NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2549, 1 March 1923, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

A little girl who gave evidence at the Supreme Court in Wellington was shown to be strangely lacking in general knowledge. She said that she was fifteen years of age, and could neither read npr write, although she appeared to be quite pleased to be able to say that she could count up to twenty. The little girl said that she did not go to church, nor had she ever had any religious teaching at home. She said that she’did not know what the Bible was, and she did not understand the meaning of an oath.

A farmer was anxious that his son should become a minister, and for this laudable end he sent him to college for four veal’s, but to his great disappointment the youth baulked at the ministry and set himself up as a land agent. The old farmer told his grief to a neighbour who, however, took a more optimistic view of the matter. “Oh, I wouldn’t feel so badly about that,” he said. “As a land agent Bill will probably lead more men to repentance than he ever would have done as a preacher. —Exchange. A telegram from the American Near East- Relief officials at Beirut states that Armenian boy scouts at Jebeil, north of Beirut, have discovered near Kassuba the foundations of a large Roman temple, probably an ancient sanctuary of Adonis, and also important Babylonian and Phoenician relics in tombs buried in the sand for centuries. The more important finds are being sent to museums in America.

In regard to the mysterious smoke arising from the slopes of Mount Egmont in the old days, Mr John Hislop, who knew the mountain and the district intimately then, told 1 a Taranaki News reporter that he had repeatedly seen the smloke, and it always seemed to rise from the one spot. At the time it was the prevailing opinion that the smoke came from a whisky still, but, owing to the inaccessibility of the place, no one ever located it. There were many folds in the mountain which offered ideal conditions for a still, and it was quite conceivable that the one suspected had been in operation for years without anyone having detected its presence.' In the old days of Taranaki, it may be added, certain of the country hotels . catered largely for Maoris, who were given liquor that was known as “dynamite,” and possibly it had its oi’igin on the slopes of the mountain.