The Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, JULY 28. 1921. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2308, 28 July 1921, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, JULY 28. 1921. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At Gisborne on Monday, Leonard O’Neil was fined £3O for watering milk to the extent of .15 per cent. Fifteen members of the Napier Harbour Board have been surcharged with £351, an amount of alleged iilegul expenditure. The money was used for distributing loan proposal propaganda. The members concerned intend to defend the proceedings.

The contractor for levelling and grading the old cemetery commenced operations yesterday. The work will be carried out under the supervision of Mr Murray, engineer. A complete sounding has been taken for graves, and the levelling will not in any way interfere with or disturb plots.

Reserved judgment has been given in the case of which John Simopolis claimed £25 from Henry Scratch, a hotelkeeper jit Perth, for finding a mouse in a beer bottle. Defendant stated that it was a physical impossibility for a mouse to get into a bottle. A verdict was given for ten guineas with costs. At Tuesday night’s Chamber of Commerce meeting, Mr Pearson paid a tribute to the efficiency of the Harbour Board’s dredge master when speaking on matters in connection with the local port. Speaking as an engineer, Mr Pearson said in his opinion the dredge would fulfil all that was required of it, and in charge of the present dredge master it would not he long before it successfully removed the sand banks in the river channel.

The Palmerston Borough Council has passed the following resolution: —“That, in view of the proposed railway deviation, and the possibility of the borough boundaries being extended, also to prevent unsatisfactory subdivision of the existing large blocks of land within

the borougli. a town planning committee he set up to confer With tire borough engineer and other authorities for the purpose of bringing down a comprehensive scheme of land subdivision and loading.”

The monthly sitting of the local S.M. Court will be held to-morrow. The monthly meeting of the loenl Patriotic Society will be held at 7.30 o’clock this evening. The Chelsea sugar refinery at Auckland will close early next week, temporarily, owing to shortof supplies of raw sugar from Fiji. Says a writer in -the Auckland Star: —“Sir Joseph has been visiting Germany under the name of ‘Mr Begg.’ If Mr Massey travels incognito, no doubt it will be as ‘Mr Borrow.’ ’’

Mr Massey proposes leaving England about August 24th. He catches the Niagara, arriving in the Dominion for the opening of Parlia ment.

G. T. Hull and Co., writing in reply to the local Chamber of Commerce re shipping to the local port, state that “the draught of the s.s. John does not permit her trading to the Foxton port with safety. We may also add that the insurance policy on this vessel expressly stipulates that your port is not to be worked.”

Thirteen years ago New Zealand flax (phormium tenax) was introduced into the Island of St. Helena, which lies off the coast of South Africa, with the assistance of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture. The fibre has been cultivated, and has been the means of establishing a. 'highly remunerative industry at St.-Helena. The wisdom of creditors always taking the trouble to prove their claim against a bankrupt estate is shown by a case that has just been closed by the Official Assignee in Bankruptcy, at Auckland. Thirtythree years ago a man went bankrupt, and of the 12 creditors only four proved against the estate. The bankrupt has since died, but owing to the discovery of certain other assets in the estate the four creditors have not only received 20s. in the pound, but interest for about half the amount that would have accrued during the period intervening. This heats the Christchurch case recently reported, in which creditors were paid in full after 20 years. „

It is reported that a farmer on this coast (says the Wanganui Herald) had very little to occupy his mind, and by way of a little diversion took to carefully watching the operations of a gang constructing a telegraph line, and arrived at the conclusion that they were not working hard enough. He rushed off post haste to inform the heads of the Department, and an investigation followed. Of course, the heads knew to a yard how many polos and wire should he erected in a given time, and having satisfied themselves that the work was progressing satisfactorily, promptly communicated with the farmer and told him to mind his own business in future.

“1 am fixed in this opinion—••that the Department of Forestry is necessary, and will/under proper and efficient direction, and with adequate support, be one of our most useful and profitable ventures,” said Mr G. \Y. Lcudley, president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, at the conference of delegates at Wellington. “Our natural timber supply is rapidly diminishing. The demand is yearly increasing. We have tens of thousands of acres of comparatively useless lauds which can be turned to profitable account in timber growing, and a. comparatively small expenditure now will yield large returns in future. Both directly as a commercial venture, and indirectly in (heir influence on climate, such expenditure have everything to recommend it.”

