NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3789, 8 May 1928, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Marton Borough Council has declared hemlock a noxious weed, the order to take effect from July Ist.

Two samples of ambergris, a grey and a black, have been received at the Thames School of Mines. They were found on the beach near Thames.

A boy surprised the Education Committee at Horsforth, Yorkshire, by asking for a leaving permit on the ground that he had got a job as a housemaid. Mr. R. Mackman, of Spalding, formerly sexton at the Parish Church, who is an enthusiastic bellringer, this year rang-in the New Year for the fiftieth time. As a result of the recent carnival held in Greytown a sum of £404 13s lid was raised. It has been decided that £3OO of the fund be handed over to the Borough Council for Memorial Park, purposes and £IOO to the fire brigade.

The Town Clerk of Lower Hutt had a most welcome visitor in his office on Friday morning. A gentleman who desires to remain anonymous entered the office and placed ten £5 notes on the desk, intimating that he desired the money to be used in equipping the children’s playgrounds. This is further eviden of the generosity of many Lower Hutt residents, several of whom have alrealy donated anonymously upwards of £ISOO for various objects, principally children’s play-areas in the borough. The officials of the Te Awamutu Presbyterian Church recently decided to have the church at Te Kawa congregation may be im-well-known Te Awamutu painter to do the work. It is now stated that on arriving at Te Kawa the painter’s staff was directed to the church anfi went on their way toward it fully armed with their pots and brushes. The feelings of the Te Kawa congregatiin may be imagined when at the end of the day it was found that the painters had made a splendid job—not of the church but of the Te Kawa Drainage Board. The sight for the first skiing track on Mount Egmont has been chosen, and several people who have skiied in other parts of the world testify that it is very suitable for tlie purpose (says the Hawera Star). The track will be situated on the Stratford Plateau, a very central spot, about three miles from Dawson Falls and very little further than North Egmont Hostel. There is a certain amount of clearing to be done to prepare the track, which will be about a chain wide and half a mile long. With a view to turning himself out for the Anzae Day parade in a manner befitting the occasion a New Plymouth returned soldier made a search for his war medals. Two were easily located, but the third one necessitated a more thorough hunt before it also was found. In the process the man came across a forgotten war bond, taken out when money was being raised locally for war purposes. Having passed the date of redemption, the bill was promptly cashed next morning and the former soldier is thanking his luck that the search for one of his medals brought the bmg-forgjotten bond ito light. Wjhen Donald Gillies, a plasterer, aged 31 years, and John George Furey, a salesman, aged 19 years, appeared before Mr. Justice Smith in the Wellington Supreme Court on Wednesday for sentence on a charge of conspiracy to defraud by burning a motor-car to obtain the insurance money, His Honour said that the crime appeared to have been well calculated, but clumsily executed. In passing sentence His Honour .said that the crime was a bold attempt to obtain money from an insurance company. There was no doubt that Gillies was the moving mind in the matter. Gillies was ordered to be detained for reformative purposes for two years, an< Furey was ordered to be detained in the Borstal Institute for two years.

The danager that exists of the importation of pests from .foreign countries was exemplified in Ashburton in the unpacking of a case of oranges fr6m America, states the correspondent of the Hylton Times. The creature found was nearly six inches long, dar v brown in colour on the top of i-half-inch-wide scaly body, and and salmon-coloured underneath. It had 44 legs. The body ended in two whip-like tails, nearly an rnel, long, ami i't had a fearsome looking head, equipped with tw° shoi feelers. An examination ol he fruit from the case failed to veal what the creature had ve upou sinee it left America Jhe paced on the floor the pests 41 legs carried it along at a surpn - ing pace, and it showed great o„il ity in evading capture.