NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2649, 23 October 1923, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

Story books for blind children contain raised pictures. A silkworm in its brief lifetime, spins about 4,000 yards of thread. No very large catches of trout have been reported in Auckland so far this season. One of the oldest doctors in England is Dr. Addfield, of Hove. He qualified in 1850. W omen in Egypt are appealing tor a law to be passed raising the marriage age of girls to 10. Telegrams connected with horse racing represent nearly 17 per cent, cf the whole telegraphic traffic of flic year in England. .Bees entered a house in Stone, Staffs, and took such complete possession of it that the occupants had in leave. The Bank of Now Zealand’s new cheque forms are on sensitised paper, so that any attempt made by chemical aid to alter the writing would be easily detected, as the parts treated will become white. The Te Aroha Bowling Club has initiated playing bowls at night by "hetrie light. Powerful arc lights are in the centre of the green. The largest storage tank in the world has just been completed in California. It is of concrete, and half under ground level. It covers 20 acres, and holds a million and a quarter barrels of oil.

Marseilles is excited by-the discovery of precious stones inside fish. Recently a superb emerald was found in a dogfish. Later a lisherman netted a bass weighing 011>s. On cutting il open lie found an Oriental turquoise of rare beauty and without fault, weighing 50 grammes. A horticultural freak, a double lemon, is recorded by Ibe Bay of Plenty Times. In /the middle of an average sized lemon was a small lemon, the position of the‘latter being identical with that of the yolk of an egg. The smaller lemon had a thick skin and was perfectly shaped. A girl clerk in Dunedin who had cashed a cheque for £BO for her employers lost the money in the street. Fortunately a business man picked up the money near the hank in question, and as a result of inquiries, made there, was able to restore the. lost cash to its rightful owners a. short time after it had been missed.

In addition lo (he (juniitity of New Zealand buffer imported into the United Kingdom for the year ended June 30, 1023. namely 63,610 tons, shipments were made to other eountries amounting to 4,078 tons, including 1,503 lons to the United States, 800 tons to Canada, 1,115 tons to Australia, 250 tons to France, 235 tons to Hawaii and 65 tons to China. These figures compared with 2,387 tons for the preceding year, most of which went to the United States. The quantities of butter and cheese graded for export during the period under review was 67,035 tons of butter and 61,065 tons of cheese, converted into butter-fat equivalent, represented an increase of 21 per cent, in milk production for twelve months. That the rabbit in King Pest in Australia is beyond question. On one estate in New South Wales five men trapping and poisoning, and one man working 20 dogs have been getting an average of 700 rabbits a night, according to one of the rabbit inspectors, who complains that landholders are not doing enough to try to cope with the problem. At another centre there are reported to he tens of thousands of rabbits and millions of them in another part of the country. On one estate alone more than 25,000 rabbits have been killed since last .January, and it is estimated that there are still 25,000 there. The estate has spent £6OO in four months in trying to decimate the ranks of the pest, hut the feeling is growing that it is all a case of Dame Partington, who finding the sea sweeping up to her door, tried, hut in vain, to sweep it hack. Wire netting, it is felt, is the only thing effectually to stem (he oncoming tide of rabbits. Landholders generally do not appear to be enamoured of the poisoning -tunls. Unfortunately the rabbit is a believer in lame families. Just now the climatic conditions and the shooting grass make the present season an ideal one for breeding, and a large increase is anticipated. The. Main Trunk express drew up at one of the swampy localities on the way from Wellington, and during the stoppage two lady passengers made observations of an inleresliug note in natural history, of which they had not previously heard. A flock of ducks were disporting themselves in the water near the train, when one of them was seen to dive and bring up in its beak an egg, which was carried away, apparently to the nest. Presumably it had been accidentally laid.in the water, where, of course, it could not be hatched. It is quite a common Ibing for domestic ducks to lay in ' the water, but to reclaim them in this manner is a new experience.