LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2611, 26 July 1923, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Christchurch contemplates spending £20,000 on an additional staiu for crowds to watch football mutches at Lancaster Park.

The monthly meeting of the Foxton Harbour Board will be held at Palmerston North on Saturday at 2 p.m. The election of a Chairman of Committees took place in the House on Tuesday and Mr .J. A. Young was appointed unopposed.

Mr Lloyd George, in speaking at a private dinner of the National Liberals said the Government name into office upon a policy of greater friendship to France, and the sequel was a broken, or at least, an impaired Entente, and the most humiliating peace with Turkey this country had ever signed. One of the delegates at the agricultural industry expressed the opinion that in 20 years the value of land in the Dominion would depreciate by many millions of pounds sterling unless immediate and drastic steps were taken to eradicate or check the growth of noxious weeds.

Three brothers in the village of Niolon, near Marseilles, have attained the ages of 101, 98, and 90 respectively. Nearly every day the men, Costa, Sauvenr and Jean Mare, may be seen playing cards under an old chestnut tree in (heir garden. They were all shepherds and their only regret is that their sister died last year at the age of 94 —comparatively early in life, they think. Dr. Voronoff, the expert in monkey gland treatment for old age, says that during the past year the Pasteur Institute had sent a conmission to Africa to construct a park in which to breed chimpanzees, but he believed that the best results were obtained front human glands. These could be obtained from dead people. The glands of healthy youths who died should be stored in a freezing chamber and used to rejuvenate the old.

“My Lady of The Cave,” is a rattling fine picture. Don’t fail to see it. Royal Theatre to-night.* There is said to be no fewer than 11 distinct dialects in the Maori tongue.

“Bridge-wrist” is a new ailment, said to follow strain in dealing out playing card's too often.

A fire broke out in the Hotel Cecil at Wellington at an early hour this morning and did considerable damage to the dining room and corridor. At one of the largest factories in the world 50 loaves of new bread are used up end) working clay for cleaning the delicate parts of watches.

In reply to the query: “How does your husband treat you?” a witness at the Thames Police Court, said: “He doesn’t treat me at all. He drinks on his own.” Mr Riddle, a missionary from India, gave a lantern lecture in the Presbyterian schoolroom last night. Owing to lack of publicity there was a very small attendance. Owing to the indisposition of the Rev. Mr McDonald, the Rev. W. 11. Walton introduced the missionary. The slides were of a particularly interesting nature and dealt with the scenes of mission work in India.

An Englishwoman of Brighton, who is 83 years of age, is growing her third set of teeth. “Her teeth were all extracted some years ago.” writes a correspondent, “and were replaced by an artificial set. Since then 12 teeth have appeared. Some have worn quite through, others only partly. They grow very slowly. Bread and other hard foods help them.”

In the Magistrate’s Court at Wellington on Tuesday, John Craig Neill, clerk in charge of the branch office at Te Aro of the Labour Department, pleaded guilty to the theft of £lO3 16s. When the defalcations were discovered he surrendered to the police. He was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence, hail not being allowed.

“As good as married” is the term sometimes used by women when applying for the maintenance order at the Magistrate’s Court. A rather singular instance was related by a woman at the Court in Auckland, the woman having lived with a man as his wife for 18 years. The man sent her to Auckland for her health and she stated lie had since eloped with a married woman 22 vears of

Thieves have managed to set a new record by the theft of an entire railway at Kathlenburg (Austria) which ascends a steep mountain. The railroad which was closed down several years ago with the dearth of tourists, has gradually disappeared. Officials, looking over it recently with the intention of putting it into commission, found only the truck of a car and one of the big cogs of the runicular, which had been too heavv for the invaders.

Deserting husbands will receive a decided check if the Haw era Hospital Board has its way. The Board recently passed a resolution recommending that the question of the compulsory remuneration employment of men failing to comply with maintenance orders and the application of their earnings to the support of their wives and children he discussed at the proposed conference of hospital hoards at Wellington in the near future.

Mr Nash asked the Minister of Railways last week whether he would state if it was the intention of the Railway Department to erect houses for the benefit of railway employees in Palmerston North. Mr Contes’ reply is: “It is intended to erect houses at Palmerston North in due course, but up to the present, the efforts of the department have had to lie directed to providing houses in localities whore the staff employed could not obtain residences.”