A senseless and costly practical joke that may prove expensive to ;ts perpetrators was enacted on Friday evening, at Ngahanranga, when a steam roller (used for work upon the Hutt road) with hanked tires,.wa# deliberately set in motion by some persons unknown, and allowed to crash down the road and into the Ngahanranga stream. As the roller, which weighs about five, tons, had to plunge down a bank and over a steep declivity into the stream, it was considerably damaged in front, though the roller itself was not injured. There was an element of stupid cruelty, too, in the act, for there happened to be a dog tied to one of the big wheels, and. as the rope was short, the animal was lifted into the air with each revolution of the wheel, and then thrown violently to the ground. The police and city authorities arc inquiring closely into the matter. Assistance in identifying an unknown soldier buried at Dorchy Farm Cemetery, France, is invited by the War Graves Department. The Internal Affairs Department -is in receipt of a communication from the Imperial War Graves Commission, which is engaged in.the examination of the various war theatres with the object of locating the graves of soldiers, that a grave has been discovered at Dorchy Farm Cemetery, situated four miles in an east-north-east direction from Ypres, and nearer Langmnrek. The only indication found of the soldier buried there were the identification letters on the cross at the head of the gray 3, which are “N.Z.R., Lieutenant C'.L.,” and as the Defence Department has been unable to identify the soldier, the Internal Affairs Department is desirous of receiving information from any soldier who is "in a position to assist in the identification. Communications on the subject should be addressed to the N.Z.E.F., War Graves Department, Wellington.

The bride of a Bristol University medical student passed from the church under an archway of bones held by twelve other students dressed in white operating-room jackets. MS

It is reported from Rio de Janeiro that the Brazilian Parliament has voted a credit of £125,000 to assist the population of the, Amazon, whose position has been rendered precarious owing to the fall in rubber.

The death occurred in Wellington yesterday of a well-known citizen in the person of Mr Knox Gilmer. The deceased, who was 42 years of age, was the youngest son of the late Hon. Hamilton Gilmer. He was a dentist by profession. He was married to a daughter of the late Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, and leaves two children. Between G and 7 o’clock on Tuesday evening an entrance was forced into Mr C. S. Keedwell's shop, Levin, and a sum of between £l7 and £lB extracted from the cash register. Mr Keedwell was absent at tea at the time. When he returned he found that a window at the back of the premises had been smashed, and an examination of the register showed that a large portion of its contents had disappeared. He got in touch with the police, who, in conjunction with the Training Farm officials, apprehended two of the farm inmates as they were abou to take their departure on the evening train for Palmerston North, They had a large portion of the missing money in their'possession, and the balance was recovered later.”

“The old-time hospitality of the farming community has ceased to exist nowadays,” was the opinion expressed by a man who had to call upon a number of farmers recently. “Not in one instance was I invited to have a cup of tea —never even asked if I had a mouth!” lie stated that in the early days the first, thing a visitor was asked when calling at a farm was “Have a cup of tea,” whether the business was pleasant or otherwise, but now the old-time hospitality had departed with the pioneers.

Important new discoveries of treasures at Pompeii were made recently its the result of the excavations which have been in progress -once 1911. The discoveries include a number of fine paintings, one depicting twelve - custodians of the city, <i bouse with the remains of the balcony on the first floor, two beautiful porticoes of a pergola above four simps. ;tn elaborate bar covered with election posters, and a sacrificial altar with the ashes of the last sacrifice preserved. A species of flying-ant in the North Island is said to be responsible for a certain amount of mortality amongst poultry, especially during the swarming period, which takes place during the months of ‘'larch and April. The ants are possessed of stings; poultry pick them up, ary stung on the mouth or throat, and, after running about with their mouths open, fowls eventually die gasping. Mr AY. AY. Smith, curator of the New Plymouth Botanical Gardens, states that wellfed poultry were less likely to feed on the deadly stinging ants. Rat ana, the Maori healer, who lias jusf concluded bis tour of the native settlements of the North Island, returned to bis home at Ratana. He is leaving for Temuku, in the South Island, and after concluding his mission in the south, intends to proceed to the Chatham Wands. During his northern tour, Katana visited every Maori settlement as far north as it was possible to go, and a reliable informant, who has been in close touch with the .healer, reports that he has had remarkable success, and has effected some wonderful cures. That Ratana does not intend to allow his work to langish (says a contemporary) is manifested by the fact of his immediate departure for the south in order that his own people in every part of the Dominion may have the opportunity of benefiting from bis remarkable powers.