NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3753, 11 February 1928, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

An eel weighing 291bs was recently caught in the Mangaone stream at Te Horo (says the Otaki Mail). Over 13,700 people paid for admission to the Napier Municipal Baths during January, of whom 7360 were adults and 6380 children.

The Aohanga river, near Akitio, is at present practically dry. This is the first occasion for many years that the rivers in the district have been so low.

The present season appears to have been a good one for potatoes in North Otago. The yields of early potatoes have in many instances been most prolific. Mr. George Jardine, of Oamaru, dug a shaw of potatoes the other day, from which be obtained no fewer than 60 tubers, all of a size suitable for table, use.

A Wanganui business-man who has recently been in the South Island tells of an amusing transaction which he witnessed there (says the Chronicle). A legal document required a 15/- stamp to be affixed t 6 it. The lawyer was greatly surprised to discover that 180 penny stamps had been attached. Very little of the document could be seen.

The smoke from the Ruakura swamp enshrouded Morrinsvillfc the other evening and had a curious effect during the progress of swimming sports at the Morrinsville baths, which are lit by electricity. The smoke was so dense that the swinfmers could not see the course. Several competitors struck the end of the baths before they were aware of its proximity. One lost a tooth while others received bruises. A pathetic sight was witnessed at the Wanganui Court the other day, when a young woman who had stood loyally behind her parents in assisting them to meet their obligations, was sued as a judgment debtor, because she had guaranteed some of her father’s debts when he was cut out of work. He was not able to obtain work in Wanganui, so the daughter borrowed the money to send him to Australia. Even there he does not appear to be doing very well, as he’has only sent a comparatively small sum in the last few months. The magistrate refused to make an order against the young woman. A farmer who has: had a large number of eggs taken from the nest boxes of his fowl run, decided (to lay a trap in the hope of catching a weasel which had been seen in the hedge nearby, and which he felt sure was the culprit (says the Hawera Star). Baiting the trap with an egg, he placed it at the entrance 'to the nest boxes, and eagerly awaited results. A few hours later the excited clucking of the fowls brought the farmer out “on the run,” armed with a substantial stick. To his surprise the trap contained a hedgehog, firmly caught by the forelegs, and trying in vain to .curl itself into a ball. During the past two seasons a peculiar blight, or rot, has assailed walnut trees in the Ashburton district, and last season the loss to growers was fairly heavy. Lhis year gives little better promise, the not being more or less tainted by black spot. The growing of walnuts in this district is undertaken on a large scale, and one workingman’s wife, from the stale of nuts, has been enable to take a leally good holiday and to fill her children’s wardrobes.

Through a departmental error, a young lady journeyed from Tokomaru Bay to take up an assistant ship at the local school (writes the Manutahi correspondent of the Hawera Star), but her chagrin may well he imagined when she foun that she had reached the wrong Manutahi. She should have gone to a school of the same name about thirty-five miles from her own home. She arrived on Saturday and commenced the long return journey on Saturday. An increase in expenditure of € °1473 is revealed in the Pub ic. Accounts of the Dominion for tho nine months which ended on December 31st last. The principal items of increase were repayment of public debt (£295,000), mteres (124,727), and subsidies to hospi and charitable aid boards (£4-, 000). The main decrease related to naval defence expenditure (£74,oqq\ Revenue increased by *>iur 55 : Stamp and death duties, which accounted for the chief mcrease, were an ordinary fiuctua tion. Diminished imports were reflected in a falling off m the C toms returns, the decrease amounting to £134,761. The excess of expenditure over revenue was > 342, as compared with an exce ® , £1,493,524 for the corresponding period of 1926.

It was stated at a, meeting of Auckland strawberry growers that the industry was menaced by a root disease.

Owing to the prevailing heat, the Nelson Education Board is closing the schools this week daily front noon.

There were 13 bankruptcies notified in the latest issue of the New Zealand Gazette, eight being in the North Island.

Roaming at large over the wilder section of the hill country in the neighbourhood of the Pahiatua track, a young bull has assumed the duties of king of the range and thereby threatens to become a distinct menace to travellers if the incidents which befell two users of that route, the other day are to .be taken as a criterion of his activities (says the Standard). One traveller, who was mounted on horseback, had found it necessary to ride for safety in the morning and, on returning over the same route later in the day, lie took the precaution to enquire of another passerby the whereabouts of the bull. The second traveller had not observed the -marauder, but that happy state of affairs was fated to be short lived for at almost the identical moment the bull emerged from the bush to jump the fence and come charging down. Fortunately the animal directed his immediate attentions to a dog, and under cover of that diverence the two travellers, believing that discretion was the better part of valour, made a hurried if not altogether dignified escape’from (he immediate locality.