LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 443, 17 December 1908, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The School Committee meets to-night.

Allan’s Kntertaiuers appear in the Public Hall this evening.

You are invited to call and inspect samples of Christmas Cards at the Hurald office. These cards printed, conveying your own message are very fashionable.

The following local pupils passed the proficiency, examination Held recently, in the order named:— Masters James Heunessy, Weston J. Barber, William J. Betty, Misses Catherine K. Berthold, Ivy Small, Master P. J. (Tom) Levett, Miss Ruby Hughes. Fight were presented.

An invitation to visit the Xmas Fair which opened at the Bon Marche on Saturday appears in another column. Great interest was shown b}' the numerous buyers on Saturday,'but possibly the chief excitement centred round blouses and millinery, of which there are beautiful stocks of new goods, and the prices are tempting.* A representative of one of the largest milling companies in Australia is at present visiting the Dominion with the object of opening up business in the flour trade. It is said that flour can be imported from Australia about the same price as that being charged by the Millers’ Association here — namely, £lO 15s a ton. —Dominion.

At Eketahuua yesterday F. Alwood was before Messrs Herbert and Haswell, J.’sP., in connection with the Nireaha “ sticking-up ” case on December 8. After the evidence for the prosecution was taken, accused pleaded guilty to unlawfully entering at night the dwelling of Mr F. H. Dowden, with intent to commit a crime therein. He was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Sir Joseph Ward sent the following message to Webb after the race : —“ After worthily upholding the championship of the world as a sculler you have to-day, after a splendid race, had the laurels wrested from you by a great rower, but the sportsmanlike manner in which you recognise the victory of your opponent adds greatly to your well deserved reputation as a true sportman.” The Ballance Co-operative Dairy Company paid out on Tuesday some ,£6,500 for milk supplied during November, the price being nd per pound for butter fat. This is a record payment for the month of November in the history of the company, and the make of butter for the month exceeds that of the same period last season by several tons. A number of large suppliers draw cheques of upwards of ,£IOO for the month’s supply. A telegram was sent to Arnst at Wanganui on Monday : —“ The members of the Christchurch Cycling and Motor Club unite in wishing you every success in tomorrow’s great race. They feel perfectly satisfied that the best traditions of your old club are in worthy hands. Their thoughts and best wishes will accompany you, and by none will your success be hailed with greater delight.’’ Messrs Shadbolt, Nelson and F. Dunn, left Foxton in their 27ft oil launch for Wanganui on Monday and covered the. distance from bar to bar in five hours. They had to lay cutside the Wanganui bar till Tuesday morning. The crew picked up a full complement of passengers at Wanganui and conveyed them to the scene of the championship race. The. little craft behaved herself admirably on the trip. When favourable weather offers she will be brought back.

A haul reminiscent of the old whaling days was made a few days ago at Mason’s Bay, on the west coast of Stewart Island. Bragg sen., and Swain were off the Bay fishing, when suddenly the waters inside became a mass ot life and animation. Proceeding to ascertain the cause, they discovered such a shoal of blackfish as has not been seen for many a day. Thereupon they set about driving the fish on shore, and succeeded in stranding no fewer than 320 of full size. They improvised a “try down,” and although at latest advices the work was not complete, they were expecting to cask from 60 to 70 tons of oil.

A good story, which deserves to be recited from obscurity, was told by MrG..Uaurenson, M.P., last Thursday evening, «l 1: the complimentary dinner teudgfed to the member for HurunuL The story ran that in the course; 0 f a debate in the House one of the members, Mr Monk, who, like Uncle Ned, had no wool where it ought to grow, vigorously attacked fome of the privileges which it w a s proposed to grant to the Natives. This aroused the ire of one <*f the Maori members, whose great grandfather had been a notorious; cannibal. “ Where would Mr Mlpk have been if he had made speech in my great grandfather’s tim&rip he : inquired ' passionately. jlffae Native Minister, Mr Carroll, silk plied an answer which the House—“ In tlmsoup !” Ml Monk got part of his own bac& with the witty rejoinder that w any case it would not have bC n hare soup. i. Messrs Hansen and , Co., Genic'S Merchants, Shorlandi Thames, N.S a says : “ From our experience in Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera ’ JLarrhoea .Remedy we-are satisflM That a few doses of it is sufficient to (fll anyone suffering from colic, or pains in the stomach.’' - For ‘ everywhere.—Aim. 1

