NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2433, 25 May 1922, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

Many farmers between Levn and Shannon are at present converting dead timber lying about into posts or firewood. The timber is largely rata, rimu and in some cases totara. One farmer who had a paddock of matai stumps converted these into tmewood during the slack time last winter, the sale of which netted him between £9O and £IOO. Sentence of eight days’ imprisonment was passed at the Old Bailey on Thomas Rose, who was found guilty of manslaughter of his father. At the previous hearing it. was. stated that when the son protested to his father concerning his brutal treatment, of his mother, the elder Rose called him vile names and challenged him to fight. The son twice knocked his father to the ground, with fatal results. The sentence -of eight days’ entitled Rose to his immediate discharge. A person, who is apparently qualified for the Porirua Asylum, has lately been indulging in a “stunt” which landed him in trouble, in the vicintiv of Villa Street and other parts of the borough (says the Masterton Times). With a mask covering his face, this individual comes suddenly out of gateways upon girls and ladies returning home at night, waving his arms and making a noise similar to an ourangoutang. A good horse-whipping or confinement in a padded cell would probably effect a cure. The “Mercantile Gazette” of this week says: —“If the country is to prosper—and there can be no upward improvement if the farming classes are under the harrow —we think it is the first duty of the Government to ease the taxation which is now eating them up. The income tax is destroying an incentive on the part of the mercantile community to use or to create, capital, and thousands of our merchants are now marking time, calling in their capital and satisfied with reduced business rather than risk their money in. enterprise which, if successful, renders it necessary for them to pay over nearly one-half of their profits to the State.” A fine instance of what may be accomplished by a large firm having sincerely at heart the interest of its employees was related on Saturday by. Miss Jean Stevenson, Y.W.C.A. industrial secretary. Some months ago the Kaiapoi Woollen Company brought out from England a number of workers for its mill at Kaiapoi, and in order to overcome the difficulty of accomodation, bought a fine old home with a large garden, equipped it, and handed it over to the Y.W.C.A. to be used as a hostel for any girl going to Kaiapoi to work, and also as a community centre for the girls of the town. The home contains accommodation for 24 girls, and will be self-supporting. “The opportunities for social intercourse are always very limited in small country towns,” said Miss Stevenson', “and we hope to be able to make life much brighter for the girls by arranging classes; lectures, and social gatherings, with plenty of diversion in the way of sports and outdoor recreation.”

Not every Mayor has the distinction of being bombarded with rocks by small schoolboys whose animal spirits are high. But the Mayor of Christchurch, Dr. H. T. J. Thacker, received a pelting lost week that caused him to think that the average Christchurch youngster takes delight in playing David to any Goliath he chances to see. The Mayor does not mind telling the joke against himself, says a Christchurch paper. It. was by the North Brighton School that the episode happened. Evidently wishing to show off, the boy picked up a handful of stones and pelted them at the doctor’s car, having previously performed a. war dance in front of it, to the annoyance of the chauffeur. The lad got his shock when the car stopped, but before the Mayor could get him he fled to the shelter of some lupins. “I don’t mind the pelting at all,” said the doctor. “What I do object, to. is the way in which children deliberately dance up and down in front of motors. It will have to be stopped.”