LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3777, 7 November 1907, Page 2

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

A Waipavva telegram states that Gilbert Broad, aged 21, shot himself in the right temple at Fairfield on Tuesday night. He was removed to the hospital in a critical condition. Mrs Hamer, of the Economic, has just received a beautiful assortment of runners, cushion covers, fancy table cloths, brush and comb bags, etc.) etc., which she bought at exceptionally low prices, being a lot of levellers’ samples. The same shown in window.* ■

The finder of a purple motor scarf is requested to kindly return same to this office.

Owing to the illness of Mr Barraclough, headmaster, the Moutoa School has had to be closed for a few days.

A plague of slugs is reported to have completely demolished a seven-acre oat-crop in the vicinity of Kuripuni railway station.

A settler informed the Taihape Post that in travelling along a Taihape back-block road recently, his horse became so deeply embedded in mud that he had to dismount and go to a wayside house for a loan of a shovel to dig it out.

The biggest harvester which the world has yet seen is to be in use this year in the great wheat-growing district of San Joaquin Valley, in California. This machine will cut, thresh, and stack the wheat growing on one hundred acres daily, and when all the sickles are working cuts the enormous swath of fifty-two feet. Eight to ten men are able to handle the huge harvester easily, and to turn out from tit one thousand four hundred to eighteen hundred sacks of wheat in a ten-hour day.

The detectives raided some premises at Christchurch on Tuesday where several undesirables wanted by the police had taken up their abode. Twenty men were found in the smoking room, and they stampeded for the door at the opposite end of the room, but the door opening inwards, they were unable to get out. From the con-science-stricken crowd four were weeded out by the detectives and charged at the Police Court with vagrancy. They were remanded till Thursday, bail of which the magistrate refused to reduce, being allowed. One of the most startling facts brought out at the recent hygiene congress in Dondon was the prevalence of child suicide. A professor stated that in Russia three times as many suicides took place among school children as among all the rest of the population. In Germany also there has been a remarkable increase in the number of child suicides. During the last 12 years 1152 cases have been investigated bj r Professor Eulenburg, of Berlin. He says that most o them were due to failure in examination and overwork. Clearly, mothers are needed on the German school boards.

In rebutting a statement by Mr Hogg, M.H.R., that the price of wheat and' flour is higher now than at any period in the country’s history, Mr Noah Wood, in the Auckland Herald, says : —‘ ‘ln the ‘ sixties ’ during the war, flour ruled once as high as .£3O per ton, and stood for some time at from £2O to .£25 per ton. The writer has sold scores of tons at these figures. On one occasion Messrs Thornton Smith and Firth were the only holders of wheat in any quantity in the city. The old mill was running night and day to keep people from starving. It is just as well that those who are crying out about comparatively trivial things should learn something of the troubles the early settlers had to contend with. I notice that now it is the fashion to advance flour at the rate of 10s and 20s per ton, so there may be half a dozen advances before the baker puts the Yz d on the 2lb loaf, and as many petty falls before he takes it off. A reference to the files of the early days will show that we boldly advanced or reduced the prices at the rate of £2 per ton, so that bakers had a legitimate ground for a rise at once, and in case of a fall the public demanded an instant reduction.”

A youth with a rational eye, though a somewhat weak chin, stole a clerk’s bicj'de, from its stand in Dowling-st, Dunedin, and disposed of it for 30s and another cycle to a boilermaker at Woodhaugh; then he sold the second bike. A day or two later he coveted another clerk’s cycle that reposed in the Stock Exchange. He was weak —and the bicycle was pawned the same day. Following this, he noticed a merchant’s machine that was new and shiny and seeming to cry for a change of ownership, and the youth took it away and gave it to a kindhearted pawnbroker somewhere above the Octagon. By the time he had taken another bicycle from. Princess street and conveyed it beneath three yellow balls, and had broken the monotony by purloining and pawning an evangelist’s overcoat, a detective had completed his investigations on mind and motives, and arranged for the cycle finder’s sojourn in durance vile. The thief mads no attempt at concealment, and openly confessed his fault in Court. He appears to be perfectly sane. Why did he do it ? asks the Star.

Sharks are reported to be ful in the Auckland harbour. Phenominal heat is being experienced at present in Masterton. The present hot weather is scorching up the grass throughout the district.

A start has been made by the contractor, Mr Rimraer, with Mr Perreau’s new premises in Main Street.

A man named Upritchard was drowned while crossing the Ruamahanga river in a boat at Pirinoa on Monday. He leaves a wife and several children.

The annual Presbyterian general Assembly is now sitting at Wellington. The new moderator (the Rev. A. Don) delivered his inaugural address on Tuesday.