An Ottawa journal, in commenting editorially on Mr Massey’s recent Budget, showing a" substantial surplus, says it hopes Mr Mackenzie King, when in London for the Imperial Conference, will take occasion to inquire from Mr Massey how rigorous economies in Governmental finances con he instituted, in order that Canada, too, may profit thereby. The newspaper adds: “If a parallel zeal for efficiency and economy found harbourage in the bosoms of oar Canadian rulers, producing parallel results, Canada’s national debt would lie decreased by £100,(100,000.

Details of the fr( ists in tlie Southern Lukes (listriel show that they wove nlmost Arctic in their severity. For n week or ton days the cold wus the most intense experienced bv the oldest inhabitant. The reading of the thermometer at Arrow School on the !)th was 2 degrees below zero, or ill degrees of frost, At “Craigory” on the same morning the thermometer registered 4 degrees below zero, and poultry were found frozen to their roosts. Skippers reported 30 degrees of frost —or 4 degrees below zero. It was considered however, that it was even colder than that, as the thermometer was hung under an open iron shed and the reading taken there. One farmer in the Garston district found his team of draught horses snowed in. and when lie got them out they had eaten each other’s tails and manes off close. He expects to lose the whole team, the eating of the hair having destroyed their digestive organs. On the Crown Range, near Arrowtown, the depth of snow was between four and five feet. Two miners were snowed in behind the Crown terrace for several days and eventually, in four days, cut a way to the niain road, encountering snow in some places to a depth of six feet,

“Prosperity is now staring every one of us in the face and in our in-

dividual prosperity we ought to consider the prosperity and progress of the town,” remarked the Chairman of the Eketalmna Chamber of Commei'ce when referring to borough loan proposals.

When a boy of 13 was summoned at Goole Police Court for theft, the Magistrate asked the grandmother who had charge of the boy if she had chastised him. The grandmother: No, but I have applied a hotter correction. I have sewn up all his pockets in order that he cannot bring home anything which does not belong to him. According to Captain Cameron, who delivered a lecture on Pitcairn Island recently, a quaint law is in force on the island, to the effect, that if a stray fowl was found scratching in the garden, the owner of the garden could shoot the offending bird and keep it. The owner of the fowl had in that case to reimburse the cost of the powder and shot expended.

“I think it’s a very dead meeting without a hand," especially if you tire losing money,” remarked a member <*f tlie South Canterbury Hunt Committee when it was suggested that no hand should he engaged for the next race meeting. “We’ve got something better than a band,” said another member, “We’ve got a’booth for the next meeting.”—Christchurch Press.

The inquest on the unidentified body found in the river some weeks ago was re-opened at Wanganui on Tuesday. Three witnesses from Wellington gave evidence that they believed from a photograph that deceased was a man named Ernest Randall, who came from the Old Country, and resided for a time in Wellington and also in Auckland. He worked on Messrs Hatrick and Co.’s boats at Wanganui. The inquest was then farther adjourned. A good story comes from the Wairarapa the veracity of which is vouched for by a Wellington commercial traveller. A certain borough was canvassing for subscriptions for the local war memorial. A certain quantity of money had been collected hut the canvassers were not satisfied. Accordingly discussion arose at the Borough Council meeting at which one of the members rose, and addressing the chair inter alia : “Mr Chairman, I understand that all the subscriptions were to he made by spontaneous combustion!” And laughter drowned the explanation that he meant “by voluntary subscription.”

A recent advertisement in a London daily paper, offered for sale “1,000 wild rats.” The capture and sale of live rats is quite a lucrative trade. The rat-catchers contract (o rid ships, warehouses and private houses of rats, and find a ready market for their captives in hospital laboratories at 4d per head. The rats are classified as “English black,” “Norwegian” and “Ship,” and business transactions in regard to them are said to involve supplies of no less than £48,000 a year. With the introduction, during the war, of poison gas, the live rat was called upon to “do his bit,” and was used at the rate of 500 per week in the experiments by tlie military authorities in testing the efficiency of poison gas. An uncommon incident occurred at the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland recently. The plaintiff in an affiliation case was a young woman who was a deaf mute, and in the absence of the man concerned it fell on her to prove her unfortunate story (states the Auckland Star). Luckily she had. previously written out her evidence, and on being sworn by writing, she had merely to write down in reply to a question put in writing that such story was true. In this manner the evidence was put before the Magistrate without loss of time. The Court was also assisted by the fact that the man had made admissions to a witness whose speech was unimpaired, and the witness was able to corroborate (lie girl’s evidence. An order of 20s a week was made, the amount being more than usual because the girl’s physical disabilities decreased he: earning opportunities.