Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3735, 29 December 1927, Page 2

Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1927. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Local business people report' record takings during the Christinas trade.

The municipal pictures during the holidays have been particularly well patronised.

In driving rain and against the wind, E. Barry won , the world’s sculling championship, at Vancouver on Monday, beating Major Goodsell by 12 lengths in 21 jubilates 4 seconds. ;/,• 1

The local police report that the Christinas holidays passed : over quietly, nothing sensational j happening. The crowd was particularly well behaved. The police were informed that the office connected with Messrs Goldinghain and Beckett’s bowser in Main Street was burgled some time on Christmas Eve, and a sum of upwards of £3O stolen. The matttr is being investigated.

•.The children of the town and 1 district were entertained at a picture entertainment in the Town Hall on Saturday afternoon.- After the entertainment each child was presented with a toy or bag of sweets by “Father Christmas.”

Mr. A. Walls lorry had a narrow escape from destruction bf fire at the Palmerston N. races this week. :Y punctured float in the carburetter caused benzine to leak- out over the engine, which ignited. The outbreak was fortunately checked before any damage was done.

Yesterday detectives arrested an Auckland resident on a charge of using his premises as a common gaming house. Robert Ryan, of Queen Street, Auckland, subsequently appeared in the Magistrate’s Court to answer a charge of using his premises in Queen Street for that purpose. A remand was granted, bail in £IOO being allowed.

The weather during the Christmas holidays was ideal. The local seaside attracted a large number of visitors from all parts of the district and the river foreshore and ocean beach were lined with Lathers. The stream of motor cars passing through the district was continuous and many excursionists were observed camping in shady places on the highways.

A Wanganui law clerk relates a good story of a recent trip he had to a Maori settlement to serve a distress warrant to seize the clothes of an aged Maori. When he arrived at the pa lie found a tangl in progress and soon discovered that his prospective client had been called to join lbs great forefathers. Inquiries soon showed that the old Maori had left no earthly goods behind. The law clerk, in the presence of some young Maoris, then! made an entry on the official document, “Nulla Bona.” “Py corrv that te good one,” replied a young Maori. “Plenty bona later on when him get time to push up te daisies a bit more.”

In his ninetieth year, Mr. John Moore, a native of Ireland, which possibly explains his exuberance of spirit, left Sydney a day or two ago for Broken Hill, where he hooked a passage for Adelaide by aeroplane. It was as a youth that old John Moore*came to Australia, and worked at Tolarno Station, on the Darling River. He was there when Burke and Wills went through on their way.north. He can take his ’mind back to the hectic days when fortunes wen 1 made liguratvely overnight in the boom days of Broken Hill. Barrier Proprietary Mine shares, which he purchased for £9O, sold readily for £IOOO. Now, at 90 years of age, he lias taken to the air.

The twenty-third annual conference of the New Zealand Presbylerian Bible Class Union opened at Ashburton yesterday. It is expected that five hundred will he in attendance, some four hundred being campers accommodated in various schools.

No doubt you wish to send a gift at New Year for the one received at ’Xmas. The C. M. Ross Go. are selling the balance of fancy goods at reduced prices on Friday and Saturday this week. —Advt.

An eel weighing 241b5., length 4 feet 0 inches, and measuring 18 inches round girth, was! caught in the Otapiri stream by Messrs Barnes Bros., in broad daylight last week (says the Wanganui Herald), and when opened it contained two trout, measuring .15 inches and 14 inches. One of them had just been swallowed. On a previous occasion an eel weighing 17 lbs. was caught, and it contained one small trout.

There was a sterling finish to the North Island Rifle Championship match at Wanganui yesterday which - was won by C. A. Whiteman (Upper ITutt;) who finished two points ahead of W. H. West (Renwiek), and T. Marvett (New Plymouth). The shoot off for second money saw West take priority. Shooting conditions were rioDthe best,' a tricky fishtail wind heating the most experienced shots and a fierce glare at times making vision bad.

The question, as to what speed a horse can gallop at and still be under control was raised during the hearing of a motor case at the Waihi Magistrate’s Court. One witness, who claimed to have had considerable experience, said lie had seen a horse running at 40 miles per hour in the Old Country and still under control. He had also seen horses on the Waihi road travelling at 25 •Miles per hour, with an experienced man in the saddle, and under control.

Germany always comes into prominence in New Zealand at Christmas time, and Wanganui is no exception (says the Herald). Most of the local toy shops stock a large percentage of German-made toys, and many of the greeting cards purchased are of German manufacture. It is rather ironical that Christmas cards bearing paintings of New Zealand’s native flora and fauna should he made by a German firm, and even leather kiwis and tikis, which are purchased for despatch I i friends in England. Time was when w4> were all more or less on nodding terms with our gold coinage, but an incident the other day in a South Canterbury business place showed that there is a generation of boys who are strangers to the sovereign (says the Christchurch Press). A business man was showing a collection he had of rare and foreign coins. Amongst them were three halt-sov-ereigns, and he asked a senior schoolboy what they were. The schoolboy did not know them at all, but asked if they were farthings. Some time ago, as the outcome of a small wager, a student of the. Ruakura Farm of Instruction undertook, to sleep all night on top of one of the steel towers erected to carry the electric cables from Arapuni to Auckland. The incident is told in a letter written, to a friend in Taranaki, the writer saying that he climbed to the top with a hammock, slung it, and turned in at 9 p.m. A workman hailed him at 6 next morning and he was ordered down none, tlu worse for his adventure in the air. The tower, it may be added, is 100 feet in height, and is the highest on the line crossing the farm on the way to Auckland.

•There was a big gathering of Maoris from all parts of the North Island at Motuiti pah during the week-end. On Saturday Bishop Sprott conducted a confirmation service. On Saturday the memorial to the late Rev. T. Paerata was unveiled, and on Monday a conference was held between representative Maoris and Sir Maui Pom-are and Sir Apirana Ngata, M.P.s., concerning native affairs. On Tuesday the gathering broke up. Interspersed between the various important items of the gathering entertaining events were held. The accommodation was ample for the visitors and the catering was 1 excellent. A number of Europeans visited the pah during the gathering. A full report of the proceedings will appear /later.

The projected gold mining operations at Newton Flat, # on the Buffer River, have given intense, satisfaction to those who have never lost their faith in the ultimate revival of gold mining in the Bullet district '(says'the Westport News). A company is to be formed to divert the Bullet river through a narrow neck at Newton Flat. The proposed diversion is about ten chains only, and will dry about one mile and threequarters of what is believed to he an exceptionally rich portion of the river. The present generation knows little of what the bank of the Buffer river produced in 1863, and it will be news to many of our readers that, about. 10,000 ounces of gold were obtained by miners on the Bullet diggings in that year, and old newspaper files show that one party of tour men were getting one pound weight) of gold per man per day.