NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2097, 2 March 1920, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A payment into the Ellhain branch of the Bank of New Zealand on Saturday by a business firm included what purported to be a fji note, but was really only the trout half of one. The note had been split, a by no means uncommon swindle. The modus operand! is to split two notes into front and backlayers, and paste the two backs together. Thus three are obtained from two, two having faces without backs and the third having no face. It is not difficult to pass tjie doublebacked note if an opportune moment is chosen, as frequently, when pressed for time, tradesmen and , others may only glance at the back of a note. An inspection of both, buck and front is always a wise i precaution. Sir Ross Smith, the famous Australian aviator, considers 13 is a very unlucky number. He refused to resume his (light from Charleville (Queensland) to Sydney on a -Friday because it was the 13lh of Febnmrv. He gave his reasons as lotlows: —“On the 13th of December we made a forced landing- at Warlock Ponds. On the 13th of the previous month the same thing happened at Pisa. On the Hlth'TTf -January last year 1 was lorced to land'in a Handley Page machine in India, and was nearly smashed. On the 13th of the previous month I was blown up in the steamer Sphinx at Chiettagong. The 13th seems no good to me.” Nothing can convince us that the people are not being victimised by proliteers in all branches of trade, states an exchange. All (he suave “explanations” of (he wholesale, houses and the generalities indulged in by politicians are, in l:o-e oi the facts, so uiueli buncombe. If (be (lovernmen! were hones! in its endeavours !o keep down prii-es it eonld do so easily, but it prefer.-, lo shilly-shally and split hairs instead ■ of co-ordinating all its departments in an endeavour to get at the root of diet rouble. It is notorious that if lhe posl olliee worked in with the police every bookmaker in Xew Zealand eonld he laid by the heels in a. month, and it is equally patent that if the (tovermiient would only go to;he. 1 rouble of comparing its Customs declarations with Ihe prices importers charge retailers for goods from overseas, profiteering in (hat direct ion would become impossible. In the course of his sermon at St. Paul’s Church, Devon port, on Sunday, the Rev. George Budd said the native race was not dying out, and that there wore now about 50,000 Ala oris in (ho Dominion, ail being in 1 lie North Island with the exception of about 3,000 who lived in the South Island. A decade or so ago there was a great cry to try" and Europeanise the Maori, and make him the same as the pakelia, but that phase of: civilising the Maori had passed. Not long ago it was freely stated, added the preacher, that it was time to knock off training missionaries to speak the Maori language, b«t there was more need than ever for sneh work, as the. native language was going to live, and it was impossible to get the aboriginal mind quite free from all the customs and traditions of many centuries of training. Some of the native customs were excellent, and it was only right that what was good in native character should be allowed to remain and be saved to the country which had bred such a noble race. What is a hogget ? The Masterlon A. and P. Association appears lo be uncertain as to its exact moaning. Webster’s Dictionary states (hat in England it is a young shoo]-) that has not been shorn. Chambers’ Encyclopaedia says that “a sheep two years old is a hogget.” In Scotland, according to the same authority, a “hog” is a sheep that has not lost its first fleece. What, then, is a “hogget" in New Zealand?

An h/teresting point in connection with the shortage of supplies of china in Auckland, brought to light in (lie course of inquiry by a New Zealand Herald reporter, was the growing dislike for Japanese chinaware. “We don’t like the stuff, and don’t like the Japanese methods of doing business,” remarked a leading merchant. “Neither are dependable, and our experience during the last few years Inm been such that we are now cutting Japan 1 out of our trade as far as possible. The china has neither the appearance nor the quality of good old English ware, and we wouldn't touch it at: all if we could get any other." The statement was amply borne out by proprietors of Auckland restaurants and refreshment rooms, who said that this Eastern china chipped so readily as to rapidly become unsightly and unfit for use. - For Children’s Hacking Cough, ■Woods Great Peppermint Cure.'