NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4408, 30 January 1930, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES

Fatal injuries were sustained by Henry Gracoek, aged 17, a carpenter, as the result of a fall while working on the Kaifanga at the Queen’s Wharf, Auckland, festerday. An auctioneer who gets into Touch with those whom he intends to persuade to buy his wares is certain to be more successful than one who takes no trouble to put his audience in a. good humour (says The Evening Post). At the yearling sales at Trent ham the auctioneer, after reading the conditions, remarked : “Now, gentlemen, I am not

going to give you the usual auctioneer’s talk. I got a very good lesson from the racebook recently. There was a horse named Auctioneer, which I was guilty of putting £1 on. I think it was well-named. It was by Gasbag.” The hearty laughter which followed the remark showed that, the audience fully appreciated _the point.

A black cat refused to leave the Duchess of York the other week when she visited Southend. The Duchess laid the foundation-stone of the new general hospital, received hundreds of purses at the Kursaal, and opened with a golden key the new club-house of the Excelsior iplub for Girls and had tea with the members. Thousands of school children cheered the Duchess as she drove through the streets, and members of the British Legion, the lire brigade, Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, and Boys’ Brigade funned The guard of honour. As the Duchess walked up to the 'dais for the stone-laying ceremony, a black cat strolled beside her. The cat, to the Duchess's great amusement, seated itself at her feet and watched the ceremony. Taranaki beekeepers who were hoping at the beginning of the season to have a bumper production this year, are in for the worst they have ever experienced. The flow of nectar has only another week to go, and even with the finest weather production can only be a third of what it would have been had the weather conditions been moire favourable. Taranaki is not alone in this experience, for the bad weather has been general throughout the Dominion, and, in consequence, liouey production will be unusually low this season. Beekeepers, however, are very optimistic about the future, for the working of the law of average ensures them better production next year—or the following year. “About how many deer are there in New Zealand?” was a question

[till In :i responsible oHileer ol’ the Side Forest Service in Wellington Inst week. liis reply wns licit, ill livo provinces nloile in the South l-.l.'iml there were over 2,000,000 deer, lull the lolnl in New Zen Inn.l wns beyond his oonoepl ion. They Iniil multiplied 1 i'll limes in less I linn :is ninny years, In hazard some thing like on estimate. The deer were lirsl released .'ll ,Mount Cook. They are Hjimalnynii iiioiiiilain sheep, and have since spread tremendously in the mountainous districts of the South Island, Quite rrrenlly some specimens-were mustered with some slump off the hills, in Marlborough, showing how they have spread themselves over the country.