GENERAL NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 991, 13 May 1911, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

People- in New Zealand do not appreciate the bright weather which they normally enjoy. Mr 11. Hill, Chief Inspector to the Hawke's Pay Education Hoard, states that, during last November there were only seven anil a hall hours of sunshine in London, and in January only six hours.

The peaceful little hamlet of Manakau is becoming somewhat notorious of late. A lady’s shop has been broken into and some goods stolen, and now it is reported that a. ease of whisky has been broached at the railway station. Then l is said to be no clue to tho perpetrator in either case.

One settler in the Mangalu (Poverty Bay) is taking elfectivo steps to eradicate the Californian thistle over his extensive properly, and covering the top for some distance round with a heavy layer of salt. About 125 tons of stilt is being used for this purpose. Snowflakes, harbingers of spring, are showing freely in the gardens in New Plymouth. But spring is yet afar off. Narcissi, which are commonly supposed to he spring (lowers, have been blooming for weeks past in the gardens of the northern town by' the sea, with the farfamed, genial climate. A new division has been added to tho births, marriages, and deaths column in the London Times —that of betrothals.

A Melbourne meteorologist, investigating droughts, inclines to the opinion that the breaking of severe droughts is preceded bv hurricanes.

Dairy inspection is very rigid at present in Wanganui, and the rumour that milk from unregistered dairies is being sold is believed to bo unfounded. A strenuous life is that of a. Minister’s private secretary. Tho lion. It. McKenzie's two secretaries have both been knocked up lately, and a third was recently pressed into service. Notice has been received by the Taranaki Agricultural Society that Stratford lias chosen December 6 and 7, Hawke’s Hay October 18 and 19, and Redding February 6 and 7, us the dates of their animal agricultural shows.

A Maltarahara settler has a number of straw clucks which in an ordinary season would be of very little value, but. which he sold a few days ago for £4O, ami donated tile amount realised to the Homo Rule fund.

A Canterbury man who is visiting British Columbia has discovered that “directly a Labour man gets a little real estate lie becomes a Capitalist.” Tho traveller need not have gone to another country to make this discovery.

M ile proprietor of a tannery at Oneliunga lias claimed from the Onehunga Borough Council £31,000 damages, it being alleged that tho borough pumping plant has been responsible for diverting the water from the dam supplying tho tannery.

Within the next three weeks every barmaid who desires to continue in the calling will have to apply for registration under the Licensing Act of last session. The last date for receiving applications is June 1, and any barmaid who has not, by that, day, communicated her request for a certificate will be compiled to sock other means of gaining a livelihood.

Mr Redmond, in Ids address at; Now Plymouth, remarked that one of the first facts that struck him on his visit to this young country was the extraordinary up-to-dateness of New Zealand people. Everywhere lie was shown various industries, viz... dairying, freezing, oil springs, and also modern methods of agriculture. They were, ho said, file most intellectual, enlightened, and up-to-date people, ho had vet come in contact with.

In moving a vote of thunks to the Irish delegates at. New Plymouth. Mr Okey remarked that the statement that an Irishman was not competent as an administrator was a libel. Ho had .sat on road hoards and county councils with some most callable Irishmen, and was now a member of the New Zealand Parliament where one- Irishman was at the head of affairs and another Irishman leader of the Opposition, and no one could say that the aflairs were conducted by the Premier of the colony in such a. way that anyone could have any objection.

An interesting example of the referendum in working has lieen afforded in the canton of Orisons. For years motor ears have been prohibited, when last Mav the authorities made an exception in favour ot the. road between Coire and Landqnart. on the frontier of tho canton of St. Gail. Nearly 7000 inhabitants of tho villages on this road then signed a petition for putting the referendum into action on the question of motor cars. This referendum has now taken place, with the result, that of 25.000 electors, 10,648 voted for absolute prohibition, and 3875 against. Motor cars are accordingly banned throughout tho canton without exception. Latlv Islington, speaking at the annual meeting of the Auckland branch of the Society lor the Health of Women and Children, said she hoped to do all she could to advance the interests of the society, not only because Lady Plunkot urged her to do so before'she loft England, but because she thought the society was doing good work, and could do much to prevent many of the future generation liann becoming undersized weeds. She wished that all girls would learn the simple laws of caring for children, so tliat when they became wives and mothers they would find it quite as simple to feed and take care of their babies as to do a sum in arithmetic. She herself would much rather look alter her baby than be most proficient in Euclid.

