NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3893, 10 January 1929, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

There were 26 petitions made at Palmerston during the year for dissolution of marriage. . There were 27 estates in bankruptcy dealt with in Wanganui last year, as against 21 in 1927. On the Friday before Christmas the pay out to Wanganui waterside workers avus £ISOO to 220 men. Last Friday’s pay out iras only £lO to 160 men.

A four teen-months-old Wellington baby played a disturbing prank on bis mother early one evening last week, when, with surprising strength for a toddler, lie slammed tiie door on lvis parent after she had entered the pantry. As the door had an outside lock only, the. mother remained a prisoner for half an-houv, being unable, until then, to attract the attention of neighbours. Fortunately there was ventilation, provided through a built-in meat safe. A severe thunderstorm, accompanied by a furious'downpour of hail and jagged pieces of ice, the size of bens’ eggs, leaving in its wake a trail of serious damage, passed over portions of North Otago between one and two o’clock yesterday afternoon. The districts suffering most included Otepopo, Nauru, Inc'lvolmc, Maruakon, Enfield, Windsor and Ngapara. Peculiarly enough, although a heavy shower, accompanied by thunder and lightning, foil at Oamaru, the town escaped the fury of the storm and while the Five Forks area was swept, the storm passed over Clifton Falls, where dust was blowing from the road. Many farmers are faced with severe loss, crops ready for the hinder being laid waste and the season’s cropping going for nought in a. few minutes. Root crops suffered similarly.