Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1923. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2625, 28 August 1923, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1923. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The friends of Mrs Owen will he pleased to know (hat she is making a satisfactorp recovery from her recent serious indisposition.

The local Territorials commenced a week’s training yesterday Sergt.-Major Peare is in charge and the location is the racecourse.

Some good hauls of whitebait were made by local fishermen during the week-end, and it is reported that the “bait” was even more pi en tif ul yester da y.

At the conclusion of the point-to-point steeplechase meeting tomorrow, a ball will be held in the evening. It is anticipated that visitors will be present at the function from all parts of (lie district.

“During mv thirty odd years residence in this district, I have not experienced such bitterly cold weather as during the present winter.” The above remark was made to our representative by a local settler on Saturday. There is a peculiar llower growing in Central America which bears in the centre of the petals a snowwhite image of a dove. The Spaniards, upon discovering this peculiar blossom, called it the Holy Ghost flower, and soon created a tradition, according to which it came down from heaven. Some folks out here think they pay more for their beef than is paid at home. A Wanganui lady recently sent to relatives in the Old Land a price list for beef published by a local butchery linn. By last mail she received a London price list, giving the following prices: Eillet beef 2s Bd, rump steak 2s Bd, sirloin Is lid, ribs Is lid, top side Is Bd, flank Is, steak Is 9d, gravy beef Is 4d, brisket lOd.

During the year ended 31st March, 1923, 1,805 cinematograph pictures, of a total length of 4,416,940 feet, were censored in New Zealand. Of these, 42 were rejected, and 115 passed subject to excisions. Four appeals were heard during the year by the Board of Appeal set up in accordance with the regulations made under the authority of the Act; three were disallowed, and one was allowed subject to an excision.

A woman presented herself at the door of a professional man, and, holding towards him a bulky parcel, announced that she wanted her dog “stuffed,” and that the package contained the animal in question. The professional man assured her that he did not “stuff” dogs, or, in fact, any other animal. The visitor became indignant, and demanded to know why people should be brought from the other end of the town on a fool’s errand. Finally she flounced out, only enlightening the object of her wrath as she passed down the street, muttering: “Calls himself a chiropodist, and can’t stuff a dog. Some people are full of swank.”

The Levin Borough Council has decided that the Power Board take over the street lighting in the borough.

Mrs Connolly, the wife of a railway employee at Adelaide, in a fit of dementia," drowned her two young children. She informed her husband that the water was not deep enough to drown herself. Although they made no appeal for assistance, the Chinese gardeners of Dunedin, who suffered loss to the extent of £3,000 during the flood period, are being reimbursed by the relief committee to the extent of about £7OO.

At last meeting of the Borough Council the Town Clerk said he had been asked why the Council did not observe its own building by-laws in connection with the erection of the Council Chambers, as there were no parapets on the side walls.

A farmer in the Waimate district who had 70 acres in wheat and oats last year, found himself £3O out of pocket when all expenses of production, threshing charges, etc., had been paid. This is one of the reasons why the dairying and slice]) farming industries are making such a forward move in the wheat districts at the present time. New York’s 14-vear-old prodigy, Edward Roche Hardy, who has graduated from Columbia University and is said to be a master of twelve languages, arrived recently at Plymouth. Apart from languages, his hobby is Assyrian and Babylonian history, during the study of which he deciphered ancient hieroglyphic tablets. He has studied a dozen sciences, and plays several musical instruments. He intends to become a clergyman. That horse-racing and its concommitant, betting, are the ruling passion in Australia admits of no argument. Figures tell their own story. According to the latest New South Wales Treasury report, the yearly totalisator investments in this State between 1918 and 1923 increased to the extent of £2,000,000, and the bookmaker, who also bets alongside the machine, seems to flourish more than ever. The gross investments in the totalisator from 1918 to 1923 were, to he precise, £15,397,886.

General Brninwell Bootli stated at Norwich recently that in spite of the war, the Salvation Army had made more advance in the last ten years than in any previous decade in its history. He mentioned that lie had just entered into an agreement with the British Government for transplanting many people to the overseas Dominions, and was appealing for £100,090 to carry out that work. Seven or eight years ago he received £70,000 as the result of a similar appeal, and all the people sent out had done well.

