NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 851, 11 June 1910, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

A correspondent writes as follows to the Melbourne Argus : —A resident of New South Wales who went to Alberta, Canada, to settle there on the laud, after some eighteen months’ experience of the cold, returned and wrote out the account of his efforts to keep warm at night, and the clothing he had on, which I kept as an object of curiosity. It may help to explain why families in Canada are turning their attention to Australia. The following is a copy of the paper:—“At 56deg. below zero in Alberta. Heavy fleece-lined underclothing—four pairs of socks, one bicycle stocking, two trousers, four sweaters, two coats, one fur cap, three padded quilts, two blankets, one dressing gown over feet. Fire going nearly all night. The toes on left foot frozen by morning. F,xperienced in February, 1907.” He is a young man, in the prime of life, powerfully built, and was capable of enduring either extremes of heat or cold. The Dutch can still claim a preeminence in the matter of cleanliness, as “ Wanderer in Holland ” discovered. “Spring cleaning, ’’ he writes, ‘ ‘ goes on here '. , . all the year round. ... * It’s a fine day, let’s kill something,’ says the Englishman. ' Here’s an odd moment, let us wash something,’ says the Dutch vrow.” And Mr Lucas recalls an old story of Sir William Temple’s, which illustrates the habits of the Dutch. It tells how a magistrate, paying an afternoon call, was received at the door by a stout North Holland lass, who, lest he should soil the floor, took him bodily in her arms and carried him to a chair ; sat him in it, removed his boots, put a pair of slippers on his feet, and then led him to her mistress’ presence.