NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2582, 19 May 1923, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Two little girls aged about three and five years, found llieir way on to a train on Wednesday and travelled from Waipawa to Wnipnkurau. Here they were taken in charge by the stationmaster, whom they informed that they got on the train because they thought I hey would like a ride. They were given a cup of tea and an orange each and sent back home in the guard’s van of the next train. —Press.

An extraordinary accident occurred on the West Coast of the South Island recently. Mrs .\. Ritchie was walking in her garden when suddenly the ground gave way beneath her. She clung to the surface, however, and her cries soon brought assistance. When she was rescued it was discovered that an old digger’s shaft, which had apparently been covered over with timber and oarlli, had been sunk in the garden many years ago. No one knew of the shaft, and the possibilities of a serious drowning accident was bidden under a well-kept lawn. The depth of the shaft can only be os!mulled, as a pole, 16ft. long, could not reach the bottom of the water, which was about five feet from (be surface. “Who finds keeps” is an adage which has cropped up on Lvn occasions in the Auckland Supreme Court. His Honour, Mr Justice Stringer, mentioned Iho point in reference to the finding of lotahsntor tickets. He pointed out where a totalisafor ticket was found lying on the ground and there was nothing to indicate the owner, its retention by the finder was not regarded in law as theft. It was theft if a man picked up soemthing that could he identified as belonging to some one else. Tn the case of gold or silver which could ho identified as belonging to someone else it was not theft to keep it, although a man of high moral character would hand it over to the authorities. An English paper waul-d to know tho origin of the phrase “kicking the bucket.” A Queenslander replied: “At the time of the gold fever m California in ’•10, and in Anslralm in ’sl, and immediately afterwards many fortunes were made by lucky miners, while others, blinded by tic lure of gold, spent their all in the epics I of il and failed, fn blank despair many committed suicide by hanging 1 . The proyedun* The poor wretch tied a rope to the cross beam of his shanty, or hut. while standing on an upturned bucket or pail. Then be adjusted the other end of the rope round bis neck and— when all was ready—kicked the bucket. T believe this to be the correct explanation.”