LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4525, 1 November 1930, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

That the tui was a much better singer than the nightingale was one of the remarks of the naturalist, Mr. .Johannes Andersen, at the South School, Dannevirkc, recently. He said many laid beard the nightingale on a '>ramoplione record, but after hearing the tui he did not think much of the nightingale. The tui was morc'"of a singer in every way.

“A man can get a lirst.-class suit of clothes from a good West End tailor for £(>,” said Mr. Pownall, of Wanganui, who returned this week from London. He said the best-dressed men in England would not think of paying the prices that New Zealanders did for their clothes. :Mr. Pownall was wearing an excellent pair of shoes which he purchased in London for £1 and which could not be bought here under twice that figure. An ordinary box suit in England cost from £2' .10/- to £3.

Equipped with a collection list and a few small needlework articles, a girl of 12 has been calling on Remuera residents this week soliciting donations, ostensibly for the Sunshine League. “The Post's” Auckland correspondent telegraphs that when asked at one house recently for her authority to collect, the child admitted that she had none, and under cross-exami-nation said she was collecting for her parents who, she averred, were ill. Further questioned, she admitted the whole story was a fabrication.

Mr. Field (O.luki) lias asked the Minister of Agriculture, whether his Department has investigated a blackberry blight reported by Mr. G. MleKclvie of tlie Manawatu Liabbit Hoard, which is said to be killing the weed, and whether his Department can make any definite pronouncement lor the guidance of i'anndrs whose properties are infested with the pest? The lion. Mr. Murdoch (Minister of Agriculture) replied, the matter has not previously been brought under the notice of the Department but instructions have now sheen given to the Department’s Entomologist to investigate the matter and report thereon. As regards the control of blackberry generally, the Department conducted experiments some time ago in the Wairoa district with vairious chemicals and the formula which gave the best results was one containing 141bs. of white arsenic and Mbs. of caustic soda. The Department is now conducting experiments with sodium chlorate in the control of blackberry, and the results of these will ■be made public in due course.

The Takapuna Jockey Club lias decided to introduce a 5/- folalisalor at its spring meeting next month.

The Koxton Fire Brigade desires to acknowledge with thanks a donation of £1 .1/- from Air. F. 11. .Murray.

Under the requiremeids of the 1928 amendment to the Municipal Corporations Act, the municipal elections will take place next year on May (Mb instead of in April.

The total amount raised as a result of the recent tour by the Blind Institute Band was £897 18/-. Of this amount, only £l5O went in travelling and olher expenses. The Raclihi Borough Council has decided to accept promissory notes as security for the payment of arrears of rates.

The closing of the girls’ department of Flock House lias been decided upon by the Trustees. No further drafls of girls will be arriving. To dale 128 girls, daughters of British, seamen killed or disabled during the war, have been brought ont to New Zealand. Willi (lie passage of time the number of beneliciavies under the scheme has diminished. The appreciation shown by farmers’ wives at being •able to get trained assistance of a l.igli type has been very gratifying and doulbtlcss many regrets will be felt, when there are no more girls available.

The great variety of subjects covered in the pictorial section of (lie current issue of the. “New Zealand I'irce 'Lance,” makes this edition more than usually interesting. Prominent among these subjects are the ladies’ golf championship at Heretaunga, the Royal Show ill Hastings, the new Lewis Saddle route which forms another link between the Canterbury and Westland provinces, the recent massed demonstration by West Coast miners, and the forthcoming (light of the all-steel living boat, “Do N.” As usual the letterpress section .presents the news of the week in a bright and chatty stvle.

“We are apt to think that the railway can run without visible means of support,” writes Mr. Ken. Alexander in the “New Zealand Railways Magazine.” “We are like tin* parsimonious parent who is surprised that lie cannot rear hun-dred-por-eouters on food less meals. Yet, if the railways locked the stable doors on the ‘iron horses’ for a day or two, the populace would rise in its wjratli and demand that the rolling-stock be immediately unrolled and started on the roll. Such is the mentality of man that he can only realise (hat while is white iby seeing black. A land without railways would he as dry as an empty bottle of champagne without the bottle.”

