LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3874, 22 November 1928, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A feature of to-day’s Horticultural Show is the display of work exhibited by the pupils of the local D.H. School.

The Manaiwatu County and Foxton Borough Councils notify by advertisement in this issue that ten per cent, will be added to all outstanding rates.

The work of felling the plantations on the Foxton-Himatangi road is now almost completed. The contractors are now working on the last belt, at what used to be known as Cameron’s Plantation, next to the Chinese market gardens.

Owing to important business in Wellington in. connection with Manawatu County Council matters,' Mr. J. Linklater, M.P., was unable to open the local Horticultural Society’s Show to-day. Mr. Linklater telegraphed an apology and best wishes.

Through slipping while at play at Levin, prior to sitting for a scholarship examination on Monday, Malcolm Mason, of Foxton, broke his left wrist. Despite the injury, he sat the examination and did not have the injury attended to until the following morning.

It is estimated that the area of native forest in New Zealand to-day is about one-third of what it was in 1840. The area of indigenous State forests at the present day is 11,405 square miles, with a timber value of £34,000,000, and a land value of £1,970,000. : A recent message from Maryborough, Queensland, says that a few people at Ululah Lagoon witnessed a tight to the death between a wild swan and a huge eel. The swan was moving along the water when the eel suddenly attacked it. The bird defended itself gallantly, but the eel had a hold on its head, and finally held it under water long enough to drown it. A few minutes afterwards the swan’s mate appeared on the scene, but the eel had gone. Steamers are now being designed to carry equipment by which the raw coal may be pulverised before being fed into the furnaces. Other economies in the use of fuel in industry are receiving increasing attention. If the expectations that some of the processes, systematically operated with adequate equipment will render fuel available for industry at very much less than its present cost are not unduly sanguine, it should be possible to look forward to the opening of an altogether brighter chapter for coal in Great Britain. In the outcome of the investigations and experiments of the fuel experts in relation to coal our own Dominion and other parts of the Empire are, of course, closely interested.

At yesterday’s meeting of the Wanganui Education Board it was decided to pay half-cost for fencing at the local D.H. School and to erect a bicycle shelter. The wolf instinct in certain dogs is aroused by the speed of motor cars and motor cycles and they race beside them with savage intent and to the Tmnoyance of drivers. Many such animals ultimately pay the penalty and another was added to the list in Main Street on a recent afternoon.

A spectacular fire was witnessed in Masterton on Tuesday evening, when a large wooden building owned by H. H. Daniel], was burnt to ,the ground. The structure stood on a section adjacent to the town, but there were no other buildings in the vicinity. The brigade was helpless as the fire had a strong hold when the alarm was given. The building was used for storage purposes, but the .exact nature of the contents was not known and the insurances are not ascertainable.

A warrant has been issued at Auckland for the arrest of Hector Robert Malcolm, an Auckland solicitor. It is understood he has left Auckland and" that a total of several hundred pounds is involved. In the Supreme Court last week on the application of a creditor, the Official Assignee was appointed interim receiver in the estate pending the hearing of petitions to adjudicate Malcolm bankrupt. In the meantime the Official Assignee has seized the books and other contents of Malcolm’s office.

The New Zealand architect, Mr. S. Hurst Seagar’s invention of lighting scheme which removes as far as possible all reflections from glasses in picture frames was recently adopted for one room in the Tate gallery, one of England’s most famous art galleries, and was pronounced to be the best-lighted room in Europe. It has also been installed in the Spring Gardens gallery, in a competition for an art gallery and town hall at Southampton the winning design also had the lighting based on this principle. As one who loves youth, I view with grave apprehension the increase of soealled dance palaces. There is gaiety—yes, and there are coloured lights and jazz music and floating balloons not bad things, you would say. I, too, like youth to lie gay—but there are different kinds of gaiety. Every day I see the tattered rags of illicit romance.

The modern drama is supposed to hold up the mirror of life. It does not. The curtain, is always rung down too soon before the aftermath, before the audience can see the consequences of what has happened on the stage. Mr. J. A. Cairns, the famous Thames Magistrate.

“When you’re in Napier you must do as Napier does,” remarks the Gisborne Times. A visiting Magistrate motoring through the town, was informed of this with due digtail light, of his car set high up in tail light of his lar set high up in the centre of the hood when he drove into the Hawke’s Bay capital. “Why haven’t you got your taillight in the proper place?” asked the constable who stopped him. “The police allow ns to have the tail-lights there where I come from,” was the magistrate’s reply. “But you’re not in now; you re in Napier, and the regulations sav it shall be as near as possible to the right-hand side, on a level with the chassis,” replied the man in blue. The magistrate had the light shifted without further ado.

A proposal is on foot to form a Radio Research Committee for New Zealand, members being drawn from the Post and Telegraph .Department, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Broadcasting Company, radio amateurs, the universities, and perhaps the Defence and Naval Departments. It is felt that the Dominion is in a unique position to undertake wireless research, there being many problems awaiting investigation. The prime function of. (he proposed committee, which will be on the lines of the one already established in Australia, will be to co-ordinate, originate, and facilitate scientific radio research and investigation, co-operating with similar bodies elsewhere. Without expenditure such problems as the direction of static, the height of the heaviside layer in this part of the world, fading, and the influence of weather on trans-Tasman broadcasting, could be investigated with benefit* to wireless users in the Dominion and elsewhere.

Consternation reigned amongst the smokers assembled on the platform at Wellington the other day when the outward-bound Hntt train drew up without any first-class smoke car attached. However there were two cars labelled “A” and “B,” respectively, and a smoker, pipe in mouth, exclaiming “B” is for baccy!” jumped into the “B” car, and all the other smokers followed suit.. Presently someone asked: “If ‘B’ is for baccy—what is ‘A’ for?” “For abstainers, of course,” came the reply. Everybody laughed. Precious few “abstainers” from the weed these days! — possibly one in 50. Well there’s no harm in tobacco, so long as it’s good and doesn’t contain too much nicotine, as those imported brands do. Our New Zealand tobaccos contain so little it doesn’t matter. That’s why they are so safe. They are unbeaten for fragrance and flavour, too. Delicious. Those chiefly in demand are“Riverhead Gold” mild, “Navy Cut” (Bulldog) medium, and “Cut Plug No. 10’ (Bullshead.) fulli strength. They are on sale everywhere. Any tobacconist will supply you.

An inquest was held at Palmerston yesterday as to the circumstnnoes surrounding' the death of Miss Minnie Reed, aged 43, who died on November 16 at Palmerston North as the result of a collision between her motor-cycle and a motor-car driven by Mr. H. E. Silvester, of Albert Street, Palmerston. A verdict was returned that deceased was accidentally killed through colliding with a motorcar.

A mother, accompanied by her four sons, entered a well-known boot and shoe emporium in Greymouth recently and requested that her boys he fitted with boots (reports the “Greymouth Evening Star”). The attendant pleasantly invited the family to be seated while, he selected boots of suitable size for her youthful customers. The correct fittings were made, but the chagrin of the attendant can be imagined when, instead of making the sale as she had hoped, the mother drew a mail order slip from her bag and proceeded to fill in the. sizes of the boots thereon. She smilingly informed the attendant that she was not a purchaser, but wanted to find out the correct sizes to enable her to complete her overseas mail order.