NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2147, 8 July 1920, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Devotion to duty on the part of a constable was shown in a case which was heard in the Hamilton Police Court last week. A defendant’s name was called to answer a charge of cycling on the footpath. The defendant did not appear, and a constable of the same name proved the charge. The Magistrate imposed the usual penalty, but smiled when counsel said that the defendant was the constable’s son. —N.Z. Herald. If the Prime Minister has not a Maori linquist amongst his staff he will require one now. The following is a copy of a telegram sent to him by a native who was apparently greatly interested in the butter market question: —“Bill Massey, Wellington—Pi gorry, Bill. No good you control price butter. Hire get moi. Kapai tenny the free market. —Nooke Nooki Mai.” This is genuine, the copy of the wire being before us as we write. —Pukekohc Times.

A class for the best and cheapest working man’s dinner for four formed part of the Winter Show at Ashburton. The dinner which secured first prize consisted o£ soup, roast rabbit with potatoes, marrow, swedes and onions, with baked apples for the sweets. The total cost was 10:}d, and the individual items were pearitle cartridge to kill the rabbit -Id, soup 2d, onions 2d, marrow 7d, swedes jd, potatoes Id, apples 3d. Against this was set the sale of the rabbit skin for Is, leaV ß ing a profit on the provision of a dinner for four of UJd.

A correspondent of Hie Auckland Star writes; —Recently it was announced that a resident of Homier-' son had produced a good quality of local grown tobacco. This is by no means a new industry, as quite 32 years ago an excellent specimen of Waikato-grown leaf was being manufactured at a factory on the Beach road, Auckland, under the management of Mr Austen Walsh. Profitable as a venture of this kind may prove at the present day, yet would it not be more beneficial were we to turn our attention to the successful cultivation of sugar beet to help replace the cane sugar? There was an element of grim humour in the proceedings at the Auckland Police Court the other day, when a driver of a hearse was prosecuted for driving at an excessive speed when returning from the cemetery. It was stated in evidence that the vehicle was travelling at a speed of between 30 and 35 miles an hour, and its speed constituted a real danger. “I have had occasion to warn the various undertaking firms of the rates at which hearses have been returning from funerals,” commented the prosecuting officer.

A fine of £5 and costs was imposed by the magistrate. In view of the rising price of tobacco, a correspondent of a Calcutta paper makes a curious suggestion to tobacco sihokers. Alluding to the alleged discovery that watercress is a perfect antidote to nicotine, he sgys: “It lately entered my head to try how some of it dried would smoke. To my great satisfaction I found that when put into my pipe, after a couple of days’ drying in the sun, it had all the flavour of the best cavendish without the treacle, and it was stronger than cavendish. Here, then, is a perfect substitute for tobacco, without the deleterious and deadly poison so freeiv contained in the latter.”

Cards containing a pledge that the taker would not buy anything that was not absolutely necessary for herself or her family were freely signed at a meeting of women held in Christchurch recently to deal with the high cost of living. Miss Henderson explained that the cards were to be taken away and kept by those tfho signed them. “If any woman present to-day has time to look in her mirror, I should advise her to put it over the mirror,” advised the speaker, ironically, “or if she is the busy mother of a family she might place it over the family fireplace, so that it will encourage, her when she is trying to cook the dinner with a little green wood and a shovelful of slack!”

Probate has been granted in the estate of the late Mrs Mary Ann AYilliams, formerly of Wellington Terrace. In the will legacies are provided as follows: —To the Salvation Army, £500; Sailors’ Friend Society, £500; Congregational Church, Napier, £200; Congregational Church, Newtown, £200; Levin Home, Oriental Bay, £200; James Moore, raissioner of the Sailors’ Friend Society, £500; Mrs Annie Crichton, an annuity of £5,0. The rest of tlje estate is willed to the widow and children of deceased’s son, the late Mr J. H, AYilliams, of Wellington. What should a person do on seeing a parcel lying in a street and no owner within sight? A certain practical joker in Napier is wondering what sort of expression was on the face of a young man who picked up a parcel in Tennyson Street on a recent evening. The cause of the joke was a .voting kitten, apparently hungry and motherless, whose troubles were quietly ended when no owner could be found. The body was carefully wrapped up and placed in a convenient position for watching. An old man glanced at the parcel and passed it by. Shortly afterwards a .voting man appeared, turned it" over with his boot, and satisfied that it was bona tide, looked up and down the street to see if his path was clear, then hurriedly placed the parcel under his coat and departed.