I'll to date 575 boys and 128 girls have arrived in New Zealand under the Flock House scheme which oilers training in agriculture

and domestic duties to the sons or daughters of British seamen who lost their lives or became incapa.*citated ns the result, of injuries received at sea during the war. it is estimated that the. personal assets of (lie Block House boys and girls, in cash savings, life assurance payments, horses, dogs, and equipment, cannot be less, and is probably greater than £45,090. The amount held by the trustees in the ■l'iridic Trust: olli.ee at the. credit of the boys ami girls savings accounts was £22,130 13/(1. Life assurance premiums paid to the same date total £(>,938 9/4. Thirteen Block House girls and ten Flock House boys have married and settled down in their own establishments.

'The holiday of kite living is always observed in China on the highest bills on the ninth day of the ninth month (writes A. O. Stott in “Every Girls’ Paper”). The people declare that once a certain mail was informed, at the strange appearance of an old priest (when he was making a kite for his small son), that some great calamity would lire fa 11 his home on this parlicnlar dale, lie, • therefore, took all his family and went off for an all-day picnic on the hills. On returning bite at night be found all bis domestic animals were dead. il was the ninth day of the ninth month the Chinese ever since spend the day away from home if they possibly can. To “eat up” the time with pleasure they always take kites and fly them. They call it “Ivising-on-ifigh Day.”

Even those who know 'best the characteristics of the wild black swan might scarcely believe that over 2000 dozen of their eggs were collected from the shores of Lake Ellosm.ere four years ago by the Nolrtli Can terbury A odium tisa tion Society. This work usually goes on eaeii year, and the society derives considerable revenue from it, slates The Press. No eggs were collected last year, hut this seasuii (be swans at the lake have been laying for well over a mouth, so that the collection of the eggs bus been steadily proceeding. At J/(> a dozen they command a real sale even in competition with hen eggs at a shilling. It is no secret

that pastrycooks use them and indeed prefer them for certain goods. .One swan egg is worth about five lien eggs to the pastrycook, who uses them for block cake, but not for the lighter kinds of pastry. Scrambled swan eggs are considered a delicacy by some Christchurch residents.

Right, your foe with will to win, Lash out fearlessly—“ All Ini” If your efforts end in naught, At the worst, at least you fought. Fight your foe and end his term, Be he reptile “tough” or germ; Fight the cold vou now endure, Win with Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.—l 9.

The vim I slatislies for Foxton Cor 1 In* month of October, with the figures for the same period last, year in parenthesis, are as follows: —Births 5 (<>), deaths 1 (9), marriages nil (21. Maori statistics: Births nil (2), deaths nil (1). Those in search of cheap footwear will lind a splendid opportunity at Mrs. Ball’s Shoe Store this week, where a whole window cram lull of footwear is on offer at prices far below bedrock. This stock must he quitted to make room for new goods.* The following are (lie chief prize winners in the Ambulance Art Union, drawn at 'Wellington last night :—First prize £‘looo, A 44,799, J. Along (Wellington): second prize £250, ('75,097, .). Montgomerie ((lireylown) ; third prize £IOO, AO2,SS], A. Parker, (jW'ainuuga private bag, Havelock North): four prizes of £2O each, A. 30,093, Master W : . Little (Geraldine); 1101,157, S. 1\ Hooper (Wellington); 1103,503, Mir. Holloway (Wellington) ; 115.8,081, Mr. IT. Leech (Auckland). Mr. Along, (lie winner of the first prize, is a young man who was lioi/n in Scotland, hut came to New Zealand when a child, lie is a draper, hut has been unable to find employment in his trade for two years and has consequently been in occasional employment with a timber firm.