GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2209, 30 November 1920, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

High cost of living! A Government medical inspector recently visiting a certain school in the Feilding district inquired of the children what they had had for breakfast. In almost every case the reply was: “Bacon and eggs.”— Star. To be run out and run in at the same moment is fortunately not a common experience. The Kiwitea ranger had the leading part in this heavy tragedy, on Wednesday,, says the Star. Having come to the conclusion that the settlers were looking upon him more as a joke than a ranger, the County Council resolved to relieve him of his duties. While the motion was being passed, the Kimbolton constable was lodging the ranger in the lockup, following upofi a public house brawl. The unusual conduct of a cat has saved a house at Waimarino from destruction by fire. A few nights ago the proprietress of a well-filled boardinghouse was aroused from sleep by the loud mewing and scratching of the cat at the door of her bedroom. She immediately got up to see what the noise was, and discovered a glare of lire. An*investigation showed one of the rooms in •flames. All the boarders were immediately aroused, and the fire was extinguished before much damage had been done. A satisfactory number of applications for the position of Director of Education in New Zealand have been received in response to the advertisements circulated in New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain. It is understood that the High Commissioner has been asked to send out the names and qualifications of the best three applications received in Britain, but it is not anticipated that the new appointment will be announced in the immediate future. A man named Joseph Jshcrwood, well-known in Now Zealand, has just been convicted at Perth (W.A.) on a charge of pretending to tell fortunes, and using craft and deception, hence being deemed to be a rogue and vagabond. The hearing occupied four days. The Magistrate found Isherwood guilty, and sentenced him to three months’ imprisonment. Notice of appeal was given. It appeared, from the police documents, that in 1916, in New Zealand, Isherwood was convicted on five charges, and fined in the aggregate £l5O. A Press message from Auckland announces that his Honour Mr Justice Cooper is retiring from the Supreme Court Bench on Ist March. Mr Cooper was born in Surrey, England, and arrived in New Zealand with his father as one of the Albertland settlers in 18G3. For some time he was employed in the Daily Southern Cross printing office in Auckland as a compositor, and was called to the Bar in 1878. Mr Cooper was Deputy Inspector of Lunatic Asylums from 1888 to 1901, and was appointed to the Supreme Court Bench in 1901. For the first two and a half years of his appointment he was President of the Court of Arbitration. The other day, says the Otago Daily Times, a resident of a Dunedin suburb bought a carpet, for which he was charged £3O. At the same time an arrangement was made by which the firm was to send a man to lay the carpet. On getting the article home, the purchaser began to examine the adhesive ticket on it, and thinking it was rather thick, promptly applied some hot water. On removing the £3O ticket he found, one underneath marked -£25. This one was also removed, and a third one showed £2O; and to crown all this the third one being removed showed a final label marked £lB. The purchaser telephoned to the shop, countermanded the order for the carpet-layer, and requested tl\e presence of the manager of the linn. On his arrival, and after discussing the question of referring the matter to the Trades Tribunal, the manager agreed to accept £lB for the carpet and avoid being prosecuted. “Epidemic”! What suffering and grief went through New Zealand with that word two years ago! Ihe epidemic came from Europe —and Central Europe to-day has Avorse epidemics Avhich threaten to rage through the whole world. “Russia, Poland, Austria, and the new States created as a result of the Avar, are near enough to be a severe menace to the health of Europe in the immediate future,” ran a report in the London Daily Ncavs recently, “In Russia, 1,600,000 cases of typhus were reported in 1919 j while in Poland 230,000 cases were registered in the same year, 50,000 being added during January and February of this year. • In Czecho-Slovakia there were 8,666 registered cases of small pox, and 9,332 eases of typhus in 1919. No sufficient sanitary organi isation exists to cope Avith the dan-

ger. There are very few doctors or nurses, while soap, disinfectants, medical necessities, etc., are practically non-existent. The poorer people are starving and without clothing, while they huddle together in totally inadequate huts and houses —a hotbed for the spread of disease.” Nearly 2,000 French women would like to marry Marshal Foeh. This is one of the results of a campaign instituted by a Paris fashion magazine, which has published the answers from more than 5,000 women in response to the question; “What great man would you marry if you could?” Why bother making cakes when there is such a good assortment at Perreau’s?*