Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, OCTOBER. 18, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3705, 18 October 1927, Page 2

Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, OCTOBER. 18, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A special meeting of the Borough Council will be held this evening to select a caretaker for the swimming baths.

The usual monthly meeting of the Foxton Chamber of Commerce will be held in Fairey’s tea rooms at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday. Charged with stealing 131 postal packages on September 21st, George Ellis, a clerk in the Post office, appeared in the Dunedin Police Court on Saturday. He reserved his defence and was committed for trial.

A violent shock of earthquake at one o’clock on Saturday startled residents of New Plymouth. There were numerous cases of crockery and other articles thrown down from shelves, but no damage of a serious nature has been reported. A tender of £9O for the supply of a Mayoral chain was accepted by the Hamilton Borough Council at a meeting last week. The chain will comprise a pendant and 20 links. It was stated that past Mayors or their relatives had already undertaken to pay half the cost.

An Auckland message says that it is not anticipated that strawberries will be offered on the markets in any appreciable quantity until the end of the month. Among local fruit merchants the consensus of opinion is that the season will be a poor one. Further reports of serious damage to crops through root fungus are coming to hand from Northcote..

A pedestrian proceeding along Ilardingc Road, Port Ahuriri, Napier, late last Thursday afternoon, noticed with surprise the door mat of one of the dwellings burning merrily. Closer inspection revealed that the miniature conflagration had obtained quite a hold, a hole fully five inches in diameter having been burnt in the mat and the flooring of the verandah itself.

.Nowadays we often hear of players being ordered off the field by the referee, and instances of ordering off have become historic, writes the Tikitiwi correspondent of the Poverty Bay Herald. Not many Saturdays ago a referee in a junior match played not a hundred miles from Tikitiki ordered off one player. The latter refused to be ordered off, and as the game progressed the ruling of the referee did not please both sides. A cessation of play was called, and after a short conference if was decided to order off the referee. He had to walk off, and another referee controlled the remainder of the match.

Isaac Fairbrother, aged 70 years, a retired farmer, was found dead in the Square, at Palmerston North yesterday morning. For some time past deceased had been living at a private boardinghouse in College St. He left home at 7.45 yesterday morning, seemingly in good health, and set out for his usual morning walk. A son of deceased resides in Palmerston; North.

In the Dunedin Police Court yesterday, Thomas Livingstone was charged with false pretences by means of valueless cheques and was sentenced to 18 months’ reformative detention. The Magistrate expressed surprise that business people should hand over blank cheques to irresponsible persons, and commented on the confiding nature of some shopkeepers in cashing cheques.

By the will of the late Mr Joseph White, who- until his death was a well-known resident of Feilding, the Palmerston North Hospital Board benefits to the extent of one quarter of the whole estate. Thus the Board will receive from £1,200 to £1,500. This amount (as is always the rule with bequests to hospitals) will be subject to Government subsidy of £1 for £l. Thus the total sum obtained by the Board will be 'from £2,400 to £3,000.

The Mokau river bridge, which was opened last Thursday for traffic, has eleven spans and is 679 ft. long. The construction work was started about Ifi months ago, and cost £34,000. The four central piers carry the lifting span, which, although it weighs over 29 tons, can be raised or lowered by one man. When fully raised the span gives a clearance of 60 ft. at high water, while the fairway allows the. passage of vessels up to 50ft. in width.

“If the plans and intentions of Claude 11. Freese, of San Francisco, formerly an employee of the Zeppelin Company in Germany, work out, a non-stop flight of 10,000 miles with 500 passengers will be possible. He has designed a model of a combined dirigible and heavier-tlian-air type of airship with five sets of wings of 200 feet spread, 11 motors, and overall length of 786 - ft., and a fuel capacity of 30 tons. The intended running time to Eurpoe with 500 passengers and full supplies is 52 hours. “Never mind the works, give us the facts,” declared Mr W. A. Veitch (AVanganui) in the House of Representatives when a member suggested to him that he should quote what another speaker had said instead of interpreting a meaning from the statement to suit his own argument. “Words are what are collected from ‘Hansard’ later on in order to make a black 6ow look like a white pigeon.” (Laughter).

Excitement was caused in an Ashburton produce mart during an auction sale last week by the sudden cries of a child whose hand had been, caught between the guard and driving wheel of a sewing machine (says the Guardian). The cries drowned the voice of the auctioneer, who was obliged to stop the sale. After some 10 minutes the child’s hand was released, and peace restored. 1 The child’s fingers received only slight bruises. From some scraps of brass, a box or two and other odds and ends around his workshop, Mr 11. A. Hobbs, electrical engineer, Nelson, has made himself an electrically operated grandfather clock, which, besides being an excellent timepiece, is also a handsome piece of furniture of which anyone might be proud (states the Evening Mail). The clock works in the reverse manner to most of its fellows —the pendulum drives the clock, and not the clock the pendulum—and the necessary power is given by an ingenious yet simple arrangement of an electro-magnet. The Government Statistician’s report on the vital statistics of the town areas of the Dominion for September gives the following particulars: —Deaths: Auckland (estimated population, 201,220), 158; Wellington (126,310), 95; 'Christchurch (121,780), 109 ;• Dunedin (83,155), 71; Palmerston North (20,480), 19; AA’anganui (26,879), 22. Births: Auckland,' 330; Wellington, 236; Christchurch, 186; Dunedin, 99; Palmerston North, 46; Wanganui, 47. The total births in the fourteen chief urban areas numbered 1,164, and the deaths 59 1 . Sixty-seven of the deaths were of children under five years of age, being 11.22 per cent, of the whole number, and 56 of these were under one year of age.

