MISCELLANEOUS.

Otaki Mail, 5 April 1922, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

••'Education is better than money," j said of Education when 1 addressing the children at Martinborough. "Your money can be stolen, but nobody can rob you of a good education." The Taranaki Herald says: We regret to learn that the condition of Mr 'Percy Smith, an ex-Surveyor-General and an authority on the Maori, is causing his family considerable anxiety.

Mr A. B. Charters, who was Inspector of Schools in the Wellington district and left the service about IS months ago to take up farming in the j Auckland province, has rejoined the • Education Department with headquarters at Auckland. \ A new vehicle for hire has made its appearance in Dunedin in the form of a motor-cycle with a high, square j saloon body in place of the usual) sidecar. The body is comfortably up-: holstered, seats two, and is equipped j with luggage grid on the roof and [ box carrier at the rear. At the New Zealand Dairy Company's dried mills factory at Waiioa eleven three-ton storage .battery waggons are used to collect the milk. These waggons are charged electrically during the night, when power is not required for other purposes. The average run is 294 miles a week over poor roads, and the cost ot the current is only 14/ per waggon. A Napier merchant states that while blasting a particularly solid block of marine shell lime, 30ft below the surface at Bluff Hill last week, the per-fectly-preserved body of a frog was found in an airtight cavity. The discovery is interesting, as it will decide the question of whether frogswere indigenous to New Zealand. The specimen was handed to Mr tyil, a local naturalist. Tennis is credited with being the means of imparting vigour and endurance to its devotees. The Palmerston North courts furnish an interesting proof of this. About four month.ago a prominent player had the ill fortune to lose an arm near the shoulder. Twelve days after the operation he could dress himself, and he is now playing his games on the court as vigorously and skilfully <i? any. Portions of the counties of Patea and Waitotara have been made subject to flreblight prevention regulations. No plant or any portion i>> a plant of apple, pear, quince or hawthorn, or any bees, may be taken from the area to any other part of New Zealand, and any trees or shrubs , sent from the area must be aceoinipanied by a certificate that the package does not include any of the forbidden plants. • A good deal of interest has attached to the tendering for the Government contract of erecting 61 cottages at Otira and Arthur's Pass in connection with the Otira tunnel s«heme. ' It is the intention of the Railway Dej partment to use electric traction in • the Otira tunnel, and this necessitates ' the presence of a considerable .staff of I experts in the vicinity. It is to accommodate them that the 61 cottages are to be built. Messrs. Love Bros., j builders, Port. Chalmers, ate the sue- ' eessful tenderers for erecting the cotj tages, and it is understood thai the contract price is in the vicinity of £44,80*.