NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3016, 27 March 1926, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES

His Excellency, the GovernorGeneral, has notified the officers of St. Andrew’s Church, Palmerston North, that, provided the forthcoming week-end is spent in Palmerston North, the Vice-Regal party will attend worship there on Sunday. It is the practice of His Excellency to attend on Sundays at the senior Presbyterian Church in whatever town he spends the week-ends. Children to-day quickly reach an age of superiority over their parents and the latter accept their fate, realising that but a few years will pass ere those who now condemn will in turn stand condemned. But a three year old “young man” took the “bun” for precociousness last week when he was heard to remark to his father: “Hold my hand properly, you damn fool.” —Hunterville Express.

The word “news’’ is made up of the letters that indicate the main points of the compass —N., S., E., and W. In a hook published more than a century ago the author comments upon this in a way that is by no means out of date at the present time. The writer says: —“As news implies the intelligence received from all parts of (he world, the very word itself points out the meaning —X. the north; E. the east; W. the west; and S. the south. This expressive word also recommends the practice of the following virtues: Nobleness in our thoughts, Equity our dealings, Wisdom in our counsels, and Sobriety in our enjoyments.”

A young man had a rather sensational experience on Sunday morning which he is unlikely to forget for some time (says the Wanganui Herald). While having a hath in the bathroom he was overcome with the fumes of gas which, unknown to him, had been escaping from the calif out. lie managed to scramble

out of the bath and reach his bedroom, where he fell unconscious for nearly an hour. It was some time after that before he recovered sufficiently to move about freely, and throughout the day suffered from the effects of the gas. He had a lucky escape in the circumstances, for the accident might easily have terminated fatally.

This is the first story we have heard for a long time which isn’t about either a Scotsman or a Jew. A Lunacy Commissioner was inspecting an asylum, and, noticing the time on one of the. asylum clocks, said: “Good gracious! is that clock right/" “No, you foe a, wouldn't bt here if it were,” replied one of tho patients who Lad overheard the remark.

A commercial traveller had an exciting experience on the hill roads inland from Tokoiuaru Bay last week. His brakes failed on a narrow' steep road, but he managed to hold the car with the foot brake, one wheel being over the edge of a 200 foot declivity, for an hour and a half, till a passerby discovered him in a state of severe exhaustion.

A level crossing smash occurred at Quarantine road, Stoke, early on Saturday evening, when a motorbus, driven by E. C. Russell, was struck near the back wdicels by a heavily loaded train proceeding from the motor cycle sports, hurled down a bank and completely wrecked. The driver, the only occupant of the bus, urns thrown some distance away and badly cut about the head, but his injuries are not considered dangerous.

“If we can’t play golf—a game that is supposed to be played by gentlemen —without having to resort to disgusting raffles and the devices used by some clubs, then we ought to be ashamed of remarked a member of the New Plymouth Golf Club indignantly, when it was suggested at the annual meeting that the Club should consider going in with some other sports bodies of the town and organising a big art union as a .means of providing funds to pay off its overdraft. “There is too much talk about finance and not enough about golf in the club,” he added, and his sentiments were received with popular acclamation. ••

Dr. O’Brien, of Christchurch, gave a timely warning in an address to the conference of Rotarians at Dunedin on Friday (says the Otago Daily Times). He said that a mother had come to him with a child to have its eyes tested. He had found nothing wrong with the girl’s eyes, and the mother, in conversation, had then told him that the girl was very slow in her lessons. She was, indeed, only in the same class as her sister, v T ho was two years younger. This information moved the doctor to ask further questions. He supposed Maggie, we shall say, was often told that Mary was much the smarter child. The mother agreed that that was so. “And I suppose father also rubs it in, and that Maggie has come to imagine that she is quite a duffer?” Mother again agreed. “Is there anything

that Maggie can do?" asked the doctor. The mother admitted that Maggie was very useful about the house, that she could make tho beds, and so on. “Well,” said the doctor, “why don’t you praise her, ami keep on praising her for this. I tell you, if you allow the girl to get the impression that she cannot do anything, when she reaches the age of fourteen she will probably run away.” Then the mother hung her head and said that Maggie had already done this once. The parting advice from the doctor to the mother was to go home and praise her girl for the work she could do and not to hold her up to ridicule because she was not as good a scholar as Mary.