Another centenarian smoker; and this time a woman. A Home paper records the death at Messing, near Tiptree, Essex, of Mrs. Naomi Harrington at the age of one hundred years. The good old lady smoked a clay pipe every day and attributed her long life, at any rate in part, to that practice. What the anti-to-haccoites will say to this must be left to conjecture, but a more convincing proof of the harmlessncss of tobacco could hardly be found. The plain fact of the matter is that smokng won’t hurt anyone so long as the tobacco |s pure and as free from nicotine as*' possible. The imported brands, by the way, are mostly full of nicotine. That’swhere they differ so essentially from our own New Zealand tobaccos —the purest in the world and the freest from nicotine. They are quite safe and owe their tine aroma and delicious fragrance to the toasting of the leaf (quite a novelty). Ask your tobacconist for “Riverhead Gold” mild, “Navy Cut” (Bulldog) melium, or “Cut Plug No. JO” (Bullshe’ul), full strength.

Lincoln is abandoning her tramway system for buses. An amending regulation under the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act published in (lie Gazette last week provides that “every motor omnibus with seating accommodation for fifteen passengers or more shall have a wheel-track of not less than 56in. for any axle fitted with single wheels, and not loss than OOin. for any axle fitted with twin wheels.” In the Auckland Court yesterday, Frederick Dixon, aged 44, appeared on nine charges of breaking, entering and theft, and two charges of breaking, entering and theft with intent to steal. It was stated that he had an attack of meningitis, which presumably affected his morals. Previously he was of good character. Accused was placed on probation for three years conditional on him taking out a prohibition order.

Elwyn Laurence Yargraves, formerly district constable at Mangawai, pleaded guilty in the Auckland Police Court yesterday to stealing £22 7s Gd, the.property of the Otamatea .County Council (fees for dog collars), and obtaining £93 from three persons by valueless cheques; further, that being a member of the New Zealand Police Force he deserted his post at Mangawai, on July 27. It was staled in mitigation that accused, who bad a long period of active service and suffered from shell shock, was so affected by the. gruesome sight when a man blew his head off at Ivaiwaka that he could not sleep. Sentence was deferred.

Our representative witnessed an inusual incident in bird life- re■entlv. He was attracted by the excited twitterings and rapid dartng flights of two fai'itails in the Vicinity of a limb upon which was perched a starling with a choice morsel in its beak. The fantails kept larting within an inch or two of the foreigner at the same time mak-. ng a buzzing noise with their tails. They had the starling fairly puzded and followed him from perch to porch. The object of the attack was probably to compel him to drop his •atch. They continued their 'combined attack for a considerable time •nd followed the starling to some iistant trees.

A novel discussion, during which mine interesting figures were quoted, was overheard during a recent football tournament at Cromwell. It was in regard to the value of ■motor cars in and around the ground. Estimates varied from £lO,000 upwards. However, one of the party exploded that figure. He put if that there were at least 200 cars, and that was generally admitted. Amongst these were ears costing up lo £7OO, and others ranging down to the modest-priced Ford. The discussion. fixed the average at £2OO as a very conservative figure, and on those lines the total value would be represented at. £40,000. All filings considered, the estimate seems a very reasonable one. Further, it seems quite remarkable to find such a grouped value of cars in a town with a papulation of ,about GOO. It shows the important iparfc cars hold in everyday life. The upkeep'of bowling greens to-day was asked .about by a reporter in a chat with Mr R. B. Tennant, who is a recognised authority on the subject, and the question led lo a pronouncement of general value (says a Dunedin paper). Mr Tennant said: “October.is the month fin which worms start to be troublesome, and steps should at once be taken to suppress them, for their casts are unsightly and injurious. The common practice of greenkeepers is to use lime water. I do not advocate such a practice. Lime sweetens the soil, and encourages Ihe growth of clovers, which are mot desirable. A suitable remedy for use on bowling greens or lawns is to prepare a solution of copper sulphate (1 lb. to 10 gallons of water), and apply it with a watering can in the early morning. It will bring up the worms, and they can then be scraped off. Do not I brow the sweepings to poultry. A good story was told by the new Dominion film censor (Mr W. Tanner) at a luncheon tendered to him in Wellington on Wednesday by the branch of the Motion Picture Exhibitors’ Association of (New Zealand. “I am very pleased to be here today,” he said, “because it gives me an opportunity of meeting men who are under no delusions as to the duties of a censor. The other day 1 had a ring on the telephone, and ,a lady’s voice asked, ‘ls that the Censor speaking?" I told her that it was, and she said, ‘I wish you would go to the Town Hall and censor the programme there.’ 1 asked her what was the matter with it. ‘Oh,’ she replied, ‘I am quite sure that the girl had not enough clothes on and her feet were bare.’ ‘Yes, I said, ‘but what picture is it?’ Picture!’ she exclaimed, ‘it’s the Plunket Society’s entertainment.’ (Laughter). I told her that if she had a complaint to make the police were the right people to go to.” (Renewed laughter).