NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2959, 7 November 1925, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

When completed, Mount Pleasant Post Office, London, will cover sixteen acres. Over 4000 new recruits for the British Territorial Army were enlisted in July. A Dublin woman has received a postcard posted to her 15 years ago from New Zealand. Tobacco crops grown in Hampshire are expected to average more than 1,000 lbs. of tobacco per acre. At the inquest on Coleridge tunnel victims, the Jury returned a verdict that the three men died of injuries received at Lake Coleridge on October 2, and that the jury was of opinion that there Avas no blame attachable to the contractor or any person in charge of the works, or engaged in the work. Mr. Albert W. Smith, Maidstone, president of the Kent BoAA'ling Association has been informed by the governor of Maidstone Prison that during, the winter they would lay down a bowling green on the governor’s laAvn for Avell-behaved prisoners. The governor has made an appeal for 16 pairs of “Avoods,” and there have been many promises that these will be forthcoming. In nearly all the small toAvns in Spain the buying of ice-cream from a street vendor is made the opportunity for a gamble. On the top of the zinc pail that holds the cream is a small Avooden plate, above Avhich is poised a revolving stick. Round the edges of the plate, Avhich is gaily coloured, graded numbers from ten to one hundred are painted. The intending purchaser pays the vendor a penny, Avhich entitles him to one tAvist of the stick. It the pointer indicates a number higher than that made by the stallholder, the Avinner is entitled to an icecream free of charge and another twist of the stick. With luck, and provided the game is played fairly, one can have a succession of ices for the original penny. If the stallholder wins in the first instance the penny is lost and the customer receives nothing.

A NeAV Yorker, Avriting by last mail to a friend in Hamilton, says: “Last, night I suav a film news reel of our sailors in Rotorua and Auckland, and two dear little flappers, seeing the Maoris dancing for the sailors, exclaimed, “My gracious, why did they send the fleet to NeAV Zealand? They are savages. Wonderful, isn't it But there are actually millions here Avho believe the same thing. When our ‘saltys’ return, hoAvever, I knOAV many Avill be enlightened. Trust them for that. The papers here have printed many things in connection Avith our fleet on your shores which reflect badly on the friendliness and hospitality of NeAV Zealanders, but of course, that’s mere newspaper talk. News that our boyswere liostilely received in the Antipodes seems preposterous, but there are always those Avho are ready to believe anything. Something must be wrong with the tar-mixing recipe used by the Greymouth Borough Council lately (says the Greymouth Star.) The half-set sticky tar on several ’footpaths has been the cause of many crosswords. Some of these were enunciated recently in vehement Chinese. An elderly native of China was proceeding along the footpath near the police station, when his boots actually stuck to the tar or vice versa. After a comical look of astonishment, John decided to take his boots off, and sat doAvn to do so. He couldn’t get up! Held fast by the clutching tar he sent out an “5.0.5.” call and repeated it until rescued by the strong arm of the Mav. “Hoav are you going to pick the Presbyterians out of a crowd of four or five hundred?” asked the Rev. J. Lamb Harvey at a meeting of the Auckland Presbytery on Friday evening. “For my oavii part, he continued, “I look for the most intelligent or for those that speak Scotch.” Mr. Harvey Avas explaining the present methods by Avhich the Presbyterian Church gets in touch with immigrants arriving from England. It Avas the rule for the ministers to take it in turn to act as immigration officers at the ship’s side, he said. Unfortunately they did not all find the work congenial. Some shrank from tackling an aggressive-looking female, while others Avere not at least diffident. He had seen one calmly nursing a baby while the mother Avas busy elswhene. A less confident minister would be sure to drop the baby.