Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, NOVEMBER. 29, 1928 LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3877, 29 November 1928, Page 2

Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, NOVEMBER. 29, 1928 LOCAL AND GENERAL

The price of all grades of butter has been reduced by one penny per pound in Dunedin as from yesterday.

The first S.O.'S. service car north yesterday morning was . delayed some hours on the Whirokino road with a broken axle. Some alarm has been caused amongst Gisborne Natives, by the discovery that kumeras containing a boring grub have been imported from Fiji and sold at Gisborne. The kumera represents the staple crop of the Maori population, and the .introduction of the pest would be a serious matter.

The eclipse of the noon on Tuesday night was not witnessed locally owing to clouds obscuring the sky early in the evening. A few people observed the final stages of • the eclipse, however, for a few minutes when a rift in the clouds gave observers a fleeting. glimpse of the phenomenon.

About 400 Freemasons attended the annual- communication of tho Grand Lodge of New Zealand in Dunedin yesterday, presided over by the Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, who was reelected Grand Master, an office he has held since 1925. Bro. R. W. Wlatts, of Dunedin was elected Pro. Grand Master. As the office of Grand Secretary will be in Dunedin for the next two years the principal executive officers belong to Otago. It was recommended that the next communication be held at Auckland.

Four shareholders claiming to represent the holders of more than half the shares in the Southland Woollen Mills, Ltd., petitioned tho Dunedin Supreme Court on Tuesday for the winding up of the company on the ground that it was not 'a sound commercial investment, that the directors had abused their privileges by hurriedly entering into a contract for machinery, that the capital subscribed was insufficient- and that the mill now proposed to be erected is widely different from the original proposition. The case is proceeding.

Its radio equipment is one of the special features of the Byrd Antarctic expedition, whose members will be able to communicate with and receive messages from thenfamilies and friends in America while in the far south. Last week one of the radio operators on the Eleanor Bolling received a wireless message direct from his home town in the United States announcing the birth of a son. Not only so, but two hours before the event and a few hours after he was carrying on a radio conversation with his wife 7000 miles away through the medium of the ships plant, which was in contact with his home through a relay by the station in his home town.

Found in the toe of the boot of a man arrested at Marton, an engagement ring has been restored to its owner i,n Fei filing (says the Star). The man was arrested for alleged fraud in Palmerston North, and on being searched the ring was found as stated. Asked about it, the man said he had seen a lady in Feilding drop it in the street, and he picked it up, intending to return it. He changed his mind, however, and kept it. The lady informed the police she had not been wearing the ring, but kept it in a jewel box at home, and had seen it there the day before she was supposed to have lost it. Whoever took it out of the box left some other valuable pieces there.

Mr. E. Sutlon, of Eoxton, accompanied by a friend, while making an inspection of a flax swamp at Koputavoa on Sunday came across what might possibly be termed a “shaggery.” They were proceeding through the swamp, knee deep in flood water, when about 150 shags suddenly flew up near at hand. The (wo men decided to investigate the cause of the congregation of such a large number of the birds and came across a willow tree which was literally loaded down with shags nests' All the limbs were weighed, down with nests, ranged side by side on the branches, and all of them contained eggs, as many as five being in the nests in some instances. Mr. Sutton and his friend decided to destroy the eggs and in doing so counted 482, thus ridding the district of a large number of shags within a few minutes.