LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2985, 12 January 1926, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Last evening; an electric storm passed over this district, accompanied by a heavy downpour of rain. Mr J. Linklater, M.P., will visit Dunedin next month to attend the Harbour Board conference there. He will also “do” the Exhibition while in Dunedin. Col. R. Henry, chief secretary for the Salvation Army in New Zealand, has received word of his transfer to a similar position in Eastern Canada. The Christchurch City Council decided recently to raise a loan of £ISOO from the State Fire Insurance Department for building; houses. A resident of Levin was among the fortunate prize winners in the “Colossal Art Union,” receiving a prize of £SO (says the Croniele). According to the latest statistics Palmerston North ranks as seventh town in the Dominion in the matter of size of population, the figures being 19,240. Auckland heads the list with 180,790, folowed by Wellington 118,490, Christchurch 118,270, Dunedin 77,480, Wanganui 24,940, and Invercargill 20,990. Some cases are pending in the Rangitikei County against motorists who carried boxes on their cars for carrying goods, etc., extending over the limits of the running board (says the Wanganui Herald). Prosecutions will also be made against lorry owners for exceeding the ten-ton limit. These cases will he heard at Marlon.

Sinking- oxn mpl<* of Iho rnj)i»l easterly erosion ilie Manawatu River is making in places a| Moufoa is lo l>e witnessed at the site of the old Shannon Bridge. The remains of the bridge, one span of which was washed away almost two years ago, now stands on an isthmus of sand, high and dry, and the river, still working away from the structure,- flows past the end of the bridge instead of under it.

Whilst fishing in the Tuki Tnki River, Waipukurau, a resident was surprised to see a water rat emerge torn its hole, swim over to the opposite bank, and adeptly catch a four-inch trout lying in the shallows (states the Napier “Daily Telegraph”). The rodent then swam swiftly away, with its prey in its mouth, to its lair. Many lishermen were surprised to hear of such an occurrence, but' apparently the rat may be addl'd to the list id' natural enemies of the trout.

A. Wanganui resident; who spent the Christmas and New Year holidays at Kapiti Island states that he had a most enjoyable time fishing. There were plenty of king fish and they made excellent sport. In wandering about the island, be said he did not notice any increase in the wild pigeons since his last visit a year ago. A party of 28 members of the Tararua Tramping Club also visited the Island. They applied for permission to wander over the Government reserve, but only received after a good deal of red tape, permission for ten. ’flic \\ angunui visitor considers that as a sanctuary Kapiti is practically a failure. —Herald.

Nf> fire alarm was given in Ingle wood during the year 1925.

At last night’s council meeting accounts amounting to £856/13/1 were passed for payment.

An average of nearly two motor thefts a week was reported in Auckland last year.

During the month of December seven head of stock was impounded in the local pound and driving fees to the amount of 3/- collected.

It is reported that a Waikato purchaser recently secured 10,000 sheep in Hawke’s Bay at 10s per head.

At last night’s council meeting a motion that the weekly half-holiday for the year 1926 be held on Wednesday was adopted.

The heat of the sun was so intense in Hastings the other day that at mid-day the bitumen surface of the streets became very soft, and was quickly decorated with patterns of different motor tviw, horses' hoofs, and footmarks from pedestrians. The position became so bad that the Borough Council found it necessary to sprinkle shingle on the surface.

The Mannwatu Gorge Board of Control is to Commended for great improvements effected for the safety of the travelling public through the gorge. A few years ago this highway was so dangerous and was fraught with such risks that only the most experienced motorists would travel through it. Now, the most timorous driver can negotiate it. The road has been widened to allow two cars to pass and rails and concrete facings have been erected' along the outer edge.

A Masterton resident who recently returned from a visit to the United States says that it is a common thing to see discarded motor cars left by the roadside. Personally, he saw a traveller in an old motor car get stuck up on the road, and the owner simply pushed if on to the roadside and left it for the rubbish gatherer. The disposal of old ears is a great problem, and discarded machines are to be seen in all directions where they have been dumped by the owners.

“The King has let it be known that he reads a chapter of the Bible every day of his life,” said Engineer Rear-Admiral A. R.|. Emdin, speaking at a recent demonstration arranged by the World Evangelical Alliance., In 1912 the King in answer to an inquiry, declared that, he had promised Queen Alexandra as long ago as 1881, when he was a boy of 16, that he would read a chapter of the Bible daily. Ever since he had adhered to the promise.

The petition of Jas. O’Brien, ol Groymouth, against the return of T, E. Y. Seddon as a member of Parliament for Westland will be held before an Election Court composed of Mr. Justices Stringer and Ostler. The date is not yet gazetted.

A fire broke out in tea-rooms at Pahiatua at 4.45 on Sunday morning and completely gutted the premises. Several business firms in the same block -of buildings had their goods damaged by fire, water and smoke. The whole front of the building will, if is stated, need to be remodelled.

A goods train, en route to Palmerston North from the Hawke’s Bay yesterday morning, was derailed at a crossing at Papatawa, near \\ oodville. Breakdown gangs were speedily dispatched to Papatawa. and later in the day a train with heavy cranes and the other necessary equipment from Wellington arrived at the scene of the derailment. The accident to the train while serious enough to call for the services of the special breakdown train and ' crew from Wellington, did not, it was stated, cause any ininjury to the passengers or railway men.

