NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2578, 10 May 1923, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Splendid tracking on the part of a black-tracker, says a police report from Western Queensland, resulted in the discovery of a man named Bert Jones, who had been lost in the bush for three days. Jones left Yeulba for Jackson on April 2nd, carrying a swag, which was subsequently picked up on the railway line six miles from Yeulba. He was tracked to the spot eighty miles from Yeulba, and later found in prickly pear in a semi-conscious and exhausted condition.

“There is a tremendous menace in this country in the growing trend towards Bolshevism,” said Mr Massey during a speech at Oamaru, but the Government has a very effective weapon it uses against this danger. I refer to the assistance given to enable all classes of citizens to acquire their own homes. You seldom find a man who possesses his own little home with leanings to Bolshevism.” Twenty-one bee-birds came aboard the Montoro when she was 300 miles at sea, between Timor and Darwin, during the voyage' from which she returned to Sydney. The Daily Telegraph states that they are beautiful birds, known in Australia by some as the rainbow or sun birds. They stayed for two or three hours on the vessel, and then, possibly deciding that she was going off their intended course, spread their wings and melted into distance.

The 45 miles’ run by motor from Auckland to Waiuku supplies some delightful scenic glimpses, and these were referred to by the lion. 0. .T. Parr on Saturday in declaring the Franklin Memorial Hospital open. Mr Parr urged farmers to retain samples of the bush in their district. “The hand of the vandal,” he remarked, “has been too busy in regard to clearing away native trees. Those bits of bush will help you to sell your farm land by and by. That will appeal to you, even if the scenery does not.” —Auckland Herald.

A delightful election story that occurred recently not a hundred miles from Wanganui has .just come to light. An aspiring candidate for inclusion in that select circle of City Fathers known as the Borough Council called at a residence with a ear and asked the lady of the house if she had voted. The reply was in the negative, and the candidate urged her to exercise his vote, placing his car at her disposal. “But there is no one to mind my baby,” she remonstrated. “Oh, I will mind it,” volunteered the candidate. The lady departed, and when the baby commenced to cry the candidate spent a rather unhappy time and heaved a. deep sigh of relief when the mother returned. Much to his amazement he learned that she was not on the roll and therefore could not vote. —Wanganui Herald.

A slim little lady from Utuku entered. the box at the Wanganui Court recently in support of a petition for separation, and stated that her husband- had been persistently cruel to her. They were married in 1918, and shortly afterwards her hefty husband developed abnormal swearing tendencies. As the years rolled on, he supplemented the swearing by hitting her every now and again, and one of his favourite exercises was to grip her by the throat. On one occasion he took a gun to her and threatened her life, and eventually • she left him. Another habit he had of annoying her was to give the eldest child beer and teach him to swear. When she remonstrated and told him this was no way to mould the plastic mind, lie merely replied “that it would make a man of the child.” —Wanganui Herald.

A witness named George Henderson, a tailor, whose answers to counsel in the Supreme Court in Christchurch, caused some laughter, was brought up sharply by Mr Justice Adams as the witness stepped out of the witness box. He had .given a reply to a question by His Honour, who said: “Go back into the witness box.” The witness was walking out of the Court, and His Honour said to the usher: “Put the witness back in the witness box.” To the witness, who retimed to the box, His Honour said: “You will understand that you’ll have to maintain a respectful demeanour in this court, and not utter insolence to the Judge.” The winess began to explain that he did not intend to offend. He had got as far as “If I evei ” when His Honour cut him short by saying: “You’ve had a- narrow escape from being committed for contempt of Court. Leave the box and leave the Court.” Croquet, that quiet game beloved of ladies on a sunny afternoon, has few really exciting moments, but the other afternoon, at the Carlton green, an incident occurred of an extraordinary naturfc. A well-known lady player, who has qualified for championship honours on several occasions, was playing what she

hoped would be the last and winning shot of the game, and it was necessary fox* her to drive light, down the green. She addressed the ball and made strike, but the shot was wide, and the ball rolled into the ditch which encompasses the lawn. What was the lady’s surprise when she walked over to regain the ball to find that her shot had killed a large rat. A hole further along the ditch had evidently been vacated by the rodent a few moments previously, and apparently the ball had flopped on to its neck as it walked along the low-lying 1& V - el.—“Taranaki Herad.”