LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 438, 22 September 1908, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Railway holiday excursion for Dominion Day are advertised elsewhere in this issue. Mr Walton, rabbit and noxious weeds inspector, is laicl aside with sickness and it will be two or three weeks before he can resume his duties.

Mr John Stevens’ supporters are respectfully invited to meet in the anle-room of the Coronation Hall, Rongotea, at 8 p,m. on Saturday next for the purpose of forming a committee. Ladies are specially invited to attend.

The Rowing Club bazaar dance is to be held in the Masonic Hall to-morrow evening, commencing at eight o’clock, when v a most enjoyable time is anticipated. For particulars see announcement re same in another column.

All accounts owing to Messrs J. A. Nash and Company and L. W. Wilson and remaining unpaid after the 20th September are payable to Messrs Moore and Barnard, solicitors, and their receipt only will be a sufficient discharge. Mr John Stevens, M.P., was in Palmerston yesterday, having come from Wellington by the express. He went in the afternoon to Awahuri where he addressed a meeting in the hall last evening. Mr Stevens met with an excellent reception and a committee was formed and preparations were made for the organised work of the campaign. During the past two or three years quite a number of boot polishes have been put on the market, good, bad and indifferent. But the polish*' which we believe has come to stay is “ Radium,” manufactured in this Dominion by Messrs McLeod and Son. It is economical, gives a brilliant polish and lasts longer than any other. Further, it is a New Zealand production and takes the polish off all imported articles. In Wellington, recently, Mr A. L. D- Fraser, M.P., delivered a lecture on “The Maori; As he was, is, and may become,” in which the following illustration of the surprises one might expect among the educated Maoris occurred. The lecturer told of a pakeha who was introduced to a Maori who was seated in the sun before a whare, wrapped in his blanket, like the rest of the tribe. The visitor was introduced as Julius Caesar. “I am pleased to meet you, sir,” exclaimed the Maori in perfect English, ‘‘and how is your friend Brutus?” The Maori, observed Mr Fraser, was 'an excellent classical scholar. On telling this story in a club, Mr Fraser added, a pakeha listener was moved to observe when he heard the conclusion : “ That comes of teaching these natives the Bible ! ” WOLFE’S SCHNAPPS lias stimulating properties possessed by no other spirits.

Monster auction drapery and boot sale at the Masonic Hall,

The Pacific Cable Company reports that the Aeon was wrecked at Christmas Island. Passengers and crew were saved. Of her 488 bags of mails, 150 were saved, and will probably be forwarded by the steamer Manuka.

A farmer, the father of twelVe children, all of whom had been rocked in the same cradle by the same big toe, was rocking the newest arrival one evening, when his wife remarked, “John, that cradle is nearly worn out. It’s so rickelty I’m afraid it will fall to pieces.” “It is about used up,” replied her husband. Then, handing her £ 2, he added, “ The next time you go to town, get a new one, a good one—one that will last.”

Many people think that penny a word cables are a mere dream. We are whole-heartedly optimistic, says the Dunedin Star, We believe that this project is destined to become an operative reality before the century is out of its nonage, and what is more important, Sir Joseph Ward cherishes the same conviction. The more we think of what penny a word cables would mean, the more strongly do we feel that this great design should have the intelligent, enthusiastic, and persistently pushing support, so to speak, of every patriotic New Zealander,

It is fairly-well know that the late Premier of the Dominion had a “ double ” in a northern member of the House, but it has only recently transpired that a South Island gentleman who, on a recent visit to Melbourne, was mistaken lor Sir Thomas Bent, the Premier of Victoria. The New Zealander, one of the identities of Greymouth, is a well-preserved gentleman of over 70. One day, whilst in the Victorian capital, he decided to visit the noted aquarium at the Exhibition Buildings, and like any other member of the public, was preparing to pay for admission, when the doorkeeper astonished him by saying, “No, no. Sir Thomas, you pass in free.”

In the course of a lecture at the Dunedin Technical School on the subject of “ New Zealand Native Plants,” Mr J. Crosby Smith had a great deal that was interesting to tell both about our common and our uncommon plants. Speaking of the different varieties of rata, he said that one which grows in the North Island and is scientifically distinguished by the adjective “ robusta ” usually starts life in the fork of another tree. When it has absorbed the food substance to be found there it sends out a root towards the ground, and from this spring arms which encircle the tree. After the root reaches the earth these arms grow in strength and thickness until they end by strangling the life out of the tree on which they started. The only tree the rata can do nothing with, said Mr Smith, is the puriri, or hardwood, which bursts, the encircling arms asunder.

The medals to be presented to the school children of the Dominion on Dominion Day (next Saturday) are of allurainium, and are about the size of a florin. On one side is impressed the King’s head, encircled by the Union Jack and the New Zealand Ensign, and the words, “Edward VII., of the British Dominions, King.” The opposite side bears the words: “ Presented to the children attending the schools of the Dominion,” this inscription being contained within two fern leaves, while on the outer edge of this side are the words, ‘ ‘ New Zealand proclaimed a Dominion, September 26th, 1907.” In connection with the above, a number of parents are desirous that the children should celebrate the event at the Park and be suitably entertained. The matter is under consideration.

There are many curious industries in operation in Auckland, and one is the production of shark oil. Quite a large demand has set in for this oil, which is extracted from the livers of sharks, and is being largely used for the feeding of calves, being mixed with skimmed milk, but experts hold that for medical properties, if the prejudice against it could be overcome, shark oil is quite equal to cod liver oil. But the shark has more in him than this oil, the body being converted into a valuable fertiliser, while the fins are dried and exported to China, where they are esteemed a great delicacy. The industry is limited by the number ot sharks caught, but it is urged by experts that the Government might be asked to assist the industry by a bonus to fishermen or others who catch sharks, and thus also improve the fisheries by reducing the ranks of the natural enemy of the marketable fish.