NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3748, 31 January 1928, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

A sum of £IOO is to be guaranteed as Poverty Bay’s contribution to the expense of the Australian cricketers’ tour, in return Tor the privilege of entertaining the tourists at a match in Gisborne. On the 'Cumberland Derwent, recently, Mr. Joseph Walker, aged 85, corn merchant, of Cockermouth, hooked and landed a 3711). salmon. Mr. Walker, who has fished for 70 years, had never previously caught a salmon over 301 b.

According to a London watchmaker in a big way of business, the dark November mornings brought quite a boom in alarm clocks. He says lie was selling a score a day to workmen and servant girls —or to the mistresses of the servants.

An indication of the amount of money available in the four centres for investment is contained in the response to the Waitemata Power Board’s latest loan of £BO,000. Of the £50,700 worth of debentures disposed of to date Auckland took £IB,OOO worth, Dunedin £12,100, Wellington £B/700 and Christchurch £4IOO. Invercargill purchased £SIOO worth of the debentures.

Shopkeepers who have made a habit of leaving goods displayed outside their shops until closing time, will be obliged under the 1927 Amendment to the 'Shops and Offices Act, to adopt a different practice. The Act of 1921-22 allowed them fifteen minutes’ grace during which assistants could complete any work undone. Under the Amendment of last session, however, assistants may be retained after closing hours, solely for the purpose of attending to a customer arriving in the shop prior to that time. At a wedding celebrated in Invercargill recently the guests proclaimed their Scottish descent by wearing sprigs of heather (states the Times). The officiating minis- 1 ter also had heather in his buttonhole. A lady who knew him well approached him and jocularly remarked, “Oh, you old hypocrite, wearing heather when there is not ■a drop of Scottish blood in your veins.” “Madam,” retorted the padre, “that is not hypocrisy. It is ambition.”

[Truly the days are long for a supplier in a small dairying community not many miles from Invercargill (says the Southland Times). Long- before the inauguration of daylight saving he had anticipated the passing of the Summer Time Bili by advancing the clock one hour. When the Act finally came into force, he came to .the conclusion that his previous plan of working an hour ahead was more suitable to his interests, and consequently advanced his (.clock another hour, so that he is now working to a schedule of two hours ahead of standard time. The push bicycle is not used much nowadays for long tours, as was so often the case in the precar days, but tourists report a fair number of cyclists ou the roads m various parts (says the Hawera Star). Recently two lady cyclists

reached Hawera after doing the journey • from Wellington. They came from Waitotara, and were camped at the automobile camping site. They carried a small tent on the cycle, weighing about 3Jlb., and also other gear, and were thoroughly appreciating the lure of the open air and having a delightful run I hroughout.

Trouble has been expei-ienced at Gisborne by young men indulging their love for the sea, finding themselves suffering from a painful affliction caused by water passing through the nose into a passage under the eye, creating a blockage and sometimes an abscess. A wellknown young Gisborne resident is at present suffering from the trouble, and in a recent Wellington case the patient (who hails from Gisborne) was compelled to undergo a serious operation in which the ear drum was pierced (says the Times). A medical gentleman, when referred to on the subject, stated that the trouble was specially dangerous to those suffering from adenoids or subject to colds. The remarkable sagacity of dogs is illustrated by a setter and a spaniel owned by a (West Lyttelton resident (reports the- Christchurch Press). -A Lyttelton police official occasionally borrows the dogs for shooting expeditions. He is the owner of an ordinary model Ford car, and now, every time he passes through West Lyttelton, the dogs come down to the road and attempt to clamber on to the running board. Although they are kept out of sight, but in hearing of the main road, and although scores of Fords pass the locality daily, the dogs never make a mistake, and the official cannot pass in his car without having to contend with the dogs. i

Wearing placards on his back and chest"testifying to his need of ''employment, a small man (who had been parading the streets of Auckland for weeks) presented himself before the door of the Prime Minister’s temporary office in the Grand Hotel on Friday, states the Auckland correspondent of the Lyttelton Times. The placards read: “Work wanted urgently. Married. Exservice man, good references. W ife going blind. Had two operations. He was soon noticed by Mr. Coates’ private secretary, to whom he confided that he wanted to see the prime Minister. The request was not granted, but he departed hopefully a few minutes later with a scaled note to the Public Works Department.