The discovery of a new volcani. island in the China Sea was re ported at San Francisco by Captaii Oliver Olligreen, of the steame Elkridge. Captain Olligreen, oi

March 15th, sighted the island ii latitude 10 degrees 10 minute north, longitude 109 degrees east If was about 100 feet high, am spouting what appeared to be min 300 feet into the air at irregular in tervals. The Elkridge did not .op proaeli near enough to the islam for Captain Olligreen to ascertaii its size.

There has been considerable building activity in Hamilton during the past few months, particularly in the suburbs, where a large number of dwellings and shops have gone, and are still going up (states an exchange). The main street does not show the same progressive signs, although several contracts have been let for fairly substantial buildings. The value of the permits issued this year will exceed even the greatest record of last year. For July, permits to the value of £18,353 comprised permits for twenty-one houses and eight shops.

In replying to expressions of good wishes tendered to him at Palmerston yesterday, as the Main Trunk train from Auckland passed through, Mr Massey stated that he was leaving that night for the other side of the world, and that properly enough, there was more interest in the forthcoming conference than in any of its predecessors. He would be away for about live months, and hoped to lind, upon his return, the same happiness and prosperity reigning. He would not forget the gathering at Palmerston North. Messrs J. A. Nash and J. Linklater, M’s.P., accompanied Mr Massey to Wellington.

A somewhat unusual, hut fortunately harmless, accident occurred some days ago near Invercargill. Two men were jogging peacefully along the road in a gig drawn by a dejected-looking horse, when the girth broke, and the horse, feeling its ties slipping away, reared violently and plunged forward, severing connection with the vehicle. In a trice the shafts of the trap were pointing dramatically at the heavens, while the dazed occupants found themselves lying side by side on their backs in the middle of the road. However, both were unhurt, and began to right the trap to the accompaniment of humorous remarks by the small band of spectators which had collected. But fortune was against them. As they lighted the trap a two-gallon keg rolled from under the seat, and fell heavily to the road. The comments of the spectators became caustic. The conspicuous two hurriedly veiled the keg with an overroat, and, having placed it carefully beneath a hedge out of harm’s way, went in search of the recalcitrant animal, who was enjoying in full the sweets of unexpected freedom.

The Monscar Cup match between New Plymouth Boys’ High School and Palmerston North Boys’ High School will take place at New Plymouth on Thursday.

At the Wellington Police Court yesterday, George Hannington Bemmcrs, an ex-member of the South African police, was fined £SO, or three months 1 imprisonment, for being unlawfully in possession of a revolver.

Confetti will be banned in future from all pleasure fairs at Burton-on-Trent (England). This decision has been reached by the town council owing to the following statement- that unscrupulous dealers shovel the used confetti out of the gutters and resell it. Consumption and other diseases, it is contended, are thus spread. An organised petition and protests from Labour members have failed to alter the council’s opinion.

One at least of our New Zealand birds will survive the struggle for existence and compete successfully with the imported birds, which are blamed for their disappearance, and that one is the silver eye or blight bird. Possibly this is due to the circumstances to which his Maori name points, “Tauhou” (the stranger). Yesterday morning (says a recent issue of the Palmerston N. Times) some interested spectators were privileged to watch one of these tiny insect-eaters enjeying a tasty picking from a beef bone on the lawn, while a dozen hungry sparrows were in turn chased off to sit in a. watchful and hungry “meat queue.”

The Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department has issued a notice which is to be exhibited at all post offices drawing attention to the provision in the law making it an offence for a person to open a letter addressed to another person. It is stated that the offence has recently grown more common than it used to be in certain circles, either through inadvertence or idle curiosity. The notice is as follows: “Before a letter is opened, the address should be examined. The delivery of a letter to a person for whom it is not intended does not excuse the opening of the letter by that person. Section 91 (1) of the Post and Telegraph Act, 1908, prescribes that every person who, contrary to his duty, opens, or procures, or suffers to be opened, a postal packet, is liable on indictment to imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, or to a fine of £SO, or to both.”

