NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2578, 10 May 1923, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

“He is the right mail in the right place,” said Mr Joseph Dawson, a member of the Wellington Land Board, referring to the Minister of Lands (Hon. D. H. Guthrie) at the bridge opening ceremony at Hinalcura, “and he has done his very best for the soldier settlers.” “Relatively this is only a small job.” said the Mayor of Auckland (Mr J. H. Gunson) at the opening ceremony at Xihotupn dam. “Huge as it appears to us, it is really nothing very big, and this will be appreciated when I say that all this water would last London only two days. You see, after all, we are a small people in a small community, and must be humble.”

“The blackberries in my district are half-way across the road,” said Trustee Wood, chairman of the Manawatu Drainage Board at a recent meeting of that body. “They are blocking the drains. The local landowners have not done their duty in respect to keeping down the pest for the past ten years. Other noxious weeds such as ragwort are getting a hold; it is a serious matter for the district and our duty is to call attention to it.” It is almost forgotten that New Zealand has a memorial to the late Lord Kitchener, and that to-day is its 12th anniversary (says the Wei 1 - ding Star of Saturday) . Tt was on May 5, 11)11 that compulsory military training came into force in our Dominion, and that policy, which aimed at using the raw material of our youth, was part of the Empire plan of Lord Kitchener, who toured New Zealand on behalf of the scheme. He is dead—his scheme goes marching on. “Wlmt’s the matter with these chaps—are they too big to attend drills?” asked Mr A. M. Mowlem, S.M. in the New Plymouth Court, when several young men were prosecuted for failure to attend drills. “They think they’re too big,” replied Lieutenant Andrew, but on the Magistrate putting the question seriously as to the physique of the men concerned, the reply was made that they were “the weeds of the country.” “.Just the very chaps who need the training,” commented the magistrate.

“The sheep farmers are apt to forget the faet that if it were not for tlie navy and the mercantile marine—the finest private- enterprise in the world—our wool would never find its way Home at certain times,” declared Mr R. D. D. McLean, of Hawke’s Bay, at the annual meeting of the Wellington branch of the Navy League. “Tt is largely because the British Navy keeps the golden highways of trade and commerce open that our wool and other produce finds its way to the Mother Country and elsewhere. That is one of the things which a very large proportion of the population is apt to ignore.” A story of grim hardship is told by two Melbourne youths who were lost in the mountains behind Wangnrntta and were without food or warm clothing for three days. They were found by a ranger, who was attracted by a beacon fire,.lit with tin l only match the youths possessed. The two were < lad only in thin shirts and trousers. Their socks had been worn threadbare, their limbs and bodies bitten by bulldog ants, and their arms and faces scratched in their struggle through dense undergrowth. At limes the hills surrounding the valleys in which the youths wandered • were ablaze with hush fires. They declare that they saw frequent mad rushes by kangaroos to avoid the flames.

“When I come to these meetings T l'c-cl ra flier like the Maori who attended the local races some time ago," said a creditor prior to (he examination of a bankrupt in Now Plymouth the other day. 'Phis was the story: The native backed a horse which paid £B2. A little later he was watching the totalisator investments on another race. “Time I had another bet,” lie said and put his hand in his hip pocket. The roll of notes bad disappeared. “Py korry, it’s gone!” lie exclaimed. He felt in a side pocket and produced a few shillings. “Ah, well,” he philosophied, “1 still got some money left. 1 go and get drunk now!”