GENERAL NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1018, 15 July 1911, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

A little fantail which found its way into tho house of a resident of Wellington, after tho ics, became so tame that it appeared to have no dread of the members of tho family, who fed the little creature with flies. Strange to say, tho other day, it poured forth a flood of melody exactly like a canary. A strange bird which looka like a cross between a wild duck and a swan is on exhibition at Mastorton. The bird was shot at the foot of tho Tararua Ranges. Its wings are about 3ft. from tip to tip, its tail resembles that of a pigeon, and its beak lacks somo of tho characteristics of the duck. Local ornithologists have boon auite unable to place the bird.

A Taranaki resident recollects the time when the harem skirt was not unknown, the wives and daughters of settlors residing on the banks of the Waitara river being attired in men’s tweed trousers, accompanied by a short skirt. The innovation was rendered necessary as a means of protection from tho attacks of myriads of sandflies, which, at that period, infested the place.

A grass known as “Wakeman’s Feecue” is used extensively in England for bowling greens and is now being experimented with at the Ruakura and Tauranga Experimental Farms. This grass is said to withstand the most rigorous conditions and was first imported by Mr Wakeman, of Palliating who has handed to the Agricultural Department all the seed he has saved.

In the Supreme Court at Auckland a few days ago counsel for an accused young man spoke strongly in favour of his client, the prisoner in the dock, to whom he referred as “a young man born of respectable parents, bred and brought up in Hamilton.” It was discreet on the lawyer not adding that the accused had also been educated there, for when the latter entered the witness box and stated that his age was 23 he admitted that though he had won medals in athletic contests, such as running, boxing, etc., he oould neither read nor write! Latest Australian files contain news of the tragic death of a New Zealander. It appears that last week tho body of a man named Arthur Simpson was found lying face downwards in an irrigation channel near Korang (Victoria). Tho police, on searching the clothing, found a letter apparently written by deceased giving directions regarding the disposal of his effects and intimating that the body could bo given to the doctors for dissection if they so desired, and stating that he had been addicted to drink of late years. Other papers indicated that deceased was a chemist by profession, and a recent arrival from Dunedin.

Sir George Reid narrates the following;—l well remember an interruption which caused me much momentary perturbation. I was getting out of the humorous into a very sad vein of thought (it was towards the close of my public career in Australia), and I was referring to the time when I should be passing to that bourne whence no traveller returns, when a voice rang out from the audience, “By Jove, George, the fat will be in the fire then!”—a subtle allusion to my good eighteen stone of avoirdupois. My only safety lay in joining heartily in the general laugh.

At Catalina Island, off San Francisco, glass-bottom boats are in. great demand, for they reveal to those who patronise them an unknown world and new beauties—the bottom of the sea. They are a distinct novelty, and ply a thriving trade upon the Bay of Avalon, which inshore is not deep, while the water is as clear as crystal. In the bottom of the boat are placed large sheets of transparent glass, and through this the passenger oan see, as he is propelled slowly along, dense clusters of seaweed assuming fantastic shapes, shells, fishes of infinite variety of hue in their native clement, a well as some of the strangest creatures known to live in the deep.

Indications of tho Hon. J. A. Millar’s retirement from politics into private life were given by him at a Pioton gathering. Responding to a warm, invitation to visit the town when the Main South railway ig linked up, he replied: “I have been twenty years in public life, and 1 don’t think I shall be a Minister of tho Crown when that railway is finished. It is all very well,” continued Mr Millar, m answer to a chorus of “Noes," “but 1 arn looking forward to having a little peace, and I know it ia not to be found in public life. It is an ideal to look forward to, and I hope to be in tho country and to be alive to take a trip on the completed line.”

A recent returned visitor from Henmark declares that Copenhagen is now the most up-to-date capital in Europe. The taxicab service is excellent, and the telephone system is pronounced absolutely perfect. One of the city’s bylaws forbids the drivers of horse-drawn passenger vehicle* smoking while convey, ing their fares. There are a largo number of splendidly managed museums and art galleries, and the cost of living is exceedingly reasonable. The cabs and trams are said to bo tho cheapest and beet regulated in Europe. Although liquor is abnormally cheap, drunkenness in the

streets is almost unknown. Copenhagen is a homo of culture, the citizens viemg with each other in literary superiority. A long and massive ferro-oonorete pile was recently made by the Auckland Harbour Board’s staff, and will bo used at the deepest point reached by tho piles in ooneotion with tho Queen street wharf reconstruction. Tho pile referred to has a length of 103 feet, is 20 inches square, and weighs no loss than 17 tons. Several of these piles have been over a length of between 80 and 100 feet, but this is tho only one of over 100 feet in length. In reference to a paragarph in the “Standard” a day or two ago about a very small tree in the extreme north of Europe, a correspondent states that on the very top of Ben Lomond, m County Stirling, Scotland, may be seen the smallest tree that grows m Great Britain. It is the dwarf willow, which, at maturity, reaches a height pf only two inches. He also reminds us in the same communication that the Ben Lomond in is not the highest mountain of that name. It is only a little over 3000 feet high, while mountains with eimilax names in New Zealand* New South Wales and Tasmania are each over 5000 feet in height. Science is demonstrating that many parts of the world, hitherto considered perilous to European constitutions, are now safely inhabitable by white men. Workers on tho Panama canal formerly died in large numbers from malaria spread by mosquitoes. But science has killed both mosquitoes and malaria, and the death rate among men working on the oanal is now actually lower than the death rate in New York itself. Even in Equatorial Africa, which proved tho graves of so many Europeans, the white man can now live in comparative health, science having destroyed the insect pests which were disseminators of disease germs. In the South American continent, too, very suooossful results have been achieved in a similar direction. And not only have tho lives of Europeans been saved in these disease-infested tropical lands, but tho native population has benefited incalculably through the success which lias attended the efforts of the European pioneers of the country to render it inhabitable for themselves. Such, in brief, is the story if the courage and skill of the white man when ho risks his life in exploring and assisting to populate the regions in which disease and death ifomuerly lurked 'a* every turn.