NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2645, 13 October 1923, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

“No one knows what Geodesy is,” remarked Colonel Sir George Lennon Conyngham, when explaining the part he took at the Pan-Pacific Science Congress as one of the British representatives. Geodesy, it ; may be explained, is the science of .determining the size and shape of the earth.

“Never trouble trouble until trouble troubles you, is a good motto.” This was the selection for the impromptu speech at the Wanganui competitions last week and it troubled the competitors very much, in fact overwhelmed one of them. Usually the selection has something- to do with love or matrimony, but rather a surprise was sprung on the amateur orators.

Writing to “The Times,” Baron Blyth .states that one of the most pressing and urgent problems is cheaper postage. Whatever plans the Imperial Conference adopts to reconstruct world commerce must be shorn of half their value without a return to penny postage, in which New Zealand now leads the way. If the whole Empire followed this lead, it would solve many questions that now confront statesmen. “Penny postage is the magic axis round which the wheels of the Empire’s trade and industry will move with ever increasing nTomenlum.”

We can scarcely congratulate ourselves on our new penny stamp (says a correspondent to a southern paper). A°a distance it reminds one of a skinned rabbit. Surveyed more closely, the North Island resembles the skate —“the fish of Maui,” I presume. The South Island has the outline of an intelligent terrier. Why not keep to the handsome King George series? the best we have ever had in New Zealand, both for use and beauty of execution. Change the pink sixpenny to violet and use the pink for the new penny.

Gossip about the Prince of Wales never ceases. An officer on the Sonoma (states an Australian paper) offers to bet that within the year the Prince will be engaged to a Canadian girl—daughter of a rich rancher and landowner. All Canada believes that it was with Our Lady of the Snows that the Prince lost his heart; and there are endless stories about his disappearing from official ken in Canada to fox-trot with the girl of his choice.

A girl serving in tea rooms in Hawera, whose parents are. both dead and whose outlook on life a few days ago could not have been described as very encouraging, has just received advice from a solicitor that a friend of her mother’s has just died and has left her .€1,500. The girl did not know the lady personally, but she is doubtless very grateful for kindness.

Colonel and Mrs Knudson, of Christchurch, who are in charge of the Australian and New Zealand orphanage at Antilyas, in Syria, announce the birth of a baby boy. He was born of New Zealand parents, under the Stars and Stripes, in an Arab city which }s under French Protectorate. 'The event has provided the child’s parents with a serious problem. Just how shall they determine their son’s nationality?

The thickness of a penny standing between life and dentil is a "-mallei- margin of safety than most pcojde would desire; yet a penny recently saved the life of a young man not far from Dunedin. The young man was driving a motor ear on the Outran! road, and without any warning received a severe shook by being struck by what proved to be-a bullet. Luckily he had 1i penny in one of his lower pockets, of his waistcoat. The bullet struck this coin and crumpled il almost out of recognition. The party in the car heard no sound which would indicate the discharge of a rifle. A doctor of chiropody warns young men to “beware of the girl with the high heel, pointed toe, and that instep, because she’s a .jazz fiend, and ignorant of how to use up yesterday’s mutton palatably. Hut you’re on a winner no matter how ugly the girl is, if her instep is nicely arched, her toes broad, and her shoes plain and serviceable. These are the characteristics of domesticated women, who can make an omelette and cut father’s pants to fit young Willie. Great interest is being taken in Detroit, in a plant for the distillation of eoal, which Ford is building. The process was discovered by IL Caraohristio, an Italian, ft removes from coal various tar products, including a valuable motor petrol, and leaves a residue which gives in burning many times the heat derivable from coal, which more than pays for Hie original cost of the coal. Ford’s plant, which is nearing completion, will be ready to determine the commercial value of the process by December.

The diversion of! goods through the Otira Tunnel which formerly were shipped over the Greymouth wharf, combined with the present idleness of eoal mines in the district is greatly affecting operations at the port of Greymouth, and the watersiders are experiencing a very slack time. Work has been scarce ever since the coal mining trouble commenced. Much timber and coal are being sent by rail instead of by sea, and exports generally have fallen off. Now that the Otira Tunnel provides an outlet across the South Island, steamers bring practically nothing to the port, and take away only a little coal. The membership of thc Greymouth Waterside Workers’ Union has decreased from 300 to 200, many men having gone elsewhere in search of employment.