PALMERSTON NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3762, 21 March 1907, Page 2

PALMERSTON NEWS.

[By Telegraph—Special to Herald.] Palmerston, To-day. A number of cricketers on sports ground yesterday complained of petty thefts having Ibeen committed. The cricket season is now nearly over and footballers are preparing to begin practice. The annual meeting of Manawatu Rugby Union is to be held next week.

Nicholas Sweetman, farmer of Cattle Flat, Wiamea Plains, single, aged 67 years, was found'hanging over his gate, dead. The body was quite warm. Deceased was very charitable and much respected. Fretfulness is often due to want of fresh air. Even with good ventilation, which is a rarity, house air is decidedly inferior to that of the garden. Besides, there is under the open heavens a freedom for mind and body such as one does not enjoy within the walls of a house..

A record compiled by Mr Ell, M.H.R., shows that since the introduction of the system of rating on unimproved values, polls have been demanded in eighty-two districts, with a view to adopting the system. Following are the results: Counties, twenty won, non lost; road districts, ten won, two lost; town districts, two lost, cities and boroughs, thirty-eight won ten lost.

A youngster, ten years, old, was unable to produce a ticket when asked to do so on the New Plymouth train. His explanation was pathetic. His father had gone to the Stratford races, he said, without him, and now he was going down on his own account. The guard let him ride as far as Sentry Hill junction, and then handed him over to the guard of the up train for return to New Plymouth.

A judge and jury decided the other day in London that it is not a libel to publish post cards without permission, in which the head of one person is placed on the somewhat scantily-attired body of another. A London firm issued post cards depicting Miss Gertie Millar, a well-known Gaiety actress, in a night-dress with a candle in her hand, as a draped figure from the picture “La Source,” and creeping out of an egg-shell. Miss Millar gave no permission for such post cards to be published, and contended that they were defamatory.

A very old and semi-invalided resident, who only comes down about twice a year, made up his mind the other day that he would like to see the new post office whilst the fine weather lasted. When he saw the place he grew excited, and exclaimed, “ Dang it, man, its an exact facsimile of the famous Kilmainham gaol in Ireland.” And the old chap went onto tell of the points of similarity, and told’ that in the famous gaol the tower spans the footpath, and that from little balconettes on the tower the executions took place. The narrator was one of the guard on the occasion placed to keep back the populace. We now know where the architects discovered the design on which our principal public buildings has been erected: —Taranaki Herald. Councillor Tom Coward related an extraordinary experience at a banquet at Llangollen (Wales) recently. He said that he had returned home one evening after a particularly busy day, and after his wife retired to rest he remained in the sitting-room reading for some considerable time. He went upstairs with a lighted candle and asked, “Where is Tom?” He declares he had no answer and remarked, “ It is time he returned.” He then retraced his steps downstairs, but could not find himself! He finally went to bed, and next morning his wife questioned him as to his strange conduct, and said he stood scratching his head in confusion in the bedroom. He could not account for his behaviour and consulted a medical man, who solved the puzzle by saving that one-half of his brain was dormant while the other half was active. Such a case was not unknown in the medical world. Mr Coward reminded the meeting that he was a teetotaler.

A remarable incident has just been brought under the notice of the “ Gore Standard.” It appears that 23 years ago, a New Plymouth resident put away for safe keeping a life insurance policy, issued b5 r the Government office, for on the life of his father, who was then lying on his deathbed. The man hid the policy away, owing to the theft of about from his home, which was a publichouse. The father died, but when the policy was required, in the course of the settlement of his affairs, it could not be found, the son having forgotten where he had secreted it. Years passed on, but the mystery was npt elucidated, and in the course of time the trustees carried the claim against the Insurance Department to the law courts, and eventually to the Privy Council, but the defence was successfully raised that the policy was not lost, and when it was produced the claim would be paid. The sequel occurred in Gore the other day, when the man who had hidden the policy visited a dentist for the purpose of having several teeth extracted. An anaesthetic was administered, and under its influence, the patient’s mind wandered to the question of the policy, and the whole of the details connected with the secretion of the document came back to his memory. He recollected cutting open the wallpaper in the passage of the hotel and secreting the policy behind the scrim, and then pasting the paper over it again. No time was lost in despatching a telegram to a brother, asking him to make a search; at the spot indicated in the vision, and in three or four hours a reply was received that the policy had been found just where the search was made, as directed. Furnish, your home right through with Watchorn Stiles, and Co.’s Linoleums, Damasks, Curtains, sheetings at Bargain prices.* WOLFE’S SCHNAPPS the purest jn the world. Ask for Wolfe’s. '