LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2541, 10 February 1923, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Princess Mary has given birth to a son. Miss Una Carter, of Wellington, is on a holiday visit to Foxton. The ordinary meeting of the Borough Council will be held on Monday night. Thursday’s electrical storm was one of the most prolonged disturbances experienced on this coast for some time. It was accompanied by a westerly gale. Yesterday and to-day’s sunshine was a pleasant change from the recent stormy weather and high winds. Last night a heavy dew was experienced with a decided drop in temperature.

A number of local Masons motored to Marton on Thursday night and attended the installation of Bro. A. J. B. Sicely as W.M, The ceremony was performed by R. Wor. J. 11. Perritt, Prov. G. M. assisted by oilier Grand Lodge officers.

At the Auckland Supreme Court on 'Thursday, Mr Justice Herdman sentenced Harry Clifton Selery to Iwo months in gaol on a charge of carrying on Ihe business as a bookmaker. He said that bookmakers nnisl be made to understand that the sooner they give up their trade the better it will be. The friends and relatives of Mrs Matson, of Gonville, were greatly concerned recently regarding her sudden disappearance in the night. It was feared that she had been drowned in the Wanganui River, as a note was found indicating that she intended to commit suicide and that her “cross was too hard to bear.” The police have now received advice that she is alive and well in the Wnirarapa.

That there is plenty of money available in Marlborough for investment in first-class securities is demonstrated by the fact (says the “Express”) that the River Board has raised £IO,OOO on 6 per cent, debentures in less than a month, and that there were considerable sums offering when the board’s requirements had been met. The £IO,OOO was subscribed by 12 people in sums ranging from £IOO to £3,000,

A woman of the most unmistakable conservative type had, at a place not more than a hundred miles from Wellington, accidentally got into the railway carriage reserved for smokers. With ill-conceal-ed indignation she saw the man next to her fill his pipe. “Sir,” she said frigidly, “smoking always makes me ill.” “Does it, ma’am?” was the polite rejoinder. “Take my advice and give it up.”

The wife of a settler in this district recently gave birth to her fifteenth child, including three sets of twins.

An interruption in the telephone working, up the Wanganui River, was found to be caused by a Maori woman, who, having an extra big wash, had hung her blankets on the wire.

The local collectors for the Sir Arthur Pearson fund to assist the blind of New Zealand are meeting with a generous response and it is anticipated that no difficulty will be experienced in raising Foxton’s quota.

Mr F. D. Whibley has been appointed manager of the Gery River Argus, New Zealand’s only Labour daily paper, and of which Mr 11. Holland, Parliamentary leader of Ihe Labour Party is editor. On the opening day at the local State School in 1022, there were 422 pupils entered on the rolls. Thirty-nine children were entered and 31 left. Up to the present we have not been able to obtain the figures for the opening day this year. That she and her husband lived in an old fowlhouse because they wanted to pay off a debt, was the remarkable statement made by a witness in the Magistrate’s Court at New Plymouth. They now desired possession of the cottage which they had rented to defendant, they said. Their present place of abode had no flooring or. lining, and the only means of ventilation was the door.

Mr Nash has given notice to ask the Minister of Public Works whether the recent flood in the Mangahao will interfere with the completion of the work, as stated, at or about the end of 1923, and if so, for how long? The matter, he says, is of great importance to power boards who are making their arrangements to coincide with the completion of the Mangahao scheme.

Overlooking Main Street, on the mound at Ihakara Garden, has been placed the ship’s cannon which once graced the deck of the ill-fated Hvdrabad, the remains of which are still embedded on the coast some miles south of the river mouth. For many years the cannon was in possession of the late Mr Andrew Jonson and was subsequently handed over to the Borough Council. At a meeting of Waipawa business men called to discuss the proposed increase in telephone charges the unfairness of placing a town like Waipawa, with 200 subscribers, on the same footing as a place like Napier with well on to 2,000 subscribers was pointed out. The toll system was unquestionably the fairest method, but this was objected to in the large centres, where the Chambers of Commerie were controlled bylarge business interests, and the introduction of the toll system would involve them in additional charges. The secretary of the local Chamber of Commerce has received the following reply from the Postmas-ter-General: —“I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the sth instant embodying a resolution adopted at a meeting of your Chamber with respect to the proposed increase in telephone charges. In reply, I have to inform you that I shall be pleased to give the representations my careful consideration.”

The recent electrical storm this week was felt very severely at the Mangahao hydroelectric works and the lightning did a certain amount of damage to the plant which necessitated a temporary hold-up. One of the engineering staff informs us that the storm was enough to “put the wind up” the stoutest heart. The intermittent flashes and continued reverberating thunder among the hills was most eerie and made one contrast the inequality of the works of man with that of nature.

A curious observer might have noted one or two rather interesting coincidences in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (says the Dominion) while the members were taking the oath. The members were sworn in in batches of four, and, .-Irangely enough, there were found in one. quartet two who have the misfortune to possess the sight of only one eye. Another quartet was composed of two members named Rolleston and two named Rhodes. Messrs' J. C. Rolleston and F. J. Rolleston are brothers. Their father was once a very well-known figure in Parliament.

The medical superintendent of the Palmerston North Hospital reported as follows at Thursday’s Board meeting —Number of patients admitted, 150; discharged, 12(5; died, (5; daily average, 79.(54; infectious cases, 12; viz., scarlet fever 2, diphtheria 7, phthisis 1, pneumonia 2. The number of operations performed was 70. Dr. Forrest also drew attention to the condition of the annexe and the scarlet, fever wards, which were in need of painting. A dark room was also essential for the examination of eye cases. —The report was referred to the executive for consideration.

The report of the Manawatn County Council tramway manager submitted at this week’s meeting was as follows: The volume of traffic was fair, the chief items being: Merchandise 100 tons, cheese and butter 207£ tons, stock 74 trucks, minerals 139 tons, timber 20,000 superficial feet. Fares amounted to £l4 3s lOd. The accounts show' a credit balance of £34 2s 3d for the month’s working. Special trams were run in connection with the Foxton races, but owing to the inclemency of the weather were not very well patronised. Necessary repairs have been effected to the rolling stock and the van has been brought into commission again.— Adopted,

Mr F. A. Price, the well-known teacher of elocution, physical training and deportment, will meet those desiring to form a class in the Town Hall supper-room on Monday.

At the Palmerston North Supreme Court yesterday Mr Justice Salmond sentenced Robert Ferguson Hay to nine months for the theft of a motor cycle at Rangiotu five years ago after a hearing occupying two days.

The borough foreman brought for our inspection this morning a quantity of broken glass picked up in Main Street. Those responsible for breaking bottles in the main thoroughfare, whether by accident or intent, should remove the broken bits which if allowed to remain might cause serious accidents.

Mr and Mrs .J. Ward Wilson, from China, are at present visitors to Fox ton. For 32 years they have been doing missionary work in that country, but on account of health reasons it has become necessary for them to leave the field indefinitely. On Sunday at 7.30 p.m. in the Public Hall, at the Beach, Mr Wilson will give an address and residents and others there would be well advised to make a point of hearing him. ■>- The oldest holiday in history is the Saturday afternoon, which dates from the days of the Anglo-Sax-ons. King Edgar, in the tenth century, decreed that all work should cease at noon on Saturday, and not be resumed until sunrise Monday. Tn the following century King Canute .issued an order: “Let every Sunday be kept from Saturday’s noon to Monday’s dawn,” and in 1203 a similar law was made in Scotland. In those days the market adjoined the parish church, and after prayers each Saturday evening the people would go out and purchase their weekly store of provisions.