NEWS ITEMS.

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 41, 3 January 1902, Page 3

NEWS ITEMS.

An editor who has contrasted the habit of occasionally attending church has this to say: “Ladies should take off their hats in church. No preacher can inspire a man who is looking into a lop-sided aggregation of dead birds, stuffed weasels, chameleon skins, ribbons, beads, jets, sticks, straw flowers, corn tassel, and thistle down. It makes a sinner feel lost in the wilderness.”

A great stir has been caused in the town of Bayonne, New Jersey, by the threatened enactment of a law forbidding women to wear skirts sweeping the pavement. The Chief Commissioner of the local Board of Health says : —“We hope to make it, a serious -misdemeanour for women to wear skirts sweeping the pavement. There is hardly any greater cause of contagion than these iniquitous dresses with long trains, which gather up the germs of every description, carry them into the household, and breed disease.” Several prominent physicians are supporting the anti-train movement, denouncing it as a prolific source of contagion, and urging a general adoption of the proposed law. The coming issue of new coins, for the obverse of which the king has sat. says the Daily Chronicle, is a favorable opportunity to withdraw from circulation either the florin or half crown, preferably the latter. From the similarity in size of.these two coins many disputes arise. Probably the florin is more in favour by reason of its beauty and lightness. The issue of the silver florin only dates from 1849 ; its name is a revival of that of the gold florin, said to have been fiist issuen at Florence, —-whence its name.--111 the thirteenth century, and to have been current all over Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. An English gold florin was issued in the reign of Edward HI., and, according to Camden, was, in 1337, of the value of six shillings. The silver half-crown pieces were first issued in the sixteenth century. None were coined in 1848, and they were gradually withdrawn from circulation but the eoinage of half-crowns was begun again in 1874. The issue of the silver crowns was recommended in 1887, in which -year the double florin was first coined. The latter is rarely met wiv.h now. Some time ago, it will be remembered a man named Whelan was attacked at Riverhead, Auckland bv three bulldogs, and was severely mangled that he had to be removed to the Auckland Hospital, where he lay in a critical state for some weeks. The owner of the dogs was recently fined L 5 on each of the three charges, and it was stated in Court that he had compensated the man to the extent of L3O. The Rev. C. Bates and a friend made the ascent of Mount Anglein (Hananui), in Stewart last week, occupying two days in the task. The mountain is not very high, but the top is difficult of access owing to a belt of sand, timber, and scub. They found a crater on top filled by a lake 800yds by 300yds, of which a photo was ‘secured.

The DanneVirke public are at present very much amused over the fact that Trooper Raynor, of the Ruahine Mounted Rifles, was rejected for the Eighth Contingent, the riding judge at “Napier considering he could not ride. Raynor was born almost in the saddle, and can ride anything from a billy-goat to a giraffe. ' Rough on the judge.

In an interview with a Dunedin reporter, on his return from England. Mr W. J. Bolt, manager of Taieri and Peninsula diary company, claimed that the factory was now ahead of anything n the world. The annual turnover is v 146,000.