NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2702, 1 March 1924, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

Denmark —the most progressive dairying country in the x^orkl —imports yearly cattle food tthe value of between three and four million pounds. The danger to life arising from the presence of weeds in the Havelock North hirer was exemplified the other day (says the Hawke's Bay Herald) bv the fact that two lads were nearly drowned. A youth named Claude Cash went nnt to the middle of the river to rescue some sheep, which were in difficulties. Ho was caught jn the weeds and when lie became almost totally exhausted he called to his brother, who was working about 100 yards away. His brother, fully clad, swam to his rescue, and it took him all his time to get, his brother and himself ashore, owing to the entangling water growths. Both hoys hold swimming certificates and were finite capable of swimming considerable distances were it not for the weed obstruction and swimmers are therefore warned of the danger of bathing in water where it is infested with these treacherous growths.

A gigantic organisation for the smuggling of cocaine and other drugs out of Germany to Holland, Britain and other countries has been discovered by the Hamburg police, li appears to he the world's most efficient smuggling concern, and a number of Hamburg chemical firms of high standing arc alleged tit he involved in its operations. More than sixty persons have been arrested including a number of dealers and representatives of chemical manufactories. Some have been freed on bail, hut the scandal is so gloat that the Chamber of Commerce, according to the National Zeitung, has already withdrawn the trading licenses of a number of firms. The smugglers possessed a (lotilia, of sail boats which made apparently innocent trips along the const and deposited the drugs at lonely places on the shore or in the Frisian Islands, whence they .were fetched for furl Iter conveyance alioard. Tar barrels and oil cans with false bottoms were used for concealing the cocaine and other drugs. It is stated that, the value of the chemicals thus smuggled runs into millions of pounds.