NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3529, 26 August 1926, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES

The following incident is related by a country postmaster. Passing through the telephone bureau at a time when the exchange was closed, he -saw a shutter fall. He picked up the receiver and a child spoke to him. He subsequently learnt that the child, as a punishment for some wrong-doing, was commanded to ring up the police. The parent’s surprise at a response to the call can be better imagined than described.

The death of an old Taranaki identity, Mrs Henry Brown, occurred at Inglewood on Wednesday. Mrs Brown was a daughter of , the late Mr and Mrs John Brooking, and was born in New Plymouth in 1846, only five years after the founding of the province. The late Mrs Brown is survived by one son Mr F. Brown, of Inglewood, and one sister, Mrs George, New Plymouth. A brother, Mr W. Brooking, of Stratford, died two years ago, aged 83 years. A new plea was advanced at the Wanganui Magistrate’s Court the other day as an excuse for drunkenness. A defendant in a statement said that she had been overcome at the news of the death of her mother. “That is a new one to me,” said Senior-Sergeant Lopdell. “The excuse usually offered by inebriates is that they have been celebrating a birthday. These birthdays have a strange habit of being very frequent.”