GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2088, 10 February 1920, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The New Zealand Railways traffic returns for the period ending 3rd January are contained in this week’s Gazette. Tlie.se show that on the North'lsland lines the revenue totalled £322,008, as compared with £223,702 (is od for the corresponding period of last year. The figures for the South Island are given as £213,430 11s and £156,075 3s Od respectively. For the period from Ist April, 1019, to 3rd January, 1920, the total revenue from the railways of both Islands is shown as £4,118,S7B 18s Bd, as compared with £3,550,543 16. s 8d for the corresponding period of the previous, financial vear.

Bishop Welldoij (Dean of Durham), in a sermon at Durham Cathedral, attributed the'following qualities to a Christian gentleman, whose character and spirit Avere vitally needed to-day, particularly in industrial disputes. Such a man could not lie. He shrank instinctively from any and every action that was mean or sordid or disingenuous or dishonourable. His life was open, his aspect avms clear. lie looked all the'World in the face. lie Avould not if he could, and could not if he would, play a double part.i, He would not lake an unfair advantage of anybody. His word Avas his bond. His conscience was Ids religion. He Avas the soul of loyally and_ integrity. He asked not Avhal lie could get, hut what he (amid give. He tried to make the world a little heller and a little happier. He was always looking out for a chance to say a kind word or do a kind act. relieve sorrow or inspire iiope, or lift a lame dog, dry the tears Unit tlowi'd so freely, and help those avliu Avere sad at heav( to smile again.

Dr. W. 11. Svines writes as follows to (ho Christchurch Press; “Sir. — In your issue a recipe is given for preserving fruit without sugar, by merely filling the jar with boiling water a Her heating the fruit in the oven till it is quite hot. If the Jar of fruit is previously healed quite to. boiling point for about an hour it is safe; but it is advisable to point out that insufficient heating has led to serious illness caused by a disease called ‘botulism,’ Within recent years (Avenly-lwo outbreaks of this disease baA'e occurred in California and Oregon, attended with paralysis, and followed by (i'7.9per cent, of deaths. The same disease has also occurred in chickens; after eating canned corn and beans. It is significant that in all the outbreaks of botulism, the preserved fruits and vegetables have been prepared at home, shoAving that the domestic methods of sterilisation had been imperfect.”

' There is evidently ‘‘professional etiquette” even among watersiders, which forbids one section of workers to trespass on the preserves of another. An instance of this came under notice on the Auckland wharves'l he other day, and Avas related by an eyc-Avitncss of (lie incident to a Ncws representative. A Avorker Avas wheeling a truck load of packages from the hoatside to a shed (or vice versa), when one of the boxes fell olf (be barroAV. The man immediately put down his load and returned to another part of the wharf and signalled another worker. This struck the curiosity of a by-stander, avlio inquired the moaning of the procedure. The questioner Avas as much astonished at the reply as the' Avorker seemed unconcerned. “Oh, I’m only a trucker,” Avas the ansiver; “he handles the goods; 1 don’t touch them.” Same Avay Avith the doctors —they Avon’t handle a ease that, any other medico has put his private mark on!

■fn connection Avith the Mexbro’ cemetery, said to be the only paying concern run by the council, a soldier correspondent sends the Sheffield Independent the folloAving curious example of municipal enterprise in funeral matters that exist in the Balkans: —The communal coffin is an established feature of most toAvns and villages, and is kept always ready in the church. When a man dies, his relatives, after paying a certain fee, fetch' the coffin down to the house, and the body is duly installed in it, No lid is placed on the coffin, and at Hie funeral the body, instead of being respectfully loAvered, is unceremoniously tipped out of the coffin into the graves, and the empty coffin returned to the church. At Strunmitza, he continues, he saw the town coffin ffsed for nine funerals in one day.

The Admiralty are trying to stop the habit of curio-hunting by crews of -diips engaged in marine salvage Avork. FolloAving the criticism of a destroyer’s crew in tiie Admiralty Court, the Admiralty ha.ve issued a rigorous order, Aviiich .-ays; —li Avould appear that the notion is widely prevalent that, as the ship is in danger of sinking, articles may not improperly be removed and retained by the salvors, and that the

importance of taking effective steps to prevent any such irregularities and of punishing any offences' in this'couneetipn is not alAvays 'sufficiently appreciated' by the officers in charge of salvage parties. In future any salved property Avliich is not-at the first opportunity ini-' mediately given up or duly notified, is to be regarded as stolen property. No excuse is to be accepted, and offenders are to be rigorously dealt Avith. The first lighthouse on record seems to have been that built by Ptolemy, ruler of Egypt, about 280 B.C. It Avas built of Avhite marble, near the entrance to the harbour of Alexandria.