LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2297, 2 July 1921, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A man was sentenced to threa •months’.imprisonment at Wellington on Wednesday «n a charge of using indecent language towards a young girl. •' The vital statistics for Foxton for the month of June were as follows: —Births 6, deaths 1, marriage certificates issued 1. The funeral of the late Mr Chasl Howe will leave the residence of Mr J. J. Kruse, Avenue Road, to-mor-row afternoon ,at 2 o’clock, for the Foxton cemetery.

Rain fell locally on 14 days during the month’of June, the maximum fall registered beiijg .54 inch, which occurred on 2nd ult. The total for the month was 2.24 inches.

Owing to the inclement weather, Mr Black, of Palmerston N., was unable to come to Foxton yesterday to confer with the. local Beautifying Society re laying out the old cemetery and Easton Park. Notices defining the lines of the Palmerston North deviation of the Wellington-New Plymouth railway, and the Palmerston North-Wood-ville branch of the Wellington-Napier-railway, are published in the Gazette. The total amount speculated on the totalisator by the racing public at all the meetings held in Auckland and suburbs this season was £2,239,802. 10s, compared with £1,804,798 last year, and £1,141,298 in the previous year.

When a judgment debtor was called in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland this week, and who owed only a small amount, it was explained that lie had just sold his business for £4,000. No less than 900 guns, rifles, and revolvers have been registered a) the Levin Courthouse-in accordance with the legislation of last session. These weapons are owned by the residents of Koputaroa, Levin, OJiau, part of Mauakau, and the intervening country district.

A few days ago a Nelson lady had the misfortune to drop her handling, containing between £4O and £SO, over the wharf into the harbour. After about half an hour’s dragging with an oyster net the handbag was returned to its anxious owner. The booksellers of New Zealand will hold their first: Dominion conference in Wellington on Wednesday next. Mr G. H. Bennett informs the Palmerston Standard that the possibility of interference by the Government. in their trade Ims brought the booksellers of the Dominion together in a manner which had not previously been thought possible. A Taranaki settler, speaking about old times in Taranaki, says lie remembers quite well when 4d pet lb. was all storekeepers would give for butter, and the price had all to he taken out in tea, sugar and otfer groceries. “There were no tar-seal-ed roads in those days,” said he. “We had to toil from the backblocks as best we could, no matter how deep the mud. I remember that a neighbour of ours had a good apple orchard, while we had no fruit, and my father made a swap, giving an heifer for a bag of apples.”

A remarkable escape from seri-

oils injury was experienced at Wellington on Tuesday afternoon by a young woman, who fell from the first storey of a building in Cuba Street out ou to the footpath, a distance of about 13 feet. The victim of the accident had climbed out of a window above Stanbridge’s fruit shop in order to recover a thimble which bad fallen on the glass verandah roof. She was standing on a narrow wooden frame when she slipped, falling through the glass and a protecting crowning of wire-netting to the footpath. She managed, however, to keep her equilibrium, and landed on the pavement without suffering any injury. She was immediately assisted into (he shop, but was found to be suffering from nothing more than shock and a few bruises.

Responding to the toast of “The New Zealand Defence Forces,” at a

reunion of officers at Mastcrton, Major-General Clmytor said that

he forces had been established ,vhen the first settlers came into •ontlict with that brave and warlike icoplc, the Maoris. The Militia Act >f those limes was strict in its en-

'oreeiuent of compulsory service, file speaker believed in tlmt.prin-

ciple still. (Applause.) If (his count ry was good enough to live in, it was good enough to light for. (Applause.) Before and after the Boer War t here had. been people who advocated that all New Zealand.needed for its defence was to teach every man to 1 shoot. Those who had seen service knew the fallacy of that belief.

Speaking at a meeting in Wanganui on Wednesday between fh<i Farmers’ Union and the Associated Auctioneers, Mr W. J. Poison remarked that so long as farmers insisted upon motor ear service when Viewing stock and occupying the time of the agents, then so long would they have to pay high rates. If farmers drew in their horns, and were prepared to'put up with conditions which prevailed twenty years ago, it might be possible for auctioneers to reduce commissions, lie suggested that the country should be parcelled out into districts

and fanners should not he carried to other districts to view stock which could he obtained in their own district. With curtailed charges in this way, and a less sumptuous service, some alteration might he possible.

