NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2654, 3 November 1923, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

The growing total of unpaid fees is giving the Wellington Hospital Board some concern. The amount outstanding is now over £75,000.

Two thousand four hundred and twenty-four dozen eggs were despatched from the Levin Poultrykeepers’ Association’s depot this week, says the “Chronicle,” a slight decline from last week’s total. A Rapanui man who advertised for farm labour got one response—from a girl. It was a genuine application as she was used to farm work in England. She. is, however, at present in domestic service, and not yet available to show Rapanuians that a woman can do most things that a man can, and just as well, if not better. There is a farmer in the Wanganui district who has a lady ploughwoman, and the furrows she ploughs are straight enough to please the most fastidious farmer.

Two men occupying a. double bed at a Takaka hotel recently had a narrow escape. One of them had carelessly dropped a lighted cigarette on the mattress, which was soon in flames. . Smoke issuing from the room prompted investigations, and when the room was entered both men were fast asleep, and the burning mattress had to be dragged from under them. The mattress and some blankets were partly destroyed, and one of the men had his clothes burned.

Edison is one of the most absentminded of men. This story of him relates to the visit of the inventor to the office of the tax collector. Standing in line, with a score or more of taxpayers in front of him, Edson’s mind reverted to an important experiment on which he had been engaged. When his turn came at the window to which he had moved mechanically, he was aroused by a clerk asking his name. He looked at the man vacantly: “I could no more have given it than I could have flown,” he confided to an acquaintance. Luckily an official who recognised him and knowing of his forgetfulness, helped him out.