NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3689, 10 September 1927, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

A pig hunting party from Whangarei ran to earth an old boar in the bush at Kiripaka. The animal kept the men and dogs at bay for over half an hour, and when finally despatched was found to weigh about 4501 b.

The first of 13 old-time windjammers that set out to race from Australia to Ireland round the Cape to reach Queenstown was the Finnish four-masted barque, Ilerzogin Cecilie. The journey took 88 days. The bagpipes is a very ancient instrument, and appears on the sculptures and coins of Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. A terra-cotta of 200 B.C. found at Tarsus, in Asia Minor, shows a player with bagpipes.

A Dutch engineer has introduced a drinking glass made of ice. In addition to cooling the liquid, it is said to be very hygienic, and will last about half an-hour in a room of moderate temperature. The usual height at which/swallows, wild ducks, geese, and 0 er birds fly when travelling long: distances is from 1000 ft. to ** Cranes have been known to fly ve miles above the earth.

The most-souglit-for trans-At-lantic air stamp is the stamp that franked the mail carried by Hawker on his flight from Newfoundland in 1919. The Hawker stamp is worth about £75, either unused or used on letter. The new issue of stamps for Newfoundland will include one bearing a view of the spot from which the first airmen to cross the Atlantic made their start.

While taking part in a simultaneous mission under the auspices of the Palmerston North Council of Christian Congregations, the Rev. William Ready, of Auckland, a wellknown Methodist minister, died at Palmerston North at an early hour on Wednesday morning. Deceased, who had preached the previous evening, had been in indifferent health for some time, but, against the advice of his friends, lie declined to rest.

In order to assist women passengers to prevent their hats from being spoiled by dust the Railway Department has decided to supply large paper bags in which hats may be placed during a journey. The* bags will lie supplied free of charge at the Auckland, Rotorua, Te Arolm, Frankton junction and Thames stations, and will also be obtainable from the guards of trains during a journey. The innovation will be (ommenced shortly.

One of the many historic spots which surrounded Te Awamutu and neighbourhood as reminders of the ‘Maori Wlar is in dfinger of destruction in the name of progress. Tenders have been called by the Borough Council for levelling and filling in a section known as the Redoubt Reserve, which played a big part in the defence of Te Awamutu. This occasioned a good deal of adverse comment among residents, and there is an endeavour to have the Redoubt preserved.

A human cannon ball fired from a mortar, reached a net 100 yards distant' before 300 spectators in Turin recently. Ugo Zacchini, one of the inventors, was the cannon ball. He dressed iii a leather suit was placed in the mortar a powerful spring was released by electricity, which sent him flying through the air in a trajectory 130 feet high. He fell heavily in the middle ol the net, rebounded again and again, and a few minutes later stood bowing his acknowledgments of tumultuous applause.

A soldier on active service at the age of 18, a corporal and winner of the Victoria Cross at 20, a commissioned officer at 21, adjutant of a regiment before his 23rd birthday, promoted captain at 26, passed the examination for major two years later, and now at the age of 30 selected as one of the New Zealand staff officers to go to India for two years’ service with the British Army. This is an epitome of the military career of Captain Leslie Wilton Andrew, V.C. Ashlmrst was Captain Andrew’s birthplace, and March 23, 1897, the date. He received his secondary education at the Wanganui District High School and the Wanganui Collegiate School. He is the eldest son of Mr. W. J. Andrew, M.A., late headmaster of the Wanganui East School (says the Chronicle).