NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1004, 8 February 1912, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Another reduction in the price of meat has been decided upon by the Auckland Master Butchers Association. The January pricelist contains all-round reductions, and the February quotations now issued indicate further reductions on certain lines of lamb and mutton, while the price of beef, veal and pork remains the same.

The turnip crops throughout Southland this season are late and patchy, and though the recent wet weather has helped them a great deal, the results now promise to be much short of the usual standard. In the Balclutha district some good crops can be seen on the ridges, and the fly does not seem to have been so troublesome in that district as in other parts of Southland. Warm, sunny weather is wanted now to push the crop along.

At the Police Court at Manaia on Wednesday last, Mrs Bashford, the wife of a local hotelkeeper, was charged with assaulting Arthur H. Parkinson, on election night, December Bth. The evidence went to show that defendant stuck a pin into plaintiff. His Worship held that the case was proved, but said it was a pity it was ever brought. He was satisfied the case was one he was justified in treating as trivial, and he therefore dismissed it. One guinea, counsel’s fee, was allowed prosecutor, otherwise each party paid their own costs.

The old race of Maori of Raugitira blood had a dignified carriage and high-bred courtesy that was marked. They were to the manner born. His present day descendants have lost some of their ancestors’ nobility of manner; but occasionally the pakeha is still made to feel his inferiority in natural dignity. The other day at a North Island station, reports a contemporary, a lame man climbed on to a railway carriage, only to find every seat occupied. His infirmity was plain to all. Not one stirred. At last an old Maori arose, and with the air and tone of a Castilian, waved the lame man to his seat, and at the same time made a reproachful remark to the young pakehas for the want of respect to age and physical weakness,

As instancing the various uses to which New Zealand butter is put, a paragraph from a letter written by the representative of the National Dairy Association of New Zealand to the manager of the Awahuri factory is worth quoting. He says : “I was reading a pamphlet issued by a man who keeps a large goat farm in Sydney, and the following statement appealed to me strongly ! The pamphlet states that ‘Mr Shepnee makes up a goat’s milk blended butter, which can be highly recommended for its nutritive value and delicious flavour. It consists of the best New Zealand butter blended with fresh goat’s milk, and is sold at 2s 6d per lb. Once used, always used, and it goes twice as far as ordinary butter.’ ” It must be a gullible public that will pay an extra shilling for a hap’orth of goat’s milk and an attractive wrapper.

A pathetic instance of maternal solicitude on the part of a quadruped was witnessed down south recently. Two or three trucks of sheep had been loaded up en route to the freezing works. As is usually the custom, the ewes had been put into one truck and the lambs into another. Early next morning a ewe was seen standing beside a truck. The animal had got out of the truck in which it was placed the night before, and had made its way to the truck where her lamb was shut up. The bleating of the two sheep was intense, and frantic efforts were made by the one to get to the other, hut to no avail. The trucks were shunted about from the loading yard on to the goods train, and the ewe followed the truck about, despite the whistling of the engine and the noise of the guard and shunter. Even after the train was all marshalled up the ewe trotted alongside the truck. The train started off and the ewe started to trot, and the last that was seen of that sheep was the poor ewe bleating sadly and following the train on its way to Fairfax.

Mr Kerr. S.M., had something to say on the matter of publicans supplying men with liquor when they have already had enough, during the Court proceedings in Wanganui recently. The accused, a young man, was in a state that the arresting constable called “mad drunk,” aud Mr Kerr asked if it was not possible to ascertain if the man had been given drink at an hotel when he was not in a fit position to receive it. Sergeant-Detective Siddels replied that it was very difficult for the police to find out who had supplied the liquor, as the persons prosecuted often stated positively that they were sure that the person supplied was not drunk when they served him. Mr Kerr said that, although he did not know all the facts of the case before him, he thought that an explanation should be asked from some .publican. Some of them were very careful about supplying men who had already had enough, but others were perhaps not quite so careful. It was a very onesided arrangement that the man who got the drink was always punished, and the publican who supplied the liquor got off scot free.

At Narrabri (N.S.W.) last week Albert Edward Heighney, a

labourer, took two packets of strychnine, dissolved in vinegar, in the presence of his wife. He afterwards gave his wife instructions as to the disposal of his property. He leaves, besides the widow, four children, the youngest beiug 14 months. Deceased went to a chemist during the afternoon to obtain cyanide, but would not purchase it on account of the price. He then enquired the price of strychnine, which he purchased. Deceased was 31 years of age, and gave financial worries as his reason for taking his life.

“Horses!” said the Yank. “Guess you can’t talk to me about horses. I had an old mare, Ma izypop, who once licked our best express by a couple of miles on a 60-mile run to Chicago.” That’s nothing,” said the Canadian. “ I was out on ray farm one day, about 50 miles from the house, when a frightful storm came up. I turned my pony’s head for home, and, do you know, he raced the storm so close for the last ten miles, that I didn’t feel a drop, while my g-year old dog, Rastus, only ten yards behind, had to swim the whole way.” Mine’s a cocktail.

A remarkable reading of the Gaming Act was given by Mr Harold Cooper during his address in the racecourse betting case at the Palmerston Police Court on Saturday morning, says the Times. Mr Cooper stated that according to the Act if a man was found making bets on every horse in a race he would be a bookmaker within the common acceptance of the term. According to the Act, it did not matter whether a man betted on the machine or as a bookmaker, he was still liable to be looked upon as a bookmaker because he attempted to add to his livelihood by betting. Mr Cooper stated that if a man played poker for is a corner, plays billiards for is bets, or show poker at 3d a corner, or any other game for a bet, he would, according to the definition ot the Act, be qualified as a bookmaker, and would be liable to a fine if he made a bet on the totalisator. In Tuesday’s issue of the Times, Mr Cooper points out that he was merely showing what would be the result if the police’s contention in the case under consideration was upheld. A clause iu the Act states that any man making his livelihood by betting may be considered a bookmaker. Mr Cooper pointed out that iu the Foxtou case there bad been no evidence that accused had been laying the odds, and if the fact of his having made bets constituted him a bookmaker then any man who invested money on the totalisator or who made any bets on billiards or at cards might equally be constituting himself a bookmaker.