The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, AUGUST 11th, 1923. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2618, 11 August 1923, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, AUGUST 11th, 1923. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Cabinet has decided to appoint another Supreme Court Judge. Mr Fergie, who was relieving stnt.ionmaster at Fox (on some months ago, is at present spending a lewdays here, recuperating from a recent severe attack of influenza.

The estate of the late William Dawson, of Dunedin, has been sworn for probate at £250,000. Xo bequests of a public nature are made under the will.

The Prince of Wales sails for Canada the first week in September, and arrives back on October 25. The whole four will be private and lie will not attend any public function.

The annual matches between the Christchurch and Waitaki High Schools were played at Oamaru yesterday. Christchurch won the senior match by 7 points to 0, and Waitaki the junior match by 28 points to 10, states an Oamaru message.

According to an exchange, a Feilding stock firm is lamenting the departure of a clienl who has not honoured a little account for approximately £l,lOO on a deal in sheep, the latter having been purchased in (lie Wairarapa.

Cr. A. N. Smith informs us tli.it :it last Council meeting lu- staled that he had changed liis mind on the subject of tin- Council not entertaining going into the plumbing business, and that applications should be called for the work required to be done by the Council. Air L. M. Isitt, AH’, for Christchurch North, has given notice to ask the Prime Minister whether he will enact, legislation making it mandatory on any city council or local body having authority to cancel the license of any motor vehicle driver found in an intoxicated condition while in charge of his vehicle.

“This is the worst case I have ever had to deal with. The boy is thirteen years of age and had not yet passed a standard. During one year he only made 159 attendances out of a possible 400,” stated Mr Laughton, a school attendance inspector, in a case at Lower ITut 1, when a parent was charged with failing to send his boy to.school.

At an inquest at Durham gaol after an execution, the coroner declared that capital punishment was no deterrent of crimes. He favoured flogging and penal servitude in preference to the barbarous system of executions. What the murderer really dreaded was not death, but pain.

At the Palmerston Supreme Court yesterday before His Honour Mr Justice Husking, a decree nisi to be made absolute in three months, was granted in the divorce case of Jean Brackenridge Cunningham of Eoxton, against Alfred Ernest Cunningham. The grounds of divorce were desertion. Evidence was given by the petitioner, Constable Owen and Mary Christina Wallace. The respondent did not appear. “We will have to take un India, China, Japan and Africa,” said Mr Joseph Clark, director of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, at a meeting of suppliers at Morrinsville a few days ago, when discussing the necessity of extending their market for dairy produce (reports an exchange). Milk and butter were coming into more use in the world, and the East was cultivating European modes of life. Their opportunity in the East, therefore, was coming.

We arc asked to inform members of the local Pluuket Society that the meeting to have been held on Monday lias been postponed.

Mr Zillwood’s claim to be the oldest resident of the Wairarapa is disputed by Mrs Edward Dunn, of Greytown. Mrs Dunn, who is over 80 years old, is the only surviving member of the original Kempton family and has resided over 70 years in the Wairarapa. That form of envelope which shows the address Through a. “window-” of greased tissue is the bete noir of officials all over the world, and the Commonwealth postal authorities have refused to handle correspondence so enclosed.

The severe frosts have taken a severe toll of bottles of liquids in hotels, stores and the local pharmacy (says the Lake Wakatipu Press). The contents, in some instances, have been left standing as solid ice on the shelves while the bottles themselves have fallen in pieces to the floor.

The following motion was carried by a small majority at the Counties Conference: “That the Government inspectors appointed to administer the Act be vested with full authority to institute court proceedings against owners or occupiers of land who fail to comply with the inspector’s requirements as to the cutting or clearing of noxious weeds.” There will he a partial eclipse of the moon on the night of Iho 26tli. She will enter the imbral shadows at 9hr. 22min.; centre of same at lOhr. 9.5 min.; and pass out of the shadow at lOhr. 57min. p.m. New Zealand mean time. The amount of the moon obscured at the greatest phase is a fraction less than onesixth.

The piles of dead sheep in the snow-bound heights in the south are a heart-rending sight. One party of “snow-rakers.” as they are called, found 800 dead in one gully (says the Malaura Ensign). In many cases where a sheep dies the others eat off all its wool so that when it is uncovered the hide is as clean as if it had been shaved.

