NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2448, 1 July 1922, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Government has decided to set up a Commission to enquire into the necessity for a revision of soldiers’ pensions and other matters relating to the administration of the War Pensions Act. At the annual meeting of the New Market (England) Sparrow Club it was reported that 18,831 sparrows were killed last year. It was decided that the club should pay 4d instead of Gd a dozen for dead birds. The 59th anniversary of the landing of the Royal Irish Regiment in New Zealand on July 4th, 1863, will be celebrateddn Auckland this month by a gathering of the surviving members of the regiment who remained behind in New Zealand. At the diamond wedding of Mr and Mrs James Wood, of Aberdeen, a feature of the celebration was the presence of Mr and Mrs George Corinack, who acted as their--best man and bridesmaid sixty years ago. Genuine ivory is exceeding scarce and many hunters have left Seattle to prospect in the Yukon and North Sounds tundras for mastodon tusks. Another source of supply is the Behring Sea walrus and narwhal. A report issued by the Swiss Topographical Bureau shows that of' 115 glaciers surveyed last year, 36 were still advancing, in spite of the persistent drought which had caused an average decrease of sft. in their depth.- The Rhone glacier had retreated by nearly 18ft.

A boy who tugged a girls plait of hair among a crowd coming out of a picture show at Blenheim received a sharp lesson for his impudence (states the Marlborough Express). Evidently built on somewhat more brilliant lines than the average young miss the girl turned sharply and smacked the boy’s face a good resounding smack that delighted the bystanders. Average prices for stock sold at the sales last week were: Ox beef (per 1001 b) : I Vest field 17/-, Feeding 16/-, Johnsonville 18/-, Addington 28/-. Cow beef: Westfield 12/6, Feilding 11/-, Johnsonville 15/-, Addington 18/-. Medium weathers: Westfield 24/3, Feilding 22/-, Johnsonville 25/-, Addington 23/0. Prime ewes: Westfield £l, Feilding 20/10, Johnsonville 19/3, Addington 23/6. Medium ewes: Westfield 17/-, Feilding 16/6, Johnsonville 15/6, Addington 16/6. At Greymouth on Tuesday, Mr Meldrum, S.M., gave reserved judgment in a case against Henry Hawkins (pianist), Henry Jones (operator), and Wm. Steele (a member of the audience), for aiding and abetting Arthur Behan in showing Sunday pictures-. Behan has been convicted and fined several times. Evidently he made light of the payment of fines owing to the inducement offered by the support of the public. In his opinion people who offered inducement, to Beban to keep open, aided and abetted Beban, and were, therefore, liable. Steele was convicted and ordered to pay costs. Jones and Hawkins were also convicted, but the penalty would be nominal as the case was merely a test. They were ordered to pay costs. In commenting on the result of the Dunedin North by-election, the Christchurch Press says:—ln all seriousness we ask those who still' cherish a faint hope that the Liberal Party has any future hope of ever reaching office, to consider seriously the result of this by-election. The most they can do, it is plain, is to detach just a sufficient number of moderate voters to give the victory to Labour.-' They can do nothing for themselves; they can only help the Reds. There are some Liberals we know, whose incurable hatred of the Party which turned the Liberal Government out would make even a Red Government a source of bitter pleasure. But the majority of those who have supported the Liberals in the past are moderate men who have no desire to see the country in peril of domination by revolutionary Labour. These, we believe, will read the plain lesson of Dunedin North, and will decide that as the issue is now between the Government and the Reds they can best-serve the country and themselves by taking care that their votes go where they will be effective.