NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3912, 28 February 1929, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Nearly 200 million pounds has now been ipaid by Britain to America on account of war debts, all but about 30 million being interest only. The wedding took place last week at the Otaki Methodist Church of Mr. Alexander Tulloeh Kebbell, bank manager, of Wellington, and Miss Air ini Tui Poutawera, also of Wellington. The Rev. Crockett (Presbyterian) officiated. John Curran, a chimney sweep in Glasgow, got drunk, climbed on the roof of a tenement and began operations on the chimneys at random. Housewives, wondering why soot was falling, discovered Curran, drunk and black, buit happy. He w'as arrested and fined £3. “In these days it is as hard to tell whether a youth is 18 or 21 years old as it is to tell whether a girl is 15 or 50,” said Mr. N* Johnson, defending a client, a barman, who was charged with selling liquor to a' youth under the legal age at Hamilton the other morning (says the Waikato Times). An alteration in the duty on lemons has been made by Order-in-Council. Under the 1927 tariff, the duty on British lemons is Id per lb. and on foreign 2d with the proviso that the duty is reduced to Id from November Ito March 31. The period in which the lower rate will be charged has been extended and will now be from November 1 to April 30.

The annual Mormon conference opened at Taumata-o-Tapuhi, near Kangitukia, on the East Coast. One ,ol' the earliest Mormon missionaries to Avork amongst the Maoris presided over the gathering. It Avas this elder Avith another of his brethren who Avas hound hands and feet by the late chief Hati Houlcamau at Te Araroa, many years ago.,. This Avill be bis liiial visit to the Mormon Mission in New Zealand. “Ninety per cent, of accidents at level crossings are due to the carelessness of motorists, and the other ten per cent, to misadventure,” said Mr: F. W; Johnston at a meeting of the executive of the South Island Motor Union in Christchurch. “The average human being Avas not made to drive a motor ear_or ffy an aeroplane” lie added. “It will be two or three generations before Ave have people able to meet their obligations as motorists.”

A sharp retort by the Magistrate during the hearing of a maintenance case in the .Wellington Magistrate’s Court on Monday -made it plain to the defendant and every one else in Court that matrimonial obligations must come first. The defendant, a taxi-driver, was explaining that out of his week’s takings he had to pay £1 oft’ the cost of his meter. Counsel, to the Magistrate : “IT he misses his meter he misses his livelihood.” Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.: “If lie misses his children he misses his liberty.” The 74th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade light was celebrated at the Eureka .Reserve, Ballarat, recently. The Mayor unveiled a photo of Mr. J. L. Potter, aged 94 years, at present residing at Timnru. The Mayor said he believed Mir. Potter was the only living participant ( stockadei". They had present with them that day some of Mr. Potter’s relatives, who had made a special trip from Melbourne to be present at the unveiling ceremony. He said that he had great pleasure in unveiling the photograph, together with M l '- Potter’s gold license, issued in 1854, and his miner’s right of 1856. The system of rating on unim-i proved values was adopted by the ratepayers of Takapuna about 18 months ago. A recommendation was made to the Borough Council by the Legal and Finance Committee recently that two outlying areas, totalling 498 acres, should be declared unlikely to be required within a reasonable period for building purposes, and therefore subject to reduced rates. 'Strong exception to the proposal was voiced by Mr. J. Guiniven, on the ground that it would tend to undermine the unimproved values system. Its adoption would mean “the death warrant of every industrious person in the borough.” Every large landowner would ask that he also should have the benefit of a similar exemption.

“As for man, the higher animal, it is enough to say that lie is compounded of various chemicals —fat enough for seven bars of soap; iron enough for one medium-sized nail; sugar enough to fill a shaker; lime enough to whitewash a chickencoop-, phosphorus sufficient to make two thousand and two hundred match heads; magnesium enoujgh for one dose of salts; potash enough to explode a toy cannon and sulphur enough to rid* one dog of fleas. Even at post-war prices one could buy all the ingredients for five shillings.”—Hr. J. S. Elliott, M.D., in the course of his address to the British Medical Association.

“Behold the fisherman. He aris-c-th early in the morning, and distui’bcth the whole household. Mighty are his preparations. He goeth forth full of hope. When the day is far spent ho returneth with the smell of strong drink upon him. But the truth is not in him.” —Some Wellington sportsmen who visited Lake Taupo on Sun fl ay were quite interested in these words, neatly written in old English, and framed in the hostel at Tolkaanu. One of them told a story of a countryman who went into the hotel and saw the immense trout (stuffed) which was hanging on the Avail, inscribed with its Weight, 18411 b. After gazing at it .earnestly for a moment the countryman remarked: “The iman that caught that fish is a liar.” During his recent journey in the Wairoa district and en rout# to Gisborne, the Minister of Public Wiorks, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, after listening to statements of the roading difficulties of settlers, has been wont to remind his hearers that he himself suffers from the same disability. He met rvith a prompt retort at one settlement. “I c-an sympathise with men .who have no ’metalled roads to their properties,” he said, “for I have been ten years in the same position myself. Some of the settlers in my district have been waiting for a road for 40 years, and I have been waitinf for ten myself.” “Well you have got the chance for a lifetime to gel Avliat you want now,” was the ready reply of one of his audience. Mention was made by the Bishop of Nelson, at the golden jubilee service of the Church of -the Nativity at Blenheim last week, of the fget that in 1905 there Avas a proposal to turn the church round to face the east, but the. plan was eventually abandoned. “Incidentlaly, may 1 say Ave have been asked why the Nelson Cathedral is not east and Avest,” added the speaker. “My auSAver is that among all the great cathedral churches in the world there is only one which runs east and Avest and that is St. Paul’s, London. The belief that churches should run east and 'west is simply an ,old tradition or, rather, superstition, Avhich needs to be exploded.”

The fact that fish in a dying state are often found on the beaches and display no inclination to return to the open sea \\4ien approached, vs held by Mr. Charlie Ferris, of Gisborne, to be due to a natural instinct to avoid being slain and eaten by other denizens of the deep. Mr. Ferris said that if a big fish were fatally speared it Avould invariably turn toAvard the land. On one occasion Avhen he had speared a large shark, it immediately turned round, and, in its dying struggles, Avorked itself into shalloAV water. Examination showed that the spear had entered in the region of the heart. If, on the other hand, the fish are but slightly AY r ounded, they at once make off into deeper water.