The Rev. W. H. Walton, vicar of' All Saints’, will attend a meeting of Synod at Wellington next week.

We understand that tenders have been accepted for the formation and metalling of Whyte Street extension. It was fifty-nine years ago on Thursday since the first telegraph line in New Zealand was completed.

The inter-school football and basket ball games between Foxton and Levin boys and girls, to have taken place at the local school grounds to-day, were postponed owing to the inclement weather. Mr Larsen, the local pilot, returned from Auckland last week, where he purchased a launch on behalf of‘the Harbour Board, to replace the one now in use. The new launch is 27ft., with a beam of 7ft. (jin. The engine in the present launch will be .transferred to the new launch. Her Excellency Viscountess Jellicoe, attended the Manawntu Hunt at Parorangi, near Feilding, on Thursday afternoon. As Lady Jellicoe was still suffering from the effects of a fall she had sustained in the hunting field in the Waikato, she only took a few of the jumps, which were negotiated in fine style by her mount, Leinster. Between sixty anti seventy followers of the hounds participated.

The Westminster Gazette says:— “We may look for sense whenever Mr Massey speaks, and never fail to find it. Were there more men of his temperament to the fore in the public life of the Empire, the outlook would be brighter than it is.” Our only hope for a snno Imperial policy is for men like Mr Massey to assert themselves at the' heart of the Empire.” Who said heart of the Empire.” Chinamen employed in various market gardens were referred to incidentally during the hearing of an application in the Arbitration Court, Auckland, to have an employer’s name struck out from the gardeners’ award. Mr O’Neill,The union reprem sentalivc, declared that “all the gardeners, even the Chinamen, in tiiis district” were going to be cited as parlies to be added to the award. His Honour (Mr Justico Frazer): “I wish you joy!” (Laughter).

A hint to the League of Nations was throwiwout by Dr. 11. P. Buck, in his remarks on the customs of the Maori race, in his lecture at Auckland. The Maori of old, he said, believed in hand-to-hand fighting, and all their weapons were made with that end in view. They did not approve of projectile weapons in any shape or form, and they looked upon fighting from afar with absolute disapproval. He thought that if the League of Nations banned projectiles and insisted that if war must take pace it should only be hand-to-hand lighting, they would have very little of it. A motherless little girl, Phyllis Tocque, four years of age, sailed for England alone in the Cunard Saxonia from New York. The ship is bound for London. Phyllis is crossing the ocean to visit her grandfather, Captain C. H. Tocque, of the Royal Naval Reserve. At the dock, before the ship sailed, the purser’s office was besieged with passengers anxious to have the privilege of looking after the. small traveller. The crew, as one man volunteered their services as nurse, several heated arguments taking place as to which member of the -hip’s complement was most entitled to llie office.

“How much do you spend on tobacco r asked Mr S. E. M’Cnrthy. S.M., to a husband sued at Christchurch for maintenance of his wife. “Oh, I get two plugs a week," said the defendant. “Yes, but what does it cost you'?” persisted the Magistrate. “Two-and-six” replied defendant, in a tone which implied mild surprise at the Magistrate’s ignorance of the price of the plugs. “And what do you pay for drink ?" proceeded the Magistrate. “Oh! that is a question to ask!" exclaimed defendant, calculating under pressure that it amounted to about 10s. “That is 12s <id, y said the Magistrate. “You are only asked to pay 10s a week maintenance.” Defendant's case collupsed. Are dogs endowed with tho faculty of reason? A dog-owner in Palmerston North,-with a certain pardonable pride in his own animal, "for which he may be excused, claims dial they are. His dog, an intelligent collie, had been taught various tricks, among them that of picking up the newspaper from the front; garden and depositing it at the hack door. For this he wa.s rewarded each day witli a biscuit. Recently the dog went several hotter. After bringing in the paper and receiving the customary biscuit, he arrived five minutes luter with another paper. No biscuits being coming, the collie again disappeared, and shortly after another paper was deposited on the mat. No explanation as to where the dog got the papers was to he had until the neighbours on cither side sent in for a loan of the paper, as the boy had not left it with them. —Times.

To-night at The Royal, Larry Semon in “Schooldays."—Advt. The Royal will screen a change of programme every night next week. The first New Zealand-made drama, “The Betrayer/’ is to be screened on "Wednesday next. —Advt. .