NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1243, 9 May 1914, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Government seem to be studying the entertainment of visitors to the various health resorts—quite a right step. Recently an excellent piano was installed at Mt. Cook, and now we observe that a very fine instrument has just been dispatched by The Dresden to The Waikato Sanatorium, Cambridge, A Londc. clergyman received this note telling him to perform a marriage ceremony: “This is to give you notis that I and Miss Jemima Arabella Bearly is coming to your church on Saturday afternoon next to undergo the operation of matrimony at your hands. Please be prompt, as the cab is hired by the hour.” Mr Atmore reminds us of the mythical person named Finn iu Irish legend, who ate the Salmon of Knowledge and thenceforward bad only to place his finger on bis tooth and the floodgates of knowledge and magic were open to him. Mr Atmore has yet to learn that none are infallible, not even the youngest of us, —West Coast Times. Mr Massey is apparently hot on the track of the laud jobber. “ There are men,” says Mr Massey, “who buy land and sit tight, relying on the industry of others to increase their values. I say plainly that I am going to put a stop to it. I want to see the land occupied aud used. If men buy laud for speculative purposes without using it they will have to pay for the luxury.” There has been a tremendous output of young bullocks from Taranaki this season, probably the greatest on record, says an exchange. Buyers are present iu the district in numbers securing two and a halt-year-old steers, and paying good prices for them. Over iooo went away in two mobs. They are being sent away to Wanganui, Napier, and Gisborne. There is a great supply of grass in Gisborne this season, and landholders must have stock to eat it. A distressing case ot unappreciated genius is reported from Umtata, .South Africa. A young “ niit ” engaged in a Government department at a monthly salary oi £l2 ios found it hard to make both ends meet. He raffled his monthly pay. During the three months that (this little game has been proceeding the ingenious youth netted a clear profitof by the sale of the 5s tickets be had issued as shares in his salary raffle. “The chief magistrate of the city ” is a title which it has been popularly supposed may rightly be applied to the Mayor of the town. It was so applied to Mr Farr at a meeting at Auckland, but in acknowledging the compliment, the Mayor said that whilst the title “chief magistrate” was given to mayors in England, New Zealand mayors bad no right to it. A more correct appellation, he suggested, would be “chief citizen of the city.” Those Bedouins of the Education Department, the inspectors, whose sudden swoops on country schools make the lady teacher wish she had worn her best silk blouse and the headmaster regret his neglect to shave, have little stocks ot catch questions intended to temporarily paralyse the intellect of infants. East week, says the Auckland Observer, an inspector, his eagle eye ranging over the sea of little faces, threw an accusing finger at a boy, and said : “That boy! What are you doing?” “Nothing—sir!” piped the youngster. “Nothing? Nothing ?” pursued the great man, “what is ‘nothing’ ?” “It is what you gave me for holding your horse for half an hour at the station this morning, sir !” “There is a widespread belief,” writes Mr A, H. Cockayne in the Journal of Agriculture, “that pinus radiata or insignis is a great soil exhauster, and that ground once occupied by this tree becomes very infertile. This supposition appears to be due largely to the fact that in dense plantations of this tree. there is practically no undergrowth. Again, the pine roots extend over a considerable area, and plants growing in close contact to the root system of the pine are generally stunted and do not thrive. In practice, however, it is found that when the pine trees are cut down and removed the soil

is admirably suited for the growth of all kinds of crops. The ground, of course, has to be stumped to permit the use of the plough. During a receut visit to the Otekaike Special School for Boys I was greatly impressed with the fertility of soil that for thirty-five years had carried a pinus radiata plantation.” At the present time, when parents are seeking the cause of infantile paralysis, it would be well for them to bear the opinions of some of the leading doctors and a great daily of London on the folding cars now so much in use. They describe them as “death traps” or “murderous machines.” The tender inlaut is placed so low to the ground, and receives dust and dirt—the droppings of horses and dogs ground into powder, containing thousands of microbes, being blown into the children’s mouth while it shivers from the cold, biting winds that are enough to kill it. One of the leading papers asks : —Would the parents care to ride in a vehicle so low to the ground ? The answer most emphatically is, No. Then why put the baby that cannot speak for iiself into one ? Our advice is, get a comfortable go-cart pram, aud you will be tree from many worries over your child, it will thrive better, be healthier, and live to be a blessing to you.