NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2738, 27 May 1924, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Thousands attended the funeral at Blackburn of Mrs Lewis, popularly known as the Lancashire “Temperance Queen.” She left £IOOO to temperance societies and £SOO tb Airs. Moss her mis^ioner. John Pedler, who has died at Bideford, Devon, aged 08, was immortalized by Kipling as the man in charge of tile tuck shop at the United Services College, Westward Ho, where the author was a student.

A man lately told the county court judge at Torquay that he and a family of nine had to go to bed in overcoats on rainy nights owing to the • bad state of the roof, or to sleep in a' cellar. “What an extraordinary house!” exclaimed Judge Parhtt when a woman, describing a dwelling at the' Clerkfcnwell County Court recently, said, “It is all front no back.”

A Waipukurau importer nurses a grievance regarding the relative cost of transport . charges on imports from Christchurch via Napier as compared with imports from the same source via Wanganui (says the “Telegraph”). He cites a case in point. A consignment of goods, 3cwt cost him £1 (3/- to land, at Waipukurau, via Napier, whereas just, previously he received scwt (the same class of. goods) via. Wanganui, for which the total transport charges amounted to £l- -

Says the Levin Chronicle: Extensive coral are forming at the southern end of Kapili island. The coral, which can he plainly seen from boats is in water about 12 ;

feet, deep and is of both pink and white varieties pieces being frequently dragged up on lines by fishermen. The growth would ap-. pear to be a comparatively new one the coral being dragged up being generally of shore growth, although only a thorough examination would determine this fact with certainty.

The idea of attaching tags to trout before they are liberated, in order the better to study their habits, has commended itself to the Ashburton Acclimatisation Society, says the Ahhurton Guardian. Several members of that body carried out recently in the Domain pond the operation of fixing little metal tags to the young trout. It, is hoped to liberate between 500 and 600 This is the first time the idea has been tried in Ashburton, though the Canterbury Society lias practiced it for some years. Catchers of this society’s trout have been reported from as far afield as Akaroa Harbour and the Waitaki Riv-

As a result of letters to the Minister of International Affairs, the Christchurch Returned S oldievs’ Association (stated an exchange I has been successful in getting the work of erecting permanent headstones to soldiers’ graves in Christchurch commenced. Originally it was decided to complete the work in the North Island lirsl, but work has now been commenced at the Sydenham Cemetery. The official headstone of New Zealand granite is being erected on each grave, and a concrete kerbing completes the work. There are no fewer than 2000 soldiers’ graves contained in 400. cemeteries situated in all parts of the Dominion and extending from within a few miles of the North Cape to Bluff. Some of these little cemeteries are in very isolated spots, but every soldier’s grave will eventually hoar the permanent granite headstone. A speaker claimed half-seriously at a meeting of the Otago Officers’ Club that the evolution of the submarine commenced in Otago Harbour, and described a cigar-shaped boat that was constructed by the Otago Submarine Mining Company' will the object of securing gold from the bed of the Molyneux River. After detail work had been completed a trail was made, and, with eight men enclosed, the vessel was submerged about where the Milburn Company’s works now stand. The air pumps worked allright, lint no means of talking to the men below were provided. Mattel’s did not develop satisfactorily inside and*there was a delay of scleral hours in returning to the surface, the craft finally being towed by a small steamer into shallower water and the crew released, much to the relief of themselves’ and their friends. The boat, which "as named the Platypus was never again submerged, and lay for many years on the foreshore (reports the Daily Times). Curiously enough she was purchased ‘in recent times (for £10) by a man who was present at the lecture. He had her cutin to three sectioins and sent to Bare-wood Reefs, where at least one of the portions is used as a water tank by a local farmer.