Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1900.

Manawatu Herald, 28 April 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1900.

Bangs : " L ernbie s t orm we had last night— terrific thunder and lightning." Bings: "Well, .you see, I reached home about two, and I didn't hear the storm oiuside." The Napter correspondent of the New Zealand Farmer lately wrote to that journal :— " I ha-i- V.--.r.. ■' j piece of New Zealand flax which was' .Iressed in Japan, and experts had i long argument as to whether it was 'silk' or 'spun glass." It certainly was nothing like flax as we know it. It is said that the Japs have machinery for splitting the fibre, and after beinf dressed as this sample under notice was, it is worth £120 a ton. Some time ago there was a great dispute with the Customs over a certain class of goods which looked like silk, but were not silk, and quite possibly the material was only New Zealand "flax, after all." Tarring and sanding the footpaths in Palmerston appears to be appreciated as at the last meeting of the Borough Council a deputation waited •vi the Council and wanted more paths ione. Has our Council obtained any •■ '.'•■'b] c i data as to cost and wear for ♦ guidance in the near future? Tht- re were peculiar people in England in the early part of the nineteenth century. Two men were discovered oilfering from a stable. The whole of the knights of the currycomb assembled. They fastened the beards of the two men together with pitch, after having pinioned their hands behind A mixture of snuff and hellebore was then scattered on their faces, "he result being that when they sneezed they knocked their heads violently together until they were deluged in blood flowing from their nostrils, to the intense delight of an admiring and appreciative congregation. " Ah, the good old days." Tenders are invited by the Borongh for providing and planting trees at the Foxton Sanatorium. Tenders close on 7th May. A replace advertisement from C. M. Ross and Co. of the Bon Marche Palmerston N. appears in our present issue, in which they call attention to their extensive stock of new goods opened up for the winter season, they remind onr readers of the fact that hey have now been continuously be- ■ fore the public of this District for the past 17 years and they naturally enough assume that their continuous expansion and popularity is a suffipient guarantee that they serve the public well. The Qneen intends tn review the bluejackets b*l metfngto H.M.S. Powerful who took oart in the siege of Ladysmith. The ceremony will take place on Tuesday.

" Householder" writes to a contemporary:—lt may not be generally known that if dry chloride of lime is sprinkled in rat holes and runs, where it is not subject to wet, as, for instance, in houses and sheds, the rats will avoid it and forsake houses so treated. A Russian Proverb—" Before going to war say a prayer ; before going to sea say two prayers ; before marrying aay three prayers." Some 2500 ducks and fowls have been shipped to London by the Agricultural Department this season. As a general rule the birds received from the breeders were in sui^bl" rondi tion for export, but in some instances a lack of knowledge how to bring them into the best conditi m for the ta^V was apparent. The Department h?ts sent an order Home for a number >>f Pekin and Aylesbury ducks. The stallion Phoebus Apollo, bv St Simon, has been purchased in England by Mr T. Morrin, and will he shipped to New Zealand at once. "Amateur" gives a contemporary the dimensions of a giant sunflower which he has grown at Clifton Hill — i4|in across, its stem is gj-ft high, and at its thickest part 2£in in diameter. The most expensive thermometer in use belongs to an American University, and is valued at £2000. It is an absolutely perfect instrument, and the graduations on the glass are so fine that it is necessary to use a microscope to read them. Dr Mason and Mr J. A. Gilruth consider that it is imperative that a careful bacteriological examination of rats in tbe other large ports should be made at once. We are of opinion that this is of the very greatest importance. The regulation to prevent the codlin moth being introduced into New Zealand from other colonies apparently applies to fresh apples. The Hastings correspondent of the Napier Telegraph says he saw the other morning some dried apples from Sydney which were thick with the pest. It was present in ! all its stages, from the egg to the moth . itself.