NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3741, 14 January 1928, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

That persons of middle age should have a yearly medical overhaul is a recommendation made by Dr. Fenwick, officer in charge of the radium department 'at the Christchurch Public Hospital (says an exchange). He says that in previous reports he has frequently mentioned that many patients apply for treatment only when their disease is so far advanced that neither surgery nor radium can do more than alleviate the condition. He says that by an annual examination unsuspected diseases would be detected and prompt treatment might effect a cure.

He had just informed the Pullman agent that he wanted a berth on a train. “Upper or lower ” asked the agent. “What’s the difference?” he asked. “A difference of twenty shillings in this case,” replied the agent. ■ “The lower is higher than the upper. The higher price is for the lower. If you. want it. lower you’ll have to go higher*. We sell the upper lower than the lower. Most people don’t like the upper, although it is lower, on account of being higher. When you occupy an upper, you have to go up to bed and get down when you get up.” “Thank you,” said the passenger. “I think I’ll walk.”

At Bruce Bay (South Westland) there is a 14 years’ old girl naturalist, Alice Thompson, who has impressed the Education authorities. Without any encouragement, this girl has been collecting for a long time spiders, moths, butterflies and insects of various kinds. She has about two score boxes and tins containing the creeping, crawling small life of the bush and river-bed. Fearlessly she allows ugly spiders to climb over her bare arms. She becomes wildly enthusiastic at the discovery of a new species of insect, though she knows nothing of the names and history of the insects she collects. She is described as a born naturalist. A leading educationist is endeavouring to cultivate the girl’s talents, and has taken steps to bring her into touch with authorities on natural history.

“If what I have eaten in the hotels in this country is a sample of the bacon they propose to export, well, they will never sell it- I haven’t tasted a good bit oi bacon since I have been in New Zealand; it is absolutely vile.” These were the remarks of Dr. L. Harding, of Manchester, who is visiting New Zealand to investigate the possibilities of utilising the food products of whey, to a Taranaki News repre- . sentative in Hawera last week. He said the reason for this inferior bacon was the improper feeding of pigs. It was quite impossible to feed bacoii pigs on whey and grass as was done in this country. “Unless you can get cheap grain or miller’s offals you will never yet good .bacon,” he said, An old drover, who years ago drove, lambs —fat' for freezing—from a distance of 20 miles into Hastings (says the Havelock North correspondent of the Napier Tele--graph) was much surprised the other day when interviewing the drivers of two sheep lorries-—each a three-decker- —to discover that a thousand lambs a day were carried by this means into the freezing works. The load before his eyes consisted of two lorries, each carrying 153 lambs, and these lorries made the journey from Elsthorpe, about 20 miles away, three times a day if necessary. The old night driving of lambs—or their being huddled up in a paddock or knocked about —was all done away with. In two hours the lambs, taken from their mothers, were delivered cool, fresh and unbruised at the works. It was a great advance on the oldtime procedure. “Coriaria” writes to the Auckland Star: “At one time tutu was supposed to be deadly poisonous to stock and some of the early writers on our botany gave alarming accounts of the mortality among cows and horses. Haast quoted a case of an elephant with a travelling show that picked up a feed by the roadside in a country district, and promptly turned up its toes. In some cases' cows eat tutu not only freely but greedily, and seem none the worse. Walking along the Exhibition Drive at Titarangi one day recently, I saw a drove of cows feeding indiscriminately on the scanty grass and on the bush growths by the side of the track. One matronly Jersey was making a full meal off a tall tutu bush, and enjoying big -mouthfuls without showing the slightest inclination to lie down and die.”