NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3581, 30 December 1926, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

Last week’s wool sale in Timaru will be the means of distributing approximately £200,000 among the farmers of South Canterbury.

For being drunk while in charge of a motor car, Edmund Hubert Strickland was fined at Wellington on Tuesday £lO and his license cancelled for three months.

Hampton Court’s famous vine, now 158 years old, is still bearing well. Last year 280,000 people paid the penny admission fee to see this vine.

The churches of the City of London, forty-six in number, with over sixty clergy, minister to the needs of a resident population of 13,000.

Glycerine is now used in so many ways that it is becoming scarce, and the price has risen from £BS per ton three months ago to over £ll2 to-day. Margarine is now very extensively used in Britain. In 1907 44,000 tons were manufactured; this figure is now estimated to have grown to 150,000. Several women are employed in British Government laboratories in scientific research, while many others have rccevied grants to assist (hem in their work.

Books relating to the War and stored in a special museum in Paris number 110,000, apart fr.om collections of newspapers and periodicals from all parts of the world. Nearly 30 new companies have been registered in New Zealand within the past month. Over 20 are privet* companies, and of them several have capitals of under four figures.

A Wanganui crossword puzzle enthusiast who saw a competition advertised got lo work with his brains and a dictionary, completed the puzzle and sent it lo win the £lO prize. Finally, after a period of anxious waiting he received the magnificent sum of 7d, along with the intimation that 378 others had discovered the correct solution.

Through the generosity of Mr. .T. Reeves, 3000 school children of the Fifth and Sixth Standards from the Wellington schools and those in Potono and Unit will bo presented with souvenirs of the Duke of York's visit. These gifts are being made in order lo encourage and perpetuate a British patriotic spirit. Mr. Reeves has already given 100 New Zealand souvenirs to schools in England.

Two sons of the ex-Crown Prince Wilhelm, Louis and Ferdinand, who are attending the Bonn University, are still addressed as “Your Royal Highness.” It- is stated that the younger, Louis, is proceeding to South America. Wilhelm has established a. great reputation as a duellist, having fought four and .winning easily, and terribly backing his opponents, while he himself remained untouched. An interesting case is to occupy the attention of the Court at Christchurch shortly. The City Council, which has strong views on the unsightliness of hoarding and fence advertising, recently refused a firm permission to advertise its own business on the fence of its own premises. The company, having secured legal advice of learned counsel, has decided to take proceedings so that the matter may be tested at law.

A few years ago it was estimated that there were fully 3000 goats on Kapiti Island and that they were doing immense destruction to the native flora. It now appears that the number was grossly exaggerated. In any ease they have been almost exterminated, the present custodian of the island believing tliere are ■ only about four left. Opossums also have been much reduced in numbers, but on the southern end of the island there are still about 1000 wild sheep which are destroying the undergrowth in places.