GENERAL NEWS.

Otaki Mail, 21 April 1922, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Monday was the eightieth anniver- S eary of the establishment of. Odd-! fellowship in New Zealand. The es-1 tablishment was almost coincident with the proclamation of Brusn sovereignty. The Dunedin Star says: Several Red Feds are to be told off by the ‘Melbourne Trades Hall organisation to tour New Zealand prior to the general election this year. This is not a street rumour. One of the most important events in the history of Kohimarama (Auckland) took place one Saturday, when the Presbyterians of the seaside settlement erected a new church in the one ' day. The opening services of the new 1 church were held on Sunday. ! There appears (remarked the Tapa- 1 nui Courier) to be a contain stream of ' public health officials and other experts engaged in the selection ol a site for the South Otago Hospital buildings at Balclutha, and the cost , of these preliminaries should run into 1 a nicg sum. Apropos of the story of the eels at Marion responding to a whistle, a contemporary has .been assured ilia. r eels, in migrating through the grass at night from one pond to another, give out a distinct whistling souuu, and by this the Maori was enabled to capture them.

The manufacturer of a well known high-class cigarette loid a London Daily Mail reporter that lie eujoyeu a fairly goou sale ior nis prouitcl St long as lie advertised it prominently. 'lmmediately the advertising is shut down,” he said, "the sales drop anu ttie smokers go to the lower-priceu brands.” Three hearty cheers were given L\ the public at the school sports at \vanganui ior the children of the laoroa School, wiio had walked sic. miles through the bush to the iuiiway beyond .Tailiape in order to catch the train ior .Wanganui, ,'riie children were kindly billeted for the night by .Wanganui residents, and left for their homes alter the sports with another six mile .walk at the end of their journey.

A new machine for gathering up dead leaves and out grass from lawns has just been tried successfully in Christchurch city. it is like a big lawn mower with a huge carrier. It

is pushed over the lawn alter ihw . lawn mowers have linished their work, and it gathers up dead leaves and grass most effectively. There are four hue-toothed rakes flying round , close to .the grass, arid they gather | everything in their path. j I Sir Heaton Rhodes, at the open mg j j ol the Ellesmere hydro-electric plant, I said the Government had decided to . develop a number of hydro-elect no | I’ schemes. Under Mr Evan Parry's | scheme, which aimed at completion j by 1929, some £12,000,000 would be spent. They would then be generat- | ing 260,000h.p. The Government . realised fully that the development of , ' iJie country was linked up with the j ' harnessing of the rivers. j

•‘•Don't be discouraged,'' said Mr Massey to a deputation 01 soldier stiJ tiers on Thursday. "You men yuil , look back ten years hence arid be glad j that you stuck to your land." The j deputation had stated the difficulties ot the soldier settlers in tiie Manawatu j district, and had asked lor remission ot rent and revaluation of properties. I The Prime Minister and the Minister j ol Lands replied that the Government ; had already made adequate provision for seeing the returned soldiers through.

An extraordinary and persistent siege of a farmstead in the lower Riverlands district by hordes of ferrets has been going on during the past month, and, though the marauders have sustained heavy losses, they are still massing for nightly attacks (states the Marlborough Fxpress). During three weeks no lower than 32 ferrets were caught in traps on the farm, this number ;n----cluding a haul of seven in one night. On their side the ferrets have accounted for about 24 head of young poultry.

Margaret .J. Rutherford, on remand on a charge of having been drunk and disorderly, appeared again at the Auckland Police Court this week. Her husband, whom the police said had tried in vain to reform tlae woman, came forward in response to an inquiry by Magistrate Poynton, end as he passed the dock his wife leaned over the dock rail and dealt him a vicious blow on the back of tiie head. He dodged a second by ducking low.

“Nice woman!" remarked Mr Poynton. “She’s no good to me, ’ said the husband. She was sent to prison for a mouth.

j A Greenfield farmer, anxious to tnr gage hands for harvest work (leading in and stacking] tried to get men in Balclutha on Tuesday without success (says the Glutha Free Press), and proceeding to Milton, had little tetter luck there, although he did manage to engage one “tourist” after interviewing three of the fraternity of ) .swag. In desperation he telephoned * th.e Repatriation Department, Dunedin. I for three men, and they managed to send out one by" the evening train I to Mill on, where, the farmer picked I nirn up, and, together with his other new employee, went off by motor car j to Greenfield, well pleased on the I whole with the result of his strenu- , ous effort to get heip.