The Rowing Club committee meeting called for last night lapsed for want of a quorum. A meeting of the Borough Council will be held on Monday next, at 7.30 p.m., to receive tenders for carting and sinking artesian well. Mr Fossey, director of technical education for the southern district, is at present collecting subscriptions from local residents in aid of the local technical school. We are asked to state that the Yerex Studio has received such encouragement during the past fortnight that it will not now be closed as intimated in a previous issue. As the work is equal to city productions, it is hoped that residents will support local Industry.* Trout fishing under license conditions is a refined sport which offers the maximum physical and intellectual enjoyment at little or no risk of personal injury. Fishing stimulates the growth of habits of carefulness, patience, and intelligent application—habits which often prove strong factors in life’s success. Messrs E. Reynolds and Co., Ltd., who have one of the most up-to-date and complete fishing tackle emporiums in New Zealand, have an announcement offering complete outfits suitable for Chrismast presents. Let your boy fish.*

A tall man, impatiently pacing the platform of a wayside station, accosted a red-haired boy of about twelve. “ S-s-say,” he said, “ d-d-do y-you know ha-ha-how late this train is ?” The boy grinned but made no reply. The man stuttered out something about red-headed kids in general and passed into the station. A stranger, overhearing the one-sided conversation, asked the boy why he hadn’t answered the big man. “ D-d-d’ye wanter see me g-g-get me fa-fa-face punched?” stammered the boy. 11 D-d-dat big g-g-guy’d tink I was mo-mo-mocking him. At Carterton a peculiar point was raised at court recently in a charge against the licensee of the Club Hotel of permitting drunkenness on the premises. The licensee is dead, and the business is being carried on by his widow, under a permit signed by the Stipendiary Magistrate. The Act says the permit must be signed by the Magistrate and two members of the Licensing Bench. Counsel for defendant raised this point, and also that the former licensee, having died intestate, no one was authorised to hold the license till letters of administration were issued. The case was dismissed, and it is uncertain whether the hotel is now licensed or not. A remarkable case of loss of consciousness has been reported to the Carterton News. The other evening a young man left Carterton for his home, two miles distant, on a bicycle. Two hours later he arrived home, with his face skinned and his leg hurt, and in a dazed condition. He was unable to account for his hurts, and coming across some work which he bad done before he left home, asked in a puzzled way who had done it. Later he recovered himself, but was unable, and still is, to say what happened during the two hours he was presumably on the way home, at the rate of oeu mile an hour. From the time of mounting his machine until after arrival home, his mind was a blank.

A younger brother of the late Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, one of the most distinguished Englishmen of the last generation, turned up at Ballarat the other day, and was sentenced as a drunken and disorderly vagabond. Commenting on this, Atticus writes in the Melbourne Leader: “It is said that practically every famous Englishman has a relation in Australia. We might safely add—generally disreputable. It would appear that our ‘ birth strain ’ is not forgotten in England, since the first idea of every family possessed of a black sheep is to pack the rascal off to Australia, as if the Commonwealth were a huge sheep run labelled ( For Black Sheep Only.’ We have all met a few of these ne’er-do-wells ; I have met many, and it strikes me that we want a further revision of the immigration policy, applying the accepted principle of a 1 white Australia ’ to black sheep,”

The Budget Eltham correspondent sends us some election stories that have recently come to light. Prior to the election Mr Richard Grylls sold out his hotel there. Had no-license been carried he was to lose £6OO on the price paid. At one of the booths a lady voter seemed

confused and ultimately confided to a scrutineer that she did not know how to vote and did not want anybody to know how she voted but “ she did not want Dick Grylls to get that £600.” Again two farmers were proceeding home in a buggy when they started arguing on the merits of Dive and Wake, or Massey and Ward, or something else, and a suggestion that they should have it out was promptly agreed to and at the foot of a long hUj the two began to create impressions on the memory and face (principally the latter) of the enemy, m the meantime the horr of the exhibition; of r'hsticuffs.and made fight was abandoned and a chase inthe horse held. This i&!€d to cool their ardour or antagonism and they at it again, and this time the horse streaked for home,, and when a truce was proclaimed they found no carriage and hadjto .use Shanks’ pony home. Now, in-two houses the wives are inquiring the reason for sundry isbrasiqns exhibited by ‘‘ hubby,’' r the caufee ot .the horse coming I etc. The two com.BKjjijyLfiud lit -.hard to explain

Messrs! Millar and Giorgi advertise “ Ellipse all ” suits. The D.O.A. notifies a first and final l dividend of 2s 4d in the £ in the bankrupt estate of Lye Moon and Co.