A Masterton resident who for the past three or font* years has been under military medical treatment for a wound in the neck received at the war, on a recent evening developed a fit of coughing which dislodged a piece of shrapnel from his throat. Since recovery from the loss of blood he has enjoyed better health than for years.

Recently at the Feilding telephone exchange a test was taken of the time occupied in answering a call by the exchange attendants. Xo one knew that the test was being made, and from the records taken, it was found that from the moment of: the subscriber’s ring till the attendant’s answer was received only five seconds elapsed. This was the average I ime all I hrovigh.

On Saturday last a young man was taken suddenly ill and removed to the Christchurch hospital, where it was decided to operate immediately. II was evening when the patient recovered consciousness and turning to the nurse, he asked: “W)iat was the result?” “The operation was successful,” replied the nurse reassuringly. “Oh, hang the operation: what 1 want to know is who won the football match,” demanded the young enthusiast.

A conference of Anglican clergy in the Sydney diocese reviewed the Hickson Mission, its judgment generally being that the Mission had proved a blessing to the community in many ways not only respecting remarkable cures, but in spiritual benefits. Though not deciding to co-ordinate in the spiritual mission work of the different denominational churches, members of the conference determined to do what they could as individuals in carrying forward the message of Christ’s healing. There has been some talk of the record heavy-weight duck eggs, but Mr David Rankin, an amateur poul-try-farmer of Miramar lias some white Leghorn fowls which are daily laying eggs of giant, proportions and extraordinary weight (relates tlie Xew Zealand Times). Day after day some of the fowls lay eggs half a pound in weight and never indulge in an extra cackle over it! The eggs are perfectly shaped, have n firm shell, and are said to tie of splendid flavour. This unique performance will surely take some heat ing.

The High Commissioner, Sir James Allen, writing to Premier YV. Massey from London, under date of June !), stales: “A dinner was given in London in honour of Dr. Maria Montessori, the well-known Italian educationalist, who is on a visit to this country, and T took the opportunity of taking to the dinner as my guests, Miss W. J. Maitland, of the Kellmrn Normal School, and the Misses Isa Morrison, E B. Lea, 0. Hewed, and Messrs R. Broad and j. Nairn, the New Zealand teachers who are working in this country under the exchange system.”

Why is it, I wonder, that so many people with advanced ideas are so often unattractive as companions'? Mr Bernard Gilbert, a winter in an English magazine, relates how he recently attended a summer colony of Fabians, “and liad a good view of the Communists, Feminists, Conchies, and all other brands of rebel. They talked faster than I had believed it possible for any human being to talk. Like burst water pipes! For hours! And all about nothing! If their sentences had been inverted no one would have been the wiser. And in the back-ground their prophet Shaw sat inscrutable, as if wondering “what a devil of a brood he had helped to hatch.”

Human remains, believed to be those of Bung Yum, a Chinese, were found at Round Hill, near Orepuki yesterday. Bung had been missing for three years. He was working a claim when lie disappeared. The Borough Council lias erected a five-light 600 e.p. Humphrey lamp at the entrance of the triangle in Main Street. The lamp radiates a powerful light fyr a considerable distance and makes the other street lamps pale into insignificance by comparison.

A meeting of the ladies’ committee in connection with the Footballers’ Ball was held on Thursday night. Matters in connection with catering were discussed and it was* decided to invite residents to donate cash, eggs, fruit, cakes, etc. and to leave same at the residence of Mrs Stevenson, Hall Street. An extraordinary mishap occurred in a settler’s household near Wanganui recently. One of the children, a little mite of just walking age, was playing in the garden when the mother was alarmed by the child’s terrified screams. Rushing to the rescue, she found that a neighbour’s cat had caught tho child by the little linger, which it had chewed to the bone. The eat was promptly shot.

“We are told on every side that the farmer is the backbone of the country,” said the president of the Wellington branch of the Marine Engineers’ Institute, Mr A. Basire, at a gathering of.members, “but if the farmer is the backbone then the engineers are the legs on which the backbone is supported. We freeze his goods and take them overseas to the great markets of the world and if it were not for the engineer the farmer would still be pi'oducing in pounds where to-day be produces in tons.”

