NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2716, 3 April 1924, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES

A petition recently presented to President Coolidge asking for the entry of the United States into the World Court had over a mile of signatures. In connection with the tour of the New South Wales cricketers it is expected that after the accounts have been settled the council will profit approximately by £IOOO.

When I went to the Kiwitea district 13 years ago there were very few rabbits, but they increased to an alarming extent and something had to be done. They ai'e increasing in Feilding, and can even he seen in gardens and yards about the town. —Mr A. P. Francis, in the “Star.”

Wizard Smith, who passed through Otorohanga last week on his re-cord-breaking motor-cycle run from Wellington to Auckland was held up by a man shoveling gravel for metaling the road. “Let me through I’m making time,” sang out Smith. “You’ll be doing time if you don’t look out,” was the hectic response, as the speed merchant swung )>v. Quite recently a Tikorangi resident, while ploughing, fell the need of a drink, and bent over a small stream flowing near (lie field he was working in (says the Wnitnrn Mail). As he put his mouth to the water an eel seized his lower lip with its teeth and inflicted a nasty wound, tearing the flesh and leaving teeth-marks.

The Bank of New Zealand has received the following advice: —We are advised that the Woolbrokers’ Association, having made representations to the Government, are now empowered to sell sheepskins received without ears on. Any skins which have been held hack will therefore he sold at the next auctions.

Mr R. E. Gill, of Falmouth, has been engaged to lay out the ground round the New Zealand pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition. Some 500 New Zealand native trees and shrubs will he planted, while 20 very fine specimens: of cabbage trees are being loaned for the purpose. A number of trees have also been obtained from Ireland, including specimens of Irish flax.

While Mr. R. M. Mowatf was surveying in the Pnpuni (Ruakituri) district recently (states the “Wniroa Star”) he came across a horticultural curiosity in the shape of what appeared to him to he a new apple. The latter has all the marking and finalities of a Gravenstein, hiit is coreless and apparently seedless unless a number of linv seeds the size of a pin’s head can he termed pips. Mr Mowat! is thinking of sending a specimen to Air Luther Burbank, the famous' horticultural expert, <>f California.

Recently a Timaru business man received a great surprise when a lady customer was paying an no count. which amounted to £l9 (stales the Timaru Post). After placing flic £1 note on the (able, she slowly counted IS sovereigns, and handed them over to her creditor. This, he says, is the first occasion on which he has been paid in gold during the past ten years. Many people have a few sovereigns safely pul away, hut if is seldom that they are used to pay an account.

A love letter posted over seventeen years ago, with the Brighton postmark “July, 190(i.” has just been delivered to Air Herbert Knott, a market gardener, of Gravel Road Kent. The postman handed the letter to Airs Knott, who found if a love letter she had written when she was 17, on a summer holiday at Brighton. “Aly a husband and I were then bov and girl friends,” Airs Knott said, and, fortunately, the loss of the letter did not make any difference to our happiness. We were married in 1999 and have two children.”

“There is one steward on I lie Niagara who boasts that lie makes £IOOO a year,” stated Mr. W. G. Smith (representing the Union Company), at the Arbitration Court at Wellington during the discussion regarding tips, at the hearing of the cooks’ and stewards’ dispute. The manner in which lliis steward lived ashore, said Mr Smith, indicated that he received a great deal. He stayed at the Hotel Australia, in Sydney. One day, when at this hotel, he approached an erlswhile passenger and remarked: “You don’t remember me: T was bedroom steward on the Niagara.” Tito pnsengor certainly did not recognise the steward, who was then dressed for polo. Air E. Kennedy (representing flic employees) : Thai man must have had a good hold on your leg when lie pul over that tale. Air Smith : Tt is no fairy tale.

The need of more care in the translation of advertisements for sending abroad is emphasised in the American Commerce reports, which give some amusing instances of blunders in circulars and pamphlets issued by American manufacturers and exporters. For example, a manufacturer of saddlery, anxious to make his goods known in Spanishspeaking countries, sent out pamphlets describing some harness for o single-horse • buggy. The translator, having no idea of the subject he had to deal with, made a literal version with the aid of a dictionary. The result was: “Harness full of hugs, for a bachelor horse." Vacuum cleaners have appeared in oilier translations as “cleaners of emptiness,” monkey wrenches as “wrenches for monkeys,” and iron washers as “machines to clean iron.” Many thrilling ad veil tune* with waterspouts have been recorded by sailors, hut it is seldom that oue

hears a vessel actuallv wrecked as a result of an encounter with one. News has just reached Auckland of the rescue of the crew of a vessel wlieh was overwhelmed bv a waterspout that occurred 99 miles south of the Island of Anna, which is some 200 miles cast of Tahiti. The vessel capsized as a result of I lie burst, but the crew mana.ired to take tvi the ship’s boat, and, after a voyage of four days, tliev reached the island of Mehetia. which is about 70 miles east of Tahiti. At Mehetia they were picked up bv a passing vessel and taken to Papeete. Oddly enough the vicinity of the island of Anna has been a particularly unlucky one for the Afininue. which is the name of the lost vessel, ns it. was there she was wrecked in December, 1921. At that time she was sailing under the house flag of S. R. Maxwell and Co., island traders. She was abandoned to the underwriters, and sold. Her new owner spent a considerable sum of money in reconditioning her, and she was again employed in I lie iu-ter-Island trade. The vessel was American-built, and was originally called the America.