A paragraph iu the “Waitara Mail Biiirfostß a possible Rhodes scholar. Master E. M. AVylliu, of tho Stratford District High School, left for Dunedin to enter on his studies to lit him for tho medical profession. “Mol,” as ho is called by his mates, has had quite a successful school career. In PJOti he won one of the Queen’s Scholarships given by Victoria College, Wellington. On the expiry of this, in 15)09, he won an Education Hoard’s Senior Scholarship; in December last he won a Taranaki University Scholarship, which he is now about to hold at the ’University College, Dunedin. He passed in siU'fOfcMvo yt*«u\s, oxamiuatious set for .Junior Civil Service, Matriculation, ami Solicjtors’ General Knowledge, Senior Civil Service, and tile Junior University Scholarship. Ho was a good ail round boy. Ho was the best forward iu tho school Rim by team, and last year won tho champion belt of the Taranaki cadets for shooting. Sir Almroth \Vright, a distinguished medical man who introduced the system of anti-typhoid inoculation, recently gave a lecture ou “Fallacies of Hygiene,” in tli t . course of which he made the iolknving reference, to tho demand for bathing and fresh air; —-As to washing, (hero was a belief that people washed off the microbes. We did take off a. certain amount of microbes, but wo also destroyed tile protective skin which was all round our bodies like tho tiles of a house. When one had a horny hand, no microbe could ever get near the skin. If one had a skin like a tortoise, microbes would never get through. To have a Turkish bath was to take away one s horny protection, amd he objected to that.' With regard to fresh air, why was it only applied to tubercular disease! He"held it to be. a dreadful superstition. Tho whole of tho doctrine of fresh air required to be revised. Everybody was agreed that tho epidemic diseases were due to microbes; very few had yet appreciated tho fact that noninfectious diseases, which were the larger part of tho diseases of mankind, wore also duo to microbes.

The manager of the American Universities football team that visited New Zealand last season, writing under the (Into of March ‘-'4, from Stanford University, California, .said that the New Zealand trip was coming to moan more to the team that took part in it every day. The experience gamed had been evident in an increasing efficiency in play, and tho enthusiasm ■ 'ained had done not a little to popularise Rugby. In addition, 20 preparatory schools had taken up tho game since, the team's return to the United States. He had received an inquiry from the president of the National'Collegiate Association in regard to the Rugby game. That association was composed of colleges in the middle West, and it was these colleges which they first hoped to convert to i Rugby.

Some beautiful views of Ruapehu have been obtainablo during tho clear weather of the last few days. Tho mountain is now wearing its winter coat, of snow from summit to base, and its towering mass stands out, clear and sharply-defined ever all the surrounding country.

The homestead of Mr Wilcox, on the Main South road, Wa.imato Plains, near (he Riverdale factory, was totally destroyed by lire on ’Tuesday afternoon. The factory employees and a number of other willing helpers were (ptickly on the scene, ami removed most of the furniture and effects, which were saved. There was no insurance on the house. Tho lire was duo to a defective chimney. Tho house was one of the first erected on the Plains, being built by tho late Mr Andrew Hnstie. alxmt 1881, very soon after he bought the land at one of (he first, sales of the Plains land.

During the scene of the tempering of the gun in the performance of “Via Wireless” at New Plymouth, when tho long cylinder of red hot steel was being dropped into the bath containing 12.000 gallons of oil. one of the .supers, engaged locally to assist in the scene, was so anxious that all should go well that, he used bis hands to direct the course of the cylinder. Fortunately for him he was only dealing with a stage property and suffered no ill effects. fn the course of an address at, Nottingham recently on women’s part in the light, against consumption. Dr. Jane Walker described the “pneumonia” blouse ami the hobble skirt as foolish, but said she hoped the ankle skirt would be adopted. It was much more healthy, she contended, than the trailing skirts so fashionable some time ago, and if the hobble skirt was merely tho transition between long, trailing skirts and the ankle skirt she apologised to it, as it was leading to better things.