NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3597, 10 February 1927, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

London's County Council provides and controls almost 1000 public elementary schools, about 70 secondary schools, and 260 technical and evening schools. Mr. Thomas Shaw, Minister for Labour in the late British labour Government, worked in a cotton mill at the age of eight. He speaks French and German.

A Russian electrical expert is said to have invented a battery which can be carried in the pocket, yet contains enough energy to drive a motor-car for ten days.

Mr G. I’. Evernden, of MaidstoiiCj who is 82 years of age, possesses more than 90 pipes, and claims to smoke lOoz. of tobacco a week. He smokes a different pipe every day.

Foghorns that begin to blow whenever a thick mist gathers have been invented in France. The action of the damp air on calcium car bide sets the device in motion.

An Aberdeenshire farmer was under contract to deliver twenty hens to a neighbour. Only nineteen, however, were sent, and it was late in the evening before the missing bird was taken to the farmer. “Man,” said the purchaser, accusingly, “ye’re verra late with this yin.” “Aye,” agreed the other, “but ye see, she doesna lay until the afternoon.”

A hardy old chap, retired from the sea and turned farmer, appeared as a deputation at a meeting of the Waitemata County Council recently, and briskly said that he would take up but two minutes of the local body’s good time. Ihe road near my place,” he began, and then he told of the damage that had been done by floods and slips. Politely the councillors heard him to the end, but instead of an appeal for a grant to put things right, the oldtime mariner gave the councillors the shock of their lives by his peroration, which was: “And all that I ask is that you will let me put the road right at my own expense.” Metaphorically they fell upon his neck. Three councillors rose simultaneously to move that the request should be granted, and when the motion! was put it was the heaitiest collective “Aye” heard in the meetingroom for a long time. “Goodday!” said the veteran as he made for the door. The council’s farewell was enthusiastic.