The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, July 22, 1911. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1020, 22 July 1911, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, July 22, 1911. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Thk Rangitikei Advocate, commenting on the Foxton Harbour Board’s proposal to purchase the wharf from the Railway Department, says ‘ ‘ the local bodies in Manawatu and Rangitikei districts are not viewing with any approbation the proposal that they should submit to being rated for the purpose.” Our contemporary still maintains that the State should hand over the wharf to the Board which it has created. Referring to the attitude taken up by the local bodies on the subject the Advocate continues : “Old residents of Manawatu will probably remember that the ratepayers of No. 6 Ward of the old Manchester Road District consented to become liable to a rate to enable a loan to be borrowed for construction of the bridge over the Manawatu on the road leading to the Gorge. That rate also was not to be collected, but a flood swept the bridge away and then the ratepayers were made aware that their consent was not a mere empty form.” We do not think that is a fair argument to use against the wharf purchase loan proposal. As we have previously mentioned the revenue from the wharf under

the most adverse conditions is sufficient to meet interest and sinking fund on the loan and there nu tear ot the wharf being washed away. The Advocate .luimaaverts in conclusion : “Some years ago it was suggested that power should be obtained from Parliament to authorise a body to straighten the Manawatu river. That river meanders for a length of about eighty miles from Palmerston to its mouth, which is only about twenty miles distance as the crow flies. It was considered that this would not only cause deep water at the mouth of the river, but would relieve Palmerston of any danger from floods, and at the same time enable many thousands of acres of swamp to be successfully drained.”

Some time back we published a statement to the effect that Mr George Westinghouse had perfected an air-spring to take the place of pneumatic tyres on automobiles and that the invention would be launched commercially at once. The “spring” consists of an upper cylinder to be attached to the top of the chassis frame, which will telescope into a cylinder fixed to the bottom of the axle. Inside the smaller are tubes which permit of the action of a piston and of the admission of oil and air. The invention will, it is claimed, revolutionise auto construction by doing away with the tyres now used, and with the addition of Edison’s storage battery should bring down the cost to within the reach of the man with moderate means.

It has been written that “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.’’ We all have troubles of our own —and at times magnify them out of proportion to their actual extent. This latter fact comes home to us when we happen upon such deep sorrow and misfortune which has befallen the family of Mr T. Gibbons, of Manakau Heads, Auckland. A little over a week ago one of his children went to Auckland and had a tooth extracted, after which she returned to her home complaining of a sore throat. A few days later two of the children were down with diphtheria. They were at once taken to Onehunga by motor launch, and thence conveyed to the Auckland Hospital. The youngest child, aged years, died the following morning. Immediately the funeral was over the sorrowing parents returned to their home at the Heads, only to find that three more of the children were ill. The mother, already grief-stricken and ill, devoted all her energies to the nursing of the sick children, and, in turn, contracted the dreaded disease. Again the launch trip to Onehunga had to be negotiated and the patients were conveyed to the Auckland Hospital, where the next youngest of the family, a little boy of six, died shortly after admittance. The other patients ar; progressing favourably.

From New Caledonia comes an exciting story of a dispute between a lady and a hawk for possession of a large hat, which the former had just received from Paris. The lady was taking a walk in a suburb of , Noumea, on a recent afternoon, when suddenly a large hawk swooped from a great height, and fixing its claws on her hat, endeavoured to carry it away. The lady screamed for help, which was fortunately forthcoming, but it was with considerable difficulty that her rescuers managed to remove the huge hat from her head. When they had done so, it proved an equally difficult task to detach the savage bird from her hat. The hawk had been attracted by a large pigeon, with which the hat was adorned, and while he tore the ornamental bird toi shreds in his beak, his claws became so hopelessly tangled in the trimmings that he was unable to escape, and was eventually despatched, but not before madame’s chapeau was reduced to a heap of rags. If that lady had been like others of her sex in Sydney, says the Daily Telegraph, she would have drawn the harpoon she wears in her hair, and the hawk would promptly have discovered that pigeon-hunting is a much more exciting pastime than is popularly supposed.