NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1050, 30 September 1911, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Fifty convicts in the State prison at Denver, Colorado, United States, including several who were in for life, attended a dramatic performance in the theatre under a strong guard. The play dealt with a convict’s life in prison, with the highly-moral outcome. The prison warden hopes the lessons will be taken to heart.

East Sunday the Rev B. H. Ginger was preaching at Taitai, one of the outslatious at the Hutt, when a passing swagger threw a stone in through the door of the church and quietly went on bis w’ay. It is reported that Mr Ginger left the pulpit, instanter and not quietly, and gave chase, in which be was joined by the men of the congregation. Seeing there was a race on, the swagger thought he might as well_ take a foot in it, and gave leg bail. The parson and his people soon found that a stern chase is a long chase, and gave it up, went back to church and finished the service. What a subject for a cinematograph film !

A magazine editor of the Authors’ Club in New York was talking about H. G. Wells, says the Buffalo Commercial. “Wells is now the loremost English novelist,” he said. “Strange that a man so talented should misjudge us as he does. When he was over here he found fault with everything. One day at lunch, getting tired of his attacks on the tyranny of our trusts and other bosses, I said to him, “Well, Wells, you must amidtthe grandeur of the magnificent statue of Liberty that rears its proud head above our harbour ? ‘Ob, yes,’ said Mr Wells, ‘you have tbe same custom as we, you rear your finest statues to the dead.”

Reports the Spoiling aud Dramatic News : A rather peculiar position cropped up at the annual meeting ol tbe Geialdiue Licensing Commiuee. Mr Raymond, who appeared for the licensee and tenant of the Wellingford Hotel, Temuka, explained that the lease would expire on the 30th iusl., and the owner. Colonel Hayhurst, did not propose to keep the license going, but intended to pull tbe building down aud erect shops. The tenant, however, had asked for au extension of the lease until December next. Colonel Hayhurst had no objection, but did not care

whether the license was granted or not. The police report was favourable. After consideration, the matter was adjourned until the quarterly meeting.

To see ourselves as others see us, though not always flattering to one’s vanity, is at least interesting ; and in this connection some remarks by a new arrival from England, in conversation with a Wanganui Herald representative recently are worth recording. The average colonial youth both in Australia and New Zealand, he said, was, on the whole, “a good fellow',” but not to be compared, as au employee, with the Home product, who was more painstaking and thorough. The colonial was ambitious, but lazy ; he wanted to rise without working for that end. ‘‘You surround yourselves with a wall of selfsatisfaction ; you will not listen to advice ; and until you can be brought to understand that Australasia and Australians do not constitute the one and only hub of the universe, some of tbe finest manhood of the Empire is being practically wasted,” concluded the candid critic.

The following question, forwarded by Mr P. Last, Kumeroa, is answered in the Agricultural Journal: —“Could you tell me if it is advisable to pile turf around the roots of apple trees ? lam tearing the turf up in the orchard aud putting it around the trees, but a neighbour of mine said that it is a bad thing to do to put a lot of stuff around the trees, so I would be very much obliged if you would give your advice.” Tbe Director of the Orchards, Gardens and Apiaries Division replies “For many reasons it is not desirable to have rubbish of any kind piled around the stems or scattered over the surface underneath fruit-trees, but if you propose to allow the turf to partially rot and then dig it in, the trees will benefit owing partly to the mechanical effect of tbe decaying vegetable matter in the soil. In this case, however, care should be taken to leave a few inches clear round the stems of the trees.”