The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, September 29, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 898, 29 September 1910, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, September 29, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

It is hoped there will be a good attendance at the Council chambers this evening of all those favourable to the formation of a local rifle club. The meeting is convened for that purpose by the Mayor and Captain McMurray. Rifle shooting, besides being a healthy form of recreation, is a fine nerve tonic. Apart from this every able-bodied man should know how to handle a rifle. Playing at soldiers is very showy, but it is so much waste time unless the man who carries a rifle knows how to use it. There is a local rifle range, and the Defence Department lends valuable assistance to such clubs. It is hoped that as a result of to-night’s meeting a strong club will be formed.

Whether a person is entitled to recover an engagement ring alter the engagement it symbolises has been broken off by the donor of the ring, was a question . involved in a civil action which was concluded at the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, this week. The action was that in which Frederick College, tailor’s cutter, of Wellington, had instituted civil proceedings against Sarah Cohen, board-inghouse-keeper, also of Wellington, to recover a diamond ring, given by plaintiff to defendant on engagement of the parties, or alternately its alleged value, £22. College had broken off the engagement because he alleged Cohen’s relatives and friends wanted him to marry the defendant “ in a hurry,” and his expectations with regard to her had not been fulfilled. After hearing evidence and legal argument, the Magistrate gave judgment for defendant. Surely the plaintiff deserves a life of single blessedness.

Which of the four centres has the highest death-rate ? The Re-gistrar-General in his return shows that Dunedin leads with 11.55 P er xooo. Auckland follows with xi. 25, Christchurch with 9.48, and Wellington is last with 9.35. Taking the figures for the suburbs along with the cities, Wellington is still at the bottom with a proportion of 9.11 per 1000. The inclusion of suburban boroughs, however, tends to lower the rate at Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin, but raises it at Christchurch. As a set-off to urban mortality the births for all centres rose from 590 in July to 651 in August.

The experience of at least one person goes to show that New Zealand is not such a bad place to live in as is sometimes asserted by disappointed fortune seekers. Mr John Mclntyre, who was the organiser and first president of the Dunedin Manure Workers’ Union, and who is now residing in Crieff, Scotland, has written an interesting letter to a friend in Dunedin, says the Otago Daily Times. In the course of his letter he says : “ There is no such thing as unionism here, 1 am trying to get a union started, but it is uphill work. I start work at 7 a.m., and finish at 9 p.m. What do New Zealanders think of this ? I

wish 1 was back in New Zealand, but it will take some time to get back at the wages I am getting.”