NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1605, 31 August 1916, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Emden made the Launceston (Tas.) Marine Board a present of over £30,000 when it sank the dredge Poonrabbel somewhere in the Indian Ocean (says 'the Bulletin). The Board put the insurance money into- a new dredge, for which the contract price on the Clyde was £32,717, equal to £40,007 delivered at Launceston. Now the Russian Government has offered £70,000 for the turnout. The board has decided to help a gallant ally by taking £70,000 net with delivery on the Clyde. As for itself, it thinks now it can worry along without a new dredge for a while.

A fisherman last week caught a shark off Bondi Beach with a rod and reel and 24-cord line of the type usually used for tarpon fishing. It took him an hour and a-quarter (says a Sydney paper) to land the lift 3in monster, which weighed between eight and nine cwt., and was of the true tiger species. But it probably took the shark much longer to digest the last meal that he had before b'eing caught, for a quaint collection of prey was found inside him. First and most inedible was a 201 b porcupine fish, absolutely covered with hard spikes, and looking like a weapon of torture • used by the huns. It was probably this titbit that caused the shark to become disgusted with life, and to commit suicide on the hook. Inside him, also, was a large porpoise, a most unusual meal in a shark’s menu, a little shark, an .albatross with a wing span of between six and seven feet, a lot of mixed small fish, and a. King Charles spaniel dog, with a collar on, but no name. Mr McCulloch, of the Australian Museum, saw the captured shark, and testified to the fact that it was a. real tiger. It must have been to consume a porcupine fish, a, porpoise, an albatross, and a lapdog.

It seems as if those “mysterious powers” which rule the world of fashion were not at one with the people who urge “national economy.” Why in the name of commonsense —if “ Common-sense” and “Dame Fashion” have even a “bowing acquaintance” should the skirts grow wider and wider, and the “styless’ require so much material, when every ounce of material should be turned into khaki? The skirts grow wider, the hats grow taller, the boot* longer, and gloves and stockings once “just ugly necessities,” are now garments “de luxe,” judging by the price, and the only thing which grows shorter is the family purse as the spending power of the sovereign steadily decreases, and the grocer’s bills soar and papa’s face grows longer like the boots. Surely, surely “Miss 191(1" will put her money into “war loans,” not into “Eve” hats and “white kid boots.” —Exchange.