MISCELLANEOUS.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXIII, 6 December 1920, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Government will shortly authorise the establishment of two arterial mail services. One will cover Auckland to Whangarei and probably include Dargurille. The other will afford an important improvement in the mail service between ChristGhurch and Blenheim. Under present conditions mails from the southern part of the South Island destined for Blenheim and Nelson have to be sent to Wellington, where they lie at least twelve hours before being sent across Cook Strait. The proposed aerial mail will effect a great saving of time by giving a direct route to Marlborough.

Advice has just been received that j the availability of four weeks’ railway | privilege tickets for returned soldiers j hits been extended till -Sth February, v 19*1, on which date all travelling ceases! Applications for tickets must apply direct to War Accounts and Records Office, Government Buildings, Wellington. Tickets already issued for lesser periods than four weeks so as to expire' on 30th November, 1930, will be extended to cover four weeks from date of issue on personal application to any railway stationmastor.

“We, never saw linen table covers e' c-n at the best of hotels in Germany,’’ remarked Mr J. C. Cooper, of Masterton, to an “Age’’ reporter. He also mentioned that a suit of poor material commanded the sum of £SOO

marks. The present-day value of a murk is one penny. Talking of prices in England, he stated that ordinary butter was 5s per lb, while guaranteed brought up to 7s 6d. Throughout Great Britain he never saw either Danish or New Zealand butter, labelled as such, on the market. The problerqof living in England to-day was indeed a very difficult one.

When a baker was proceeded ■! against at Auckland for selling under weight bread, Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M.. j remarked that the offence was an V ancient one. The magistrate further fi said, in reply to defendant’s slute- ( meat, that he had trouble with the j firing of his oven, that he knew bakers , had difficulty in regulating the weight of bread, but it had always been so. The laws of Hamauraoi, in ancient Babylon, laid it down that the milkman who watered milk be drowned in the pool from which lie drew the water, and that the baker who gave light weight should be baked in the oven in which the light bread was baked. The law was not now quite so extensive, but still it had to be made effective. Defendant was fined £lO and 9s costs.

“You were pally with him?” was a question put by Mr T. M. Wilford to a witness in a recent case at the Supreme four! at Wanganui. The witness replied in the negative* “But you call him ‘Alt'.’ ” persisted counsel. “He is ns well known in Foxton by Ilie name of ‘Alf. ’ as you are in Wellington by the name. of ‘Tommy,’” replied the witness amid laughter. At a later stage another man was referred to, and the witness .-aid. “You appeared for him in Palmerston North, Mr AVill'ord.’’ “I don’t remember,” replied counsel, “but if he is free I probably did.”