After serving sentences of tlireo months’ imprisonment for refusing duly 5!) British seamen will be liberated in Rockland early this week. Thirty-five members of the crew of the New Zealand Shipping Company’s steamer Otaki/ came out of gaol yesterday, and 24 members of the crew of (lie Shaw, Savill and Albion liner Tninui to-day. Another seaman from the Tninui, who made a demonstration when he and his fellow seamen were sentenced,

was given an extra seven days for contempt of Court. When he is released next Tuesday week, Mount Eden gaol will at last be clear of striking seamen. Arrangements are being made for the batch to be sent to England by a steamer leaving Wellington at the end of this week.

Did you ever smoke toasted tobacco if so you will know how the toasting process improves the flavour. It is delicious. Coffeeberries and tea-leaves are roasted, otherwise no one would care to drink lea or coffee. Well, the same treatment is found to answer equally well with tobacco. Test this for yourself. The locally manufactured tobacco is now prepared in that wa v. The result is astonishing! Select a brand to suit your palate in regard to strength, either Riverhead Gold, the mildest of all, or Toasted Navy Cut (Bulldog), of medium strength; or if you prefer a fuller body take Gut Plug No. 10, the Bullhead label. The very first whiff will tell you that you are in for a superior article quite out of the common. You never get that same pleasant aroma with any ordinary tobaccos. And so smooth and mellow, with their small percentage of nicotine, these brands may be smoked with perfect immunity, and are recommended- by experts and medical authorities.

A fairly large shark was washed up on the beach near the jetty on Sunday.

“The Lyttelton Times,” the oldest surviving paper in New Zealand, celebrated its 75th anniversary yesterday with the publication of a forty-page issue. An acknowledgment was received of a loyal message sent to llis Majesty the King, and congratulations were received from many prominent persons.

In appointing the Town Clerk (Mr. Wm. Trueman) delegate to the Municipal Conference to be held at Dunedin next month, at last night’s Borough Council meeting, 'Councillors made eulogistic reference to M.r Trueman’s ability as Town Clerk and expressed the opinion that he was the right man in the right place as the Council’s representative.

A mishap occurred on Sunday on the Levin-Foxlon road where it narrows just before reaching the Whirokino Bridge and permits the passage of but one vehicle. A 5-ton lorry, fully laden, had pride of place but a large car attempted to supplant its bigger brother. It failed and ran olf the road into the ditch, the occupants making a hurried and unexpected exit. The lorry driver played the Good Samaritan by hauling the car out of the ditch I hough several tow ropes were broken in the attempt and it occupied nearly an hour in completing the job.

A faithful Chinaman had brought the vegetables to a Wanganui lady regularly for months past, and nearly always at the same hour. During the holidays he arrived one morning much earlier, and the lady of the house was dressing and was not in a position at that moment to go out and make the usual selection. Just as he was passing the window she called to her daughter Ella and remarked “You go, Ella.” The Chinaman evidently heard the remark, for when the daughter came to the door all smiling she met a ferocious-looking man, who remarked: “Whaffor go hella? You go hella. yourself!”—Wanganui “Herald.”

Tt seems a shocking thing to freeze fish alive to keep them fresh for the market at the journey’s end, but it has been found that when they are unfrozen they are just as lively as before, and show no sign of injury or illness. It was noticed that fish in Siberian rivers that are frozen solid in winter came out all right in the spring, and this gave an idea for .experiments which have been going for some time. The system is now being adopted in America as a regular thing. The fish are put in a tub into which oxygen is forced, and after being kept three days just above freezing point, they are frozen and the blocks of ice stripped of the tub,and are wrapped up and put into cold storage.

How the long- arm of coincidence •stretched across the sea from Hew Zealand to England is related by a Wanganui resident. He was walking in Hyde Park, London, when he felt a "tug at his sleeve. He was con-

fronted by a young lady at one time employed as a nurse at the Wanganui Hospital. She was going to follow her profession in London, could he find her something to do? He gave her the addresses of a number of London doctors whom lie knew. The nurse, in a joke, said: “You couldn’t manage to have a little attack of appendicitis yourself, could you?” The following week the Wanganui man was admitted to a private hospital suffering from an acute attack of appendicitis, and as he lay on the operating table he saw the figure of —(lie nurse from Wanganui!

The following story was going the rounds in 1881: —An incident of considerable interest to local archaeologists occurred at Opotiki, says the Times. The correspondent of the Bay of Plenty Times states I lint some distance up Otaro Gorge, on a portion of the estate of Mr. Thomas Black, an enormous puketea tree, probably many hundreds of years old, has been blown down, disclosing the astounding fact that the whole of the hollow interior, extending from the roots to the first fork, about 45 feet, had been filled with human bodies. Since it fell these have burst out at the butt of the tree in the form of a confused heap of skeletons. A more extraordinary sight than this monarch of the forest lying prone and discharging a perfect., hecatomb of: human skeletons eansearcely be conceived. Some are nearly perfect, while others are mixed up in a chaotic mass of heads, hands, feet, arms, and legs indiscriminately. All the Maoris here seem to have been quite unaware of this natural charnel house, and declare that if must have happened long before their or their fathers' time. Indeed, the appearance of the tree fully justified the supposition that it must have been some hundreds of years since this novel family vault was filled with its ghastly occupants.

“Pamiliar in their mouths as ousehold words.” —Anon.

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