“Do you know how to distinguish between the bids of the dealer and Ihe farmer?” remarked a person in the know to a “Herald” reporter ut the Wanganui stock sales. “Yes,” replied the reporter. “By carefully watching the dealers.” “That’s not the way at all,” remarked the questioner. “A genuine farmer buyer generally comes in at the end with pennies or 3d. The dealers hop off with shilling bids, and when you see these shillings pouring in pretty thick you generally know who is operating.” At the Dunedin Supreme Court on Thursday, the ease against Abraham Alfred Lind was concluded. Lind, who was an evangelist and •missioner, was indicated on nine counts of rape and indecent assault, the alleged offences being against members of his own flock. The ages of three women concerned ranged from 21 to 30 years. After a retirement of four and a-lialf hours, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on onef count of indecent assault, and prisoner was sentenced to seven years hard labour. The London Chamber of Shipping has issued an additional statement regarding port dues, pointing out that in several New Zealand ports, the port charges exceed stevedoring expenses, sometimes being nearly double. Also that a steamer calling at six New Zealand ports had to pay £7OO for pilotage. Another, calling at four ports, paid £B4O. In practically every case the heaviest item in port charges is pilotage, except at Wellington, where a voluntary coasting pilot does for £2O to £25 service for which the official charge exceeds £6O.

Mr Henry Jackson, a resident of Spring!on, South Canterbury, was born in Hampshire on July 27, 1823, and he is therefore over 100 years of age. In October 50 years will have passed since his arrival in the district, and lie has not travelled further away than 25 miles from his residence in all these years. Mr Jackson is a remarkably well-pre-served man, and the years he has known have scarred him little. His face is thin, but there is still a twinkle in his eye and he smiles when he calls to mind some happenings of his early days. In figure he is slightly bent, but he is able to walk about the house and garden when

lllu. -sitiufr Ilit* tlitlifuhie.s in the way which prevented the mountain area of the Main Trunk railway from being negotiated during daylight, Mr F. W. Mac Lean, Chief Railway Engineer, mentioned on Tuesday that the least amount of darkness possible would be a train which left Auckland at midnight, and arrived at Wellington at 6 p.m. This, he remarked, would just about correspond to the time of the departure of the wrecked train. During the winter months daylight would lie met near Taumarunui and would he lost about Paekakariki. The only alternative to running trains through the mountain country during the night was to stop overnight at an intermediate station, and this the public would not tolerate.

When they charged Robert Arndt (41) with drunkenness lie became quite indignant (says the Auckland Star). “Drunk, you say, how could 1 be drunk when I had only three beers and two half-han-dles? What I had was an epileptic fit!” Senior-Sergeant Rawle remarked that Arneil said precisely the same thing last time. “You certainly don’t look like an epileptic,” said Mr Poynton, S.M. “Well, I am, and a whole lot of Auckland doctors know it.” A constable gave evidence as to having picked up Arneil in a drunken state the other night. “All right, we’ll agree with you,” said his Worship to Arneil. “You will be lined 40s in default three days for this your second epileptic tit in six months. Three days should cure you of your epileptic trouble.”

A fire alarm test and turn-out was made by the local Fire Brigade, under Superintendent MeDemiid, at 3 o’clock this morning. The night watchman gave the alarm from the N.Z. Shipping Co.’s premises and indicated Palmer’s Family Hotel. The time occupied from the moment the telephone alarm was given till the engine arrived at the hotel was just under four minutes. The brigade is to be congratulated upon what must be considered a splendid performance.

A wife who stated that she had opened certain of her husband’s correspondence while he was separated from her was told very plainly bv Mr Bundle, S.M., at Dunedin, that she had exceeded her rights. A letter had come a week before from the Pensions Department and the husband knew nothing about it. “You had no right to open letters not addressed to you,” said His Worship. “I was told I could open his pension papers, and I always have,” replied the woman, reports the Star. “It doesn’t matter who told you. Just understand that in future,” Ilks Worship warned her. Only on five occasions has the child of an English Sovereign been married in Westminister Abbey. The first was 050 years ago, in 12(19, when the younger son of Henry 111 was married. A century later in 1383, King Richard 11. led his bride Anne, of Bohemia, from the Abbey altar. After the lapse of another hundred years, in 1486, Elizabeth of York was wedded in Westminister Abbey to Henry VII., the alliance uniting the White and Red Roses. Last year’s wedding of Princess Mary was the fourth, and the Duke of York a few weeks ago was the fifth.