The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, December 1, 1910. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 925, 1 December 1910, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, December 1, 1910. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Further additions are made to the Himatangi stock sale list. The proficiency examination will be held in the local school on Tuesday next, 6th inst., at 9 a.m. Mr W. PI. Hawkins intends to contest the Pahiatua seat as a supporter of the Government. At yesterday’s sitting of the Magistrate’s Court three additional old age pensions were granted.

The many friends of Mr Theo. Easton will regrel to hear that he is contined to his house with a serious indisposition. Mr C. T. Peterson, who tret with a severe accident about a week ago whilst ploughing, is making a satislactory recovery.

There will be an important vestry meeting at All Saints' Church to-night, at 8 p.m. The vicar hopes all members of the vestry will be present. At the Marlborough show, held at Blenheim on Tuesday, Lord Islington offered Father Holley £IOO for a pair of carriage horses. The offer was not accepted. Mr G. Coley has donated two volumes, as prizes, to the local school and two to the Himatangi school. The donor’s generosity is much appreciated by committees of the schools mentioned.

Vigzago, a lady’s hairdresser, suicided in a prison cell at Buda Pesth, after arrest for blackmailing aristocratic ladies by means of accusations of misconduct with their chauffeurs and others. The blackmail ranged from 3000 to 5000 kronen and upwards. The affair has created a sensation in Hungary.

A tory colonel, who, recovering from a motor accident which had affected his head and being allowed to read the papers again, suddenly asked his daughter; “Do you mean to say King Edward is dead ? ” When he had overcome his surprise and sorrow, he asked : “ Who is King, now ? ” “ George, father," was the reply. “ What! ’’ he cried, "that blessed little Welsh solicitor?" The Chancellor himself tells the yarn.

When the train arrived last night, somewhere about half-past eight, the gas lamps on the local railway platform were not alight. The signalman came out with his green and red lights, lit a match and had a look for the lights but finding none continued his duties with a "well its nothing to do with me’’ sort of air about him. From enquiries we find that the reason tor the lamps not being alight was that the pilot lights had gone out for some unaccountable reason and no one on the premises knew just how to light them. A somewhat novel competition in the shape of an eel-fishing tourney is occasionally held by the Nelson Anglers Club. One of them took place this week, when (reports the Mail) the six competitors caught the large number of 166 eels between 7 and 9 o’clock in the evening. The winner’s tally nearly ran into three figures, 87 being captured by him, winch number would have been considerably augmented had escapees from the landing stage been taken into account. The next two catches comprised lots of 48 and 15 eels.

Those who planted potatoes in any quauiity for the present are (says the Auckland Herald) likely to be well repaid for their outlay. Owing to the prevalence of blight in the crops of recent years growers have been limiting the areas devoted to potato-growing. In fact, many growers have given up the cultivation of this useful article of diet altogether and gone in for dairy farming instead. In consequence of this there will probably be a limited supply of local tubers this season, and prices are likely to be comparatively high. So far the crops have been remarkably free from blight, and many who had been shy about planting potatoes are now hastening to make up for lost time, and seedsmen have been rushed in supplying orders for seed potatoes, which are unfortunately not at all plentiful. There is a keen demand ior potatoes in the south, and at the auction sales they have realised as much as 6d per lb. There are boots and boots. Cheap and trashy footwear are the dearest in the long run. The English, American, and Colonial firms from whom I draw my stock have a reputation to maintain and refuse to turn out trashy and cheap goods. I have just opened up four cases of goods for the summer season, including special lines in ladies and gents boots and shoes. Call and inspect them at R. T. Betty’s.*

A committee meeting of the local Horticultural Society is called for to-morrow night in the Council Chambers, at S o’clock. The Presbyterians and Methodists intend to hold a river excursion and picnic at the Beach on Boxing Day. Particulars will be advertised in a subsequent issue. It mav not be generally known that what is claimed to he the largest living kauri tree in New Zealand is growing in all its majestic splendour at Puriri, near Thames. It has a girth of 40 feet, or is roughly 13 feet in diameter. The Maoris are predicting a hot and dry summer. The cabbage palms have flowered very heavily this year, and there is also an abundance of flax blossoms in various parts of the district. Both these circumstances are regarded by the natives as evidences of coming heat and a scarcity of rain.

It is not often that business debts are paid after an interval of twenty-seven years. One such case has just occurred within our knowledge, says the Dunedin Star, where people who gave up business in Dunedin in the early eighties, and removed from New Zealand, sent payment in full to an ancient creditor, whose books had in the meantime been de-stroj-ed. Mr A. Hardgrave, a well-known Taranaki representative footballer for many years, who was presented with the Royal Humane .Society’s medal on Thursday, saved a lad from drowning at Menui Beach on Saturday evening, and another man, who had gone to the assistance of the youth, was brought ashore by Mr H. Plankrich. This makes the eighth case of rescue from drowning by Hardgrave, who is a very powerful swimmer.

