which has had such a long vogue in Xori'h Otago, and this notwithstanding the closer settlement of tin l land that has taken place during I lie past 20 years. Scientific principles applied to the dairying industry have rendered it a highly lucrative business, and perhaps it is because the monetary return is larger and comes quicker that so many farmers are foregoing the comprativc ease which is a characteristic of crop raising for a branch of agriculture that demands long hours and unremitting care of and attention to animal life. Tn North Otago the dairying season of 1013-14 bids fair to constitute a record. That it is holding is borne out by the fact that the present supply equals that which is normally experienced in February, and is at least 30 per cent, above the average for April. Those connected with,the industry anticipate that given normal weather conditions, it will be another three months before there is material cessation of activities in the manufacture of butter. When it is considered that one company alone has paid to milk suppliers during the past six months no less a sum than £43,000, the value of the industry to 'the community should be more appreciated. The company referred to manufactured 175.0001bs of butter last month : InsT yeai for the corresponding month their output was mOOOlbs. Oamaru Mail.

A young horseman, the son of a well-known North island trainer, went to last week's Blenheim races, and, so the story goes, lost all his money betting. He wired his father thus: "Send light saddle, at-once." The father couldn't ""makefile wire out, and replied: "What do you want saddle for?"' Back came the answer a few hours later': "To ride Pelorus Jack across the straits; I'm broke." That was a sure winning wire.—Freelance. "I have come to think," said Paster Rogers, when addressing a meeting at Bathurst (N.S.AV.) "that Sunday hot dinners are an abomination. The poor wives never have a day on which they can rest. Men will exact it, the . brutes! That is the only word find for them. In my home knew what it was to have a hot dinner on the Lord's Day. , The result was that mother could go with father, and take the kiddies to church and have a rest. In the afternoon, with hot dinners the wives have to do tlie washing up, which they so abTior, and I do not wonder that they do not come to church in . the evening they are so worn out."