NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 February 1924, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

The meanest tlrief has been located in Christchurch (says an exchange). A young woman fell in a fit in a tram shelter and while she was unconscious somebody stole her purse.

“I was amazed when I heard that over £‘Bo,ooo was to be spent on a new church at Palmerston North. In Australia such a sum is spent only on a cathedral. but Archbishop Redwood has said that ibis is going to be a cathedral city,” said His Grace Archbishop Clime, of Perth, at the laying of the foundation stone of the new St. Patrick’s Church on Friday.— “Manawatu Standard.”

A plague of caterpillars is causing concern to some oi the settlers on the Turun-Oronga (Hnurnki Plains) Road (reports the Auckland “Star”). One settler noticed that the insects had got into a ten-acre paddock from which he expected to cut about thirty tons of hay. lie decided to mow it immediately, and worked until dark, hut about lour acres remained uncut. By morning the caterpillars had stripped every leaf, and only the hare stalks remained. There were millions of green and black and white striped caterpillars to lie seen in the paddock.

The liability of beekeepers to register their apiaries was recently brought home to one beekeeper at Riverton, when he was charged in the Magistrate’s Court with failing to renew his registration {says the “Timaru Post”). The department representative said that all apiaries had to be registered every three years, and defendant had failed to renew his license. Many beekeepers failed to realise their liabiitv under tlie regulations, and ibis made the control of foul brood more difficult. The three yearly periods were definitely fixed, and the date of expiration was May 31st.

The nuisance caused by nondescript canines in the streets, and the manner in which they take charge of the public roads* was exemplified in Hastings on Friday (says the “Tribune”), when a motor-ear was approaching one of these animals, stretched o,i Heretaunga Street, fast asleep in the sun. The motor-ear slowed up and the driver vainly sounded his horn, until at last lie came to a standstill within a few inches of the dog. A bystander with a stick poked the somnolent aninal into something presenting the appearance of life, and it lazily heaved itself up. atul after a good shake leisurely walked olf, the wheel of tlie car, as it got into motion, pushing the .shambling carcass clear.

A woman's sill.v laugh in Court marked the conclusion of the divorce business at the Auckland Supreme Court on Saliinlay (says the “Herald”). Mr Justice Stringer had just granted a decree nisi to a man whose wife occupied a seat in. the jury box. She gave a laugh sufficiently loud for the Judge to turn a reproving eye upon her. The woman arose and apologised for her unseemly behaviour, and then hurried from the Court. Outside she encountered her husband, and apparently unable to restrain her feelings, she made some remark to him. and then gave a little skip as though to express her satisfaction at the turn of events.

“You ask me to explain the reason for the movement of the rural population into the towns.” staled Professor Shelly at Riverton Summer School for Teachers. “1 can give you one good reason, and you will find it in a little book which I would recommend you all to read, viz.. Standard IV Arithmetic. It goes like this: “A merchant buys one hundred bushels of oats from a farmer at 2s 6d a bushel and sells them again at. a profit of 50 per cent iQuesfici:) : Hew mucc; teaching a. fourth standard hoy that there are merchants who can make 50 per cent, profit out of the oats the farmers grows, and that hoy is usually sharp enough to realise that the merchant juggling with 50 per cent, profits is in a better way than poor old dad who grows the oats in the first place, so he decides to give up the idea of growing oats in favour of buying and selling them.”—Exchange.

A little lad of scarce five summers stood watching gentle “Alice,” a fourton circus elephant, hauling a heavy wagon on Friday (relates the “Afanawatn Times”). AVhen she paused at the gateway the little fellow ventured to pat the huge pachyderm, and whether she thought it was just another fly or whether she was even conscious of the gentle touch, she swung out a friendly trunk and sniffed her small admirer. The load stuck fast at tho improvised culvert and “Alice,” under her driver’s goad, made the air vocal with grunts and groans in her halfdozen attempts to shift the lorry. The woe man felt so sorry for the “kind ole fnig,” as he called her, that nt tho seventh attempt lie pushed behind the vehicle! And, a seeming miracle, for the wheels lurched forward on to the smooth pavement and the little onlooker trotted home with tho firm impression that his “extra pound” had done the trick and happy with the thought of a kindly deed done.