NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2868, 7 April 1925, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

After experimenting for twelve years a French gardener has produced a “mistletoe plant,” growing in a pot, as a house decoration. The mistletoe shoots have been grafted on the top of a sapling appletree, pruned of twigs and leaves. After five years the grafted mistletoe bears berries. According to Mr George F. Chambers, (lie well-known astronomer, Denali's comet, which appeared in ISSS, revolves in an elliptic orbit the period of which has been variously estimated at 1870, 2040 and 2138 years. It will therefore be a. very long time before if is seen again. A woman, to be eligible for jury duty in Britain, must be between the ages of 2.1 and (SO, a householder assessed (in the provinces) at not less than £2O a year, the occupant of a. house with not less than 15 windows, and a natural-born, subject, or an alien of not less than 10 years’ domicile. Awarded a pension of 38/0 a week by the Glasgow Parish Council. a Highland widow took her live children home to Skye. Later she wrote to the clerk of the council asking to have lu*r pension reduced, as only two other persons — a, clergyman and one policeman — Were as well oft. It was resolved by the Shannon Chamber of Commerce at Thursday night’s meeting l to take exception to a statement made at Levin the other evening that Levin was the terminal for Foxton, pointing out that Shannon was Foxton’s nearest and most natural outlet.

The industry of the Maori people in some of the Wanganui River settlements is noted by the Wanganui Herald. A Kaiwhake settler states that the young natives there are far from being idolcnt, and the same remark applies to both sexes, young' and old. All active men find ready employment on the farms of the European settlers, who pay good wages and are well satislied with the work performed by the natives. The women, too, have taken contracts for digging potatoes, etc., and be says it is no unusual tiling to see them out at daylight and working till dark, with the necessary intervals for “kai.” They set an example, be says, for industry to many Europeans.

Admirable forethought was shown by a lady passenger to Wellington by the New Plymouth express the other day, when, having dropped her purse from the train, she immediately took a mental note of the exact time of the occurrence. On the arrival of the express at Johnsonville, she gave the necessary information to the officials there, and the approximate speed and the time of departure of the express from the previous station. The result was that the purse was found between the rails by the next train (a goods) which left Johnsonville on the up journey. The purse, which contained the passenger’s tickets and all her money, was lying ten yards from the spot fixed by the 'calculation. The lady, who was on her way to the South Island, was advised of her good fortune, on t he* same evening.