NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3703, 13 October 1927, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

A big fruit pulping plant to deal principally with apricots and probably with peaches from Central Otago is to be established in Dunedin.

The building programme continues to move ahead at Ratana and several more new dwellings have been erected. In addition to the Christchurch gathering there will probably be another big gathering on January 25, on Ratana’s birthday.

Following representations made to the Hawera Borough Council by a deputation from the South Taranaki Automobile Association with reference to the provision of a camping site for motorists at Hawera, the council decided to allocate £2OO to enable the work to be proceeded with.

The mysterious disappearance of a pedigree sow valued at 60gns., which was consigned from Aramoho to Cambridge, and was missing when the train arrived at Taihape, is being inquired into by the Railway Department. ' The owner states that the pig was in a crate carefully nailed down when it was placed in a truck at Aramoho.

That chewing gum was not an

American invention was pointed out by Mr. V. R. Fisher, of Auckland, during the course of a lecture on food plants of the Maoris. He said that the old Maoris mixed kauri gum with the exudation of the taratta tree, and for centuries it had been used for mastication.

Ail Ashburton lady has returned to her native town after doing many hundreds of miles on the English railways (says an exchange).. “There are no trains in the world to equal those of England,” she says. “Why, they have compartments for everybody and everything. I have seen carriages not only labelled ‘Smoking,’ but ‘Reading,’ ‘Bath,’ ‘Sandwich,’ and a lot of other things.”

The New Zealand railway year closed without the occurrence of a fatal accident to any train passenger. Over 26,000,000 passengers were carried. The number of accidents to trains involving passengers and employees was six,, as compared with 41 the previous year. Personal accidents on the line (other than train accidents) totalled twenty less for the year for 1925-26. Shunting accidents likewise showed a satisfactory decrease.

“Will you take the secretaryship?” the chairman asked eleven times at a meeting held in Tirnaru the other night. Each of the eleven members refused to accept the office, and it was then suggested that the names (his own included) should be placed in a hat, and the first drawn fill the office. The eleven were on tenterhooks as the hat was passed to a reporter to draw a name. “Well, I suppose it is a failgo,” the new secretary exclaimed as he was at once pressed into his new duties.

“Deer are wonderful jumpers, as you may imagine,” says an experienced hunter and naturalist. “I have seen a hind clear 15ft. or so, and buck as high as a tall man merely to avoid a small drain, and also, at a drive I have seen a stag jump clean over one of the others, taking a fence at the same time. There is still extant the record of a famous leap made by a stag down on the borders of Ettrick during a hunt by one of the old Scottish kings. The place is known, as The Hart’s Leap,” and is commemorated by two stones, which the monarch had erected to mark the spot. They measure 28ft. apart.”

Nicholas B. Fryday, of Ngaere, Taranaki, has petitioned Parliament asking that ait the special r equest of the mother of the deceased, the words “Asleep in Jesus” be inscribed on the tombstone of the o-rave of the late Edward James Fryday, Main Body, N.Z.E.F. The petitioner says he is prepared to pay the cost of the inscription. Even in severe winters it is stated true glaciers on Mount Egmont are unusual, but at the present time a glacier of considerable extent is to be seen where the track ronl Dawson Falls to North Egmont crosses the Manganui Gorge., buen a condition, according to experienced alpinists, has seldom been seen in this vicinity. A rather amusing incident thoug one that might have been attended by more serious consequences, occurved on the waterfron the other afternoon, about 5 o’clock, says the Grey River Argus. Three men who had apparently imbibed somewhat too freely were sauntering l » n-harf towards he s.s. which was about to . 1 when oue of them suddenly seized black retrieve and precqjitotodftß animal into the river. When infor

med by an onlooker that the dog belonged to a senior member of the police force, the man became rather apprehensive regarding the consequences, of his callous act, but was equally reluctant to plunge in to save the animal from drowning, as requested by his companions'. However, after a fair amount of persuasion, he commenced to climb down one of the stringers but in doing so he slipped and fell into the river, the incident being accompanied by uproarious laughter by his companions and others who had gathered on the wharf. The man yelled out that he was drowning, but his predicament was unheeded save for the suggestion by one or more of the onlookers that he should got out as he expected the dog to do. Ultimately the man was hauled to safety by means of a rope, while the dog was rescued in an exhausted condition by means of a whitebait net.