A terrible tragedy is reported at Dumblcton, near Macky, Perth. Two brothers named Tynan quarrelled. One attacked the other with a cane knife, inflicting fearful injuries, including a split skull. He also attacked his sister-in-law, She escaped severely wounded. William, the injured man, was afterwards found dead. The alleged assailant was arrested, and another man who was present at the time was also arrested on a charge of murder. At the Christchurch Magistrate's Court, counsel for a bookmaker who was defendant in a charge ol belting with an infant, pleaded for clemency and tried to mollify the magistrate by reminding him that the bookmaker would soon be a thing of the past and cease to trouble the community. MiBishop took a different view, and showed little faith in the bookmaker’s amenability to the law depriving him of his legal status. He replied rather sharply to counsel, “ Oh, I haven’t seen the last of the bookmaker. Don’t believe that I have."

The cigarettee habit does not seem to be confined to ladies and grownup males if what was seen in a car of the Bluff train the other day is to be accepted as a criterion (says the Southland News). Two girls, between sixteen and eighteen years of age, who were passengers from the port to town, entered a first smoking apartment, and taking a seat, asked a male occupant lor a match. Curious to know what they wanted it for, he complied with their request, and was surprised to see each of the girls place a cigarette in her mouth and light it. Remonstrance had no effect, and the pair thoroughly enjoyed their smoke until the guard entered, when they were required to change to a second class car where smoking was not allowed. It is stated, however, that shortly afterwards they took a second class smoker and resumed their worship at the shrine of Lady Nicotine.

Preaching at St. Paul’s Church, Malvern, a few days ago, Bishop Green, of Ballarat, referred to the pursuit of pleasure in Australia. Recently, he said, one of his clergy had visited a suburb of Melbourne, and had a chat with a Japanese laundrymau, during which the minister told the Japanese about the one true God whom the Christians worshipped. In reply, the Japanese laughed, and said ; " Your people worship two other gods besides that one. One of them has four legs, and is known as the horse, and the other is a round leather ball." "How,” declared the bishop, "did that Japanese manage to get such an insight into Australian life ? He had apparently watched the lives of the multitudes of people around him, and in his own quaint Oriental fashion had put his thoughts into words."

“ Business men with whom I came into contact in England,” said Mr N. Barraud to a Wellington Post reporter, “regard the politico-social outlook in the United Kingdom as very grave indeed. There is a dread of some terrible civil crisis, culminating in bloodshed. Did you hear in New Zealand that some of the Territorials were being disarmed ? Mr Lloyd George, I learned, was regarded as a very dangerous man by the English business men whom I met. Assuredly the outlook in the domestic affairs of Britain today is very grave. So it appeared when I left, so subsequent events, especially in Wales, have shown it to be. I would not call the business men I met alarmists by any means. They appeared to me to voice the general opinion of all thinking members of their class. Frankly, from what I saw of things, I do not like the prospect at all. England, in fact the whole of the United Kingdom, appears to be on the eve of a great social upheaval.’’

Thomas A. Thompson, an Auckland motorman, was fatally crushed ou Tuesday. Mr Peter Bowling, the central figure in the recent coal strike in New South Wales, arrived in Wellington yesterday. He was welcomed by the socialists.

The following interesting reading matter will be found ou the fourth page ot this issue :—“ A New Grass,” “ Commercial,” “A Miracle.’" Mrs Plainer desires to draw the attention of mothers to the great assortment of teddy bears and dolls, ranging in price from is upwards, she is now showing in her fancy goods department.* A plucky action on behalf of a four and a half year old girl is reported from Omoaua. It would seem that the little one was left in charge while her mother went with lunch to her husband, who was at work in the bush. The building caught fire and the little girl bravely rescued her baby brother who was uninjured, but she herself received some severe burns about the face and arms necessitating medical attention. Pull paiticulars are not available. Some people are too shortsighted or close-fisted to appreciate the value of judicious advertising. If however, they desire anything suppressed it is surprising how suddenly they realise the widereaching circulation of even a very modest publication, but when asked to advertise —well it doesn’t pay ! Up-to-date commercial men would be completely submerged were it not for judicious advertising, which is reduced by them to a fine art. Again, some people really imagine that the newspaper men eke out an existence, keep an expensive plant up-to-date, pay wages etc. etc., without money. They pay the grocer, butcher, baker and sometimes their medical attendant —never growl about the price of a drink—but because they cannot handle chunks of advertisement they refuse to realise the widereaching importance of the press. A lengthy report is always expected at the paltry price of a complimentary ticket!