It is rumoured that an eccentric couple in Wellington, desirous of having a unique and sensational marriage ceremony, are arranging for the event to take place on the summit of Mount Egmont during the coming Christmas vacation. We acknowledge receipt of the Spring Show, catalogue of the Greytown and Dower Valley Horticultural and Industrial Society. The show takes place atFeatherston on the 14th inst. Mr D. Findlay, who now represents Government in costly hand compensation cases, is a brother of Dr Findlay, the Attorney-General. There is money in politics if yon" are in the swim.

Mr Simms, Government Orchard Inspector, is making a house to house visitation in Foxton and district. Mr Simms warns all persons to spray for the codlin moth.

Sir James Hector, who had been living in retirement at Petone for the past few years, and had been in indifferent health for some months, died yesterday, aged seventy-three years.

Preparations are well in hand for the forthcoming Athletic Club’s sports on Monday next. Much interest is being manifested in the flax-spreading competition. The lecal baud will play a number of selections during the day. A good day’s sport is anticipated. A deputation of local residents will wait on the Minister for Marine to-morrow in referencejto protective works at Duncan’s bejjd and other matters of importance to the port. The deputation will be introduced by the member for the district who is expected to do some straight talking on this important matter. *

When the Meikle Bill was under discussion in the House the other day and Mr Fisher was speaking, Mr J T. M. Hornsby, Wairarapa’s elect, who is opposed to Meikle in any and every form, interjected, “ I lived in Southland in those days.” Mr Fisher retorted sharply, ‘‘lt, would have been a good thing for . Wairarapa if you had stayed there.” Poor J. T. M H then got to work on his chewing gum..

The Minister for Agriculture has selected the first batch of Diary Inspectors as follows ; —W. J. Dunlop (Christchurch), F. Murray (Woodville), W.’ o.‘ Twentyman (Forty-mile Bush District), Wm. Dang (Otahuhu, Auckland), J. P. Finlay (South Canterbury), J. W. Smith Oamaru), H. Whyte (of Manutahi, Taranaki), H. A. Ward (of Devin), Jas. Johnston of (Inglewood, Taranaki), E. S. Wright (Blenheim), W. Stobie (ofV-Ha-wera), J. R. Wyborn and R. Crockett (two officers of .the Department).

Mr Fred Elton (really Elkington), whose company appears in the Public Hall this evening, is not unknown in this district, where he was farming some years ago. In years past he was a wellknown polo player on the Foxton grounds, in company with Messrs Robinsons, Strangs, B. Gower, and others. His liking for the stage induced him to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, a wellknown comedian. “Fred” was doing good business i-n South Africa when the war broke out. He accepted the Queen’s shilling, and went to work. As a reward, he will carry among other things during his life, a five-inch scar on his leg, the result of a bayonet jab. Fred is voted by all who know him as a “ jolly good fellow.” Perhaps influenza is not spread by filthy bank notes. But the reverse may be the case, says the Napier Telegraph T In any event bank notes are as a rule filthy, and therefore unpleasant to handle, even if not disseminators of disease germs. Why should not a bank note be withdrawn after one issue ? This is not found difficult in regard . to cheques. And no large question of cost is here involved between cheques and bank notes, for the stamp on a cheque is a tax imposed by the Government on users. It is only too plain -that bank notes now are customarily filthy and probably dangerous,/and ought not to be either. Perhaps the mbqts|fcy see fit to take some steps in thi§Jsiatter. ...

The Arbitration Court will sit at Palmerston,, North on the 26th inst. .. A special meeting of the'Flaxrnill Employees’.Union will be held on Saturday l next. •

Mr M. Pefreau has just received his Christmas stock of high-class confections, iucludui'g;alj,the latest novelties.

Messrs Nash and Co are showing some very choice imitatioh pot plan(?> for table decorative pur; poses. The show . makes v a very pretty window display.

Miss, Lapoukhin’s father that, a gang of Eondon bandits kidnapped his daughter, intending to hold her for ransom, but released her whom they discovered her poor relations. The police disbelieve the story.

At Gisborne on Tuesday, a case ©{ importance' to storekeepers was v decided when William Brad 3’, manager of a eo-Pperative store, was convicted of issuing coupons for what is known as book gift tea. He was fined 10s and costs.

Professor Koch spent eighteen months on Sezse Island, in Eake Victoria Nyanza, studying sleeping sickness. He declares the insect Glossina palpalis sucks the blood of crocodiles and thence spreads the germs of sleeping sickness along the banks of streams.- He recommends the destruction of crocodiles and removal of bushes where they lurk. *■

The'record for multiple weddings, seems to be held by a small English village called Trail. The bridegrooms were the- four sons of John Summers, of that village, and the brides whose ages ranged from 18 to 28, were the daughters of James, a prosperous farmer. The eight young persons had lived all their lives within a stone’s throw of each other.