Mr Wj Bullard notifies the ar- — rival of'goods suitable for Christmas presents from England per s.s. Arawa. See advt.

Mr Paul Taylor, the stipendiary magistrate at Marylebone (London), gaye a sensible decision the other day, when he told a tramcar conductor that it was his duty to prevent overcrowding, and that if he failed, to do so the passengers were entitled to protect themselves. He dismissed a summons against a man who had been pushed out of a full, carriage, and who had summoned for assault the man who had pushed him.

A Christchurch man is convinced that advertising pays. He advertised for a lost pound note, and a stranger, who had picked up one on the streets, read the advertisement, hod restored the note to the advertiser. A few days later, while looking over a waistcoat he had laid off, the original lost pound note was found in a pocket. He says advertising pays a hundred per cent.

Mr Alf. Fraser, member of the Education Board, has banded to the Chairman of the local School Committee two handsome volumes of the Boys’ and Girls’ Own Annual for presentation to the boy and girl who have made the best attendances in the second, third, fourth and fifth standards, for the year ending 18th December, igoß.: We understand that several other prizes will be distributed to-morrow afternoon.

During the course of a statement to the Arbitration Court at Christchurch on: Friday last, Mr A. D. Dobson, city surveyor, threw considerable light upon the commendable thrift of a section of the working classes. He said that from £2 3s to £2 5s per week was regarded as a bare living wage. The City Council outdoor employees re-" ceived £2 Bs. From this remuneration one contrived to save sufficient to purchase a trottinghorse and sulky, a second had gone for a trip to England, and quite a number of i them were ratepayers.

There appears to be a bad lot following the races just now. At the Woodville meeting a Wairarapa journalist’s pocket was picked. His pocket book was taken from his hip pocket. Fortunately a-, railway pass was the only valuable thing in it, and that can be replaced. The Hawera Star states that Mr J. A. Goodson was robbed of at the Waitara races the other day. The course, the police state, simply swarmed with thieves. A " guesser,” who ‘‘went a broker ” at Woodville travelled ail the way home to Mastertou in the train lavatory, minus a ticket, it v is said, and so evaded the awful prospect of working his way back.

A South Canterbury correspondent of the Lyttelton Times states that a farmer in South Canterbury who was refused money on good security at a high rate of interest before the election, was sought out by a bank manager the day after the election and offered the money at a lower rate. In another case a man who had been refused money on first class security before the election was offered the advances the day after the election. The correspondent suggests that the recent tightness of money may have been due jn some degree to the banks fearing a Government reverse at the general elections.

Mark Twain was once pestered by an insurance agent to protect the welfare of those dependent on him by taking-put an accident insurance policy which would ensure a certain sum being paid to his family if he lamentably “ shuffled off this mortalicoil” by sudden disastrous accident. The great humorist promised to give the subject his earnest consideration, and did so. His conclusions appeared in an article, in which he pointed out that the real danger to humanity was not through railroad or steamboat travelling, but through going to 1 bed. “ The number of people who die ip their bed,” said Mark. Twain, “is appalling.” He proceeded to point out, in effect, that;the only policy he was likely to tsfce out against death was one which would provide for his dear ones if he died in bed, because as he stated, there was much more likelihood of his succumbing in bed; than by sudden accident, and he cited figures to prove it.

Residents talking with persons at Otaki by telephone have been exasperated at not -getting proper communication. It appears that the Otaki people have been in the habit of putting the wrong end of the instrument to ? the ear, and speaking through ! the receiver. That is what the I,evin paper says. But the Farmer appears to lie generalising from a single instance. Now for the Otaki .paper’s story: —“A well known townsman went to the local post office to speak to some person at Teyin. The post office official duly pang up thtLevin man, and told :our friend to go into the telephone bureau, as it was alright. After some considerable time the local man came out of the telephone box and complained to the official! that he could , hear nothing, and pn- the clerk going to ascertain thdfteason found that the man had been applying - ? the wrong end. of .tl» instrument, to his ear.” , \ „ j , J) 'MaMsWmStkJkt -^StiKKaavSßilßlß