MISCELLANEOUS.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 10 March 1920, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

In his will Mr Samuel Barrington Tristram, of Worthing, barrister, who left £19,000, wrote: "I beg that my body may not be interred in a leaden coffin or deep in the earth, I have no preference for consecrated ground, and I should wish to be buried in a wicker basket on a slope of the South Downs facing the south, and the sun." As the testator had a fear of being buried or cremated alive, lie directed that,a main artery be opened after his apparent death. In a codicil he desired that his medical attendant should give a written certificate that he had severed the jugular vein. Mr Tristram also expressed a wish that "no solicitor, stockbroker, stockjobber, or any future husband of my wife shall be appointed trustee ef my will."

A lady visitor to London, recently returned, states that London is still crazy on dancing, but describes the jazz, as danced there, as quite a dignified movement. She also spoke of a new dance from Paris undor the old name of tango, which has all the graco of the stately old minuet. She says the dancing goes on all the afternoon and all night, and at the Portman Rooms, a fashionable dancing academy in Portman Square, 15 expert teachers are in constant attendance. Here, at the slightest suggestion of rough, dancing, the offenders are asked to leave, and are not permitted to return.

A movement is on foot in Auckland to build a new museum as a war memorial. The present museum is owned by the Auckland Philosophical Institute, and is supported by members' annual contributions and by lonations. Although it is open to the public it is a private institution. It is very small, and cannot be enlarged. Hie Auckland City Council has offered to lease at a nominal rental for museum purposes about three acres of the public domflin. It is proposed to •met there a building that will cost about £BO,OOO, to lie used as an ordinary museum and as a war memorial, with war Teiccs of local and general interest. The City Council will submit to the ratepayers a proposal to borrow the sum of £IOO,OOO to carry out trre scheme.

Mr T. W. Kirk, Director of the Horticultural Division of the Agricultural Department, speaking at the meeting of the Stoke Fruitgrowers' Association last week, stressed the great importance of the present export shipments. New Zealand, he said, was on its trial, and the future of the export trade very largely depended on the fruit sent abroad in these shipments. They had to remember, too, that they were following the Americans, who had set a very high standard in the grading and packing of their fruit, and it was of vital importance that nothing but the best oe sent abroad, and that the fruit be properly graded and packed. It was impossible to exaggerate the importance of these matters.

The automobile is rapidly ousting horses from New York. In about two and n-h'alf years there has been a decrease of 32,000 in the number of horses in the city, and 26G1 less occupied stables. There were at the latest count about 75,000 horses: still left.

The attendance at the Government School in Samoa having increased largely last year, and a further increase" being expected this year, it was decided recently to call for applications for the position of assistant master. Mr W. H. Fortune, of Grey Lynn, Auckland, was the successful applicant, and has sailed for_Apia.

According to a recent article by H. G. Cornthwaite on the rainfall of Panama, a. downpour of unrivalled intensity occurred at Porto Bello on May 1, VMS, when a fall of 2.4 Sin (63 millimetres) in five minutes was recorded by a self-registering rain gauge. This fall, at an average rate of 12.6 millimetres per minute, is believed to constitute a world record, its nearest rival beiiiL' a shower at Curtes-de-Arges, Roumania, on July 7, ISSD. when rain fell for 20 minutes at an average rate of 10.2 miilimetres per minute.

The completed returns in connection with the licensing poll taken in December show that 24-11,251 votes were cast for national continuance, 32,261 for State control, and 270,250 for national prohibition. As the votes in favour of either State control or national prohibitioa do not amount to more than one-half of ail the votes recorded, the Minisrer of Justice notifies that the result of the poll is that national continuance is deemed to have been carried.

The Auckland Education Board has decided to limit the Easter holidays for primary Vebools to Good Friday asd Easter Monday.