This is almost too good a story to be true, nevertheless it can be vouched for (says the Southland Daily News). There is a certain vicarage at Invercargill, and one day this week a big retriever dog presented himself at the back door and evidenced a desire to become acquainted. Much to his satisfaction, he was given a savoury hone. But next morning he appeared a-

gain and brought a friend, and both were rewarded with something to eat. On the third morning the retriever was once more prompt in his attendance, but, alas, the cupboard was bare. lie was nettled, and sent reluctantly away. The consternation of the lady of the house can, however, be imagined, when about half an hour later he returned and proudly deposited on the doorstep a sirloin of beef, obviously stolen from the butcher nearby, and stiil bearing a ticket marked 3s 2d! The lady is now wondering whether she is to be regarded as an accessory after the fact, or whether her canine friend was merely acknowledging past favours.

The French Minister of Labour towards the end of July made an important announcement concerning the Frelieh law in regard to married women workers. A French company, in contracts with typists, recently stipulated that in the event of a girl contemplating marriage she must hand in her resignation a month before the ceremony. The Minister pointed out that marriage constituted the exercise of a natural faculty, and such determination of a contract might give ground for a claim for damages, especially as recent French legislation aimed at fostering marriage by every means in view of the serious fall in the birth-rate since the war began. The acceptance of the objectionable clause in advance would not be operative under French law, which prohibited contracting out. The Minister added that he was prepared to ask Parliament to take action to prevent the dismissal of a woman because she was going to be married.

Some striking facts and figures with regard to woman and child labour in Japan were quoted this week by Miss M. A. Dingman, in an address at Auckland. “There are at present one and a-quarter million women working in Japanese factories,” she said, “while 80 per cent, of the children under age, also working in factories, are little girls. One of the outstandng impressions of my visit to that country is a visit I paid to one of the mines, where, nearly a thousand feet down under the ground, women, clad only in a loin-cloth, were working together with the men. There are 60,000 Japanese women working in the mines to-day. And yet, when you think of these things, you must remember that it was not until 1842 that British law took women out of the mines, after an industrial revolution had been in opex - ation for 70 years. It is not yet quite 50 years since Japan began to work in the same direction, and there is need for all the help that can be given in the working out of her great industrial problems,”

Residents possessing hunting scene pictures are respectfully requested to loan same for decoration purposes for to-morrow night’s hall.

A clear sky enabled all who thought of it to observe the partial eclipse of the moon on Sunday night. The shadow which obliterated a section of the moon was quite distinct.

Sir Francis Bell stated in the Legislative Council yesterday, in reply to a direct question, that the programme on which the Department was working was based on the expectation that current would he available from Mangahao for Wellington about June next. Following the decision of the League of Nations to deal with the question of slavery at its next meeting, the Anti-slavery and Aborigines Protection Society has prepared a memorandum stating that slavery involving over a million persons prevailed in Abyssinia and the mandated territories in South-West Africa and Tanganyika.

“After spending £25,000, my husband disappeared, leaving me with nine children. I have not seen him since.” Pauline Bradley, who was married to John Bradley 31 years ago, told Mr Justice Mann in the Melbourne Divorce Court that her husband deserted her, leaving her with nine children. She was petitioning for divorce on the grounds of desertion. “I was in comfortable circumstances when we married, and he went through about £25,000 of my money,” she said. Mrs Bradley owned Balranald Station at the time of her marriage. Her husband left her in 1915, and she never saw him again. After his disappearance she had inquiries made, but without result. Mr Justice Mann reserved judgment. A fat lamb which rivalled the proverbial cat for the numerical strength of its lives, caused a diversion at the Inglewood railway station when some sheep were being detrained (states an exchange). Frightened and separated from its companions by an approaching goods train which was running slowly on to a siding, this lamb sought the quickest route to rejoin the flock, and dived under the moving train. To the surprise of the bystanders, who expected to see the unfortunate animal mangled by the wheels, it emerged uninjured hut on the same side of the train. Not discouraged, it stood back and repeated its performance several times, but though once under tile trucks by some trick of fate it was not caught by the wheels. The train was brought to a standstill, and no time was lost by the lamb in rejoining the flock.