GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3687, 6 September 1927, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Eight motor drivers’ licenses were issued by the Pahiatua County clerk last month and seven by the Town Clerk.

For the past 52 weeks there has not been one case of infectious disease reported in the borough of Waipukurau. The magnitude of the opossum trapping industry in New Zealand is indicated by the fact that last year a total' of 150,000 skins was secured. Twenty deaths under anaesthetics oc< urred in the Dominion last year, according to the annual report, of the Health Department. The number is 1925 was* 24.

Last year over £I7OO worth of toheroas were exported from the Kaipara district. This fish is gaining in favour for soup in many countries.

Some 68 sacks of wheat were taken from the good shed at Waihao Forks ((Canterbury) railway station recently where a farmer had left them overnight with the intention of loading them into trucks the following morning. The school savings bank at the Waihi District High School has been in operation for 36 weeks and to date the sum of £213 6s lid has been banked. This is an average of about £6 per week and 3ld per child. There have been few withdrawals.

An unlucky black cat, with a live mouse in its mouth, when trying to cross the road in front of a motor . cycle at Otahuhu, near Auckland, was entangled in the spokes and killed. The driver was flung over his handle bars and slightly injured. The mouse escaped! The Braemar Highland gathering forbids girls and women dancing in kilts since tradition prescribes that kilts shall be worn by men only. This step has surprised feminine professional dancers who previously have competed in great numbers in the presence of the King and Queen. Gold finds recently reported on the western bank of Lake Taupo are no novelty. In 1912 an Auckland angler selected a promising piece of stone in the same locality, the test showing a value per ton of £24 9s. The specimen submitted for analysis was a small water • worn stone and the finder considers it must have been carried a long way from the parent reef, which would be very difficult to locate. A number of small penguins have made Wainui beach their home during the past year or two, and the birds are easily caught by the householders (says an exchange). One baby penguin was given to a little girl who lived in town, and pains were taken to mark it plainly for identification. The fledgling escaped from its new mistress, whose home is near the river, and within a few hours had returned to its old feeding grounds at Wainui.

The first motor-car in Christchurch was a single-cylinder Benz, owned and driven by Mr. N. Oates. .The car was a two-seater steered by a little wheel. It was cranked from the rear. The brake was a hand lever operating directly on the tyre of the big rear wheel. The maximum speed was 20 miles per hour. The engine of the car is s.till operating a lathe and saw bench at Mr. J. T. Ki'lw orth’s shop at Methven. The smaller wheels still do duty in a sulky and the larger ones in a cart.

The old custom of nailing up a horseshoe over the door has not altogether dic'd out. The origin is interesting. According to an old legend, St. Dunstan, who had some reputation in shoeing horses, was one day asked by the devil to shoe his “single hoof.” Knowing full well the identity of the crafty one, Dunstan tied him to a wall and then purposely put him to a lot of pain. The devil roared for mercy, but not- until he promised that never again would he enter the place where he saw a horseshoe displayed was he released.

The suggestion that rosemary will grow only in the garden where “missus is master” has its counterparts in Sussex saying- that mint grows only in the garden where “the missus wears the breaches.” The ,Sussex saying about rosemary is to the effect that if you plant a bush of it at your gate you will never lack friends. In Hampshire and .some Dorest villages parsley is said to grow only in gardens of henpecked husbands. In Yorkshire they say that “parsley seed goes nine times to the devil,” or that it must be . sown nine times, for the devil takes all but the last sowing.

An interesting incident occurred when the s.s. Harpalyce, which is at present at New Plymouth (states the Herald) was proceeding from Newcastle to Nauru Island where she loaded for New Plymouth. The vessel was some days out when attention of those on board was

attracted by a signal from a schooner. On investigation it was found that the vessel was the American schooner Chilli Patlie, which had been 112 days at sea and the crew of which were almost starving. The arrival of the Harpalyce was both welcome and timely, the starving sailors being given supplies and books.

The interest constables on duty display in football matches on Athletic Park, Wellington, has annoyed spectators to the extent that a member of the Rugby Management Committee has informed 'that body of the matter. A policeman on duty at the side of the field had followed the play as it moved up and down the field, evidently giving cause for disorder among those behind him. The committee failed to appreciate the gravity of the offence. One member suggested chairs for the police, and another considered they might act as corner flags. The early bird not always catch the worm, but sometimes'succeeds in getting diet equally palatable, as a Springvale milk vendor recently discovered (says the Wanganui Herald). He is in the habit of •rising early to set out on his round —in fact, a little too early to collect the duck eggs laid about daylight, For some mornings in succession he found nothing but empty shells in the enclosure where the ducks were kept overnight. This puzzled him for some time, and then he had a watch kept, and it was discovered that an enterprising seagull was the culprit. The ducks are now securely housed overnight, and the gull, after fruitless journeys, has now to travel elsewhere for his early breakfast. An extraordinary arrangement, whereby a husband and wife agreed to separate for nine months and live together each week-end was brought to light in a divorce action before Mr. Justice Stringer in the Supreme Court at Auckland this week. Herbert Walter Kingsland sought an order for restitution of conjugal rights against Laura Kingsland. The two were married on March 7, 1916, and there were no children. Some time after the marriage the respondent resumed her work. In November, 1925, they agreed to separate and meet each week-hnd. At the expiry of the period, the petitioner asked his wife 1 to come back, but she refused, and still refused to return. She was ordered to return,within 14 days.