THE OTAKI MAIL. MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1923. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Otaki Mail, 31 December 1923, Page 2

THE OTAKI MAIL. MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1923. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Trout weighing up to 101 b have been taken this season from Lake Hffirowhenua, which is reported to be exceptionally well stocked.

To-morrow will be a regular gala day at the Otaki beach. The Chamber of Commerce have arranged with Sir. C F. Newham, the Dominion's premier cinematographer, to take about 1000 feet of film of the beach and surroundings. This will be shown overseas as well as locally and it behoves every resident of Otaki and district to turn out so '.as to give The picture as much "life" as possible. The Otaki Band will dispense a" pipgranime of music on the beach the afternoon. This in itself should prove' a sj>eeial attraction.

The man who meets you in the street and asks vou to told his overeoat while he lights his cigarette is to be viewed yiikfy suspicion. Two cases of this sort happened in Wellington on Wednesday. In the first instance, a pedesrrain was accosted outside the .Jewish Club by a man who politely asked him xc halJd his overcoat while he lit a cigarette. The stranger calmly threw the garment over the other man's shoulder, ignited ihe friendly weed, retrieved the coat •and passed on. The obliging pedesrrain subsequently found that £5 was missing from -his S2e£." iit other case had

Do your A-iaas shopping airly. A. pair of :-iio€s siaiea a. luefnl ■3r#s*£3r Just l<u:d*d: Saad shoes, aJi whits :oles. onlr- 5./S a. pair, at also .English "srfcit*. Poplin lacs ?hc#f, high" heaJs, 12/5; Clari»'« make. Loiii* intel;, 39/6; also chiHr«s's English said&b &ad vhite shoos it Tr-rine's shee st«r«, Ottki.—i.*-rt'.

That there is a good demand for New Zealand butter in Australia is demonstrated by the fact that a Wanganui factory has just received a definite order for 100 boxes from the Commonwealth.

.The Moawhango (Taihape district) Rabbit Board recently invited applications if or the position of rabbit inspector, and received over one hundred applications. The salary offered was .€3OO per annum. How is thKs for joy-riding? A resident of Mangaore who motored in to (own on Xmas Eve discovered on arrival two of his prize ehic.kn perched on the rear axle of the car, they evidently wanting to take part in, the Christmas Eve festivities. —"Shannon News. •*■'

"I have dealt with farmers for 30 years, " said Mr. W, D. Hunt, at a meeting of the Wa'irarapa Frozen Meat, Company, "and I have never yet met a farmer who told me I was giving ton much for the stock he had to sell. It's i! it a human thing to do. Even the farmer always wauts to sell in the dearest market and buy in the cheapest."

The distinction between character and reputation was pointed out by Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., in the Police Court at Auckland. .Some men of good reputation, stated Air. Poynton, had bad characters. On the other hand, some men of good character had, unfortunately, bad reputations. Character was what a man was —reputation was what people thought he was. "The position is thai the farmer will have to light the blackberry or else take up his swag," said Mr. F. S. Bowcn in the course of a deputation to the Minister of Agriculture at Gisbornc. "The matter is becoming increasingly serious." A similar expression was used by Mr. F. Stafford, who remarked. "If the farmers don't deal with blackberry, the blackberry will surely deal with the farmers.''

Mr. A. Rose, the licensee of Tattersall's Hotel, in Cashel Street, Christchurch, has just completed the purchase of the lease of the premises for nearly twenty years for about £20,000. This is for the lease of the building alone

and does not include furniture. The purchase is of considerable interest as indicating the appreciation in Christchurch city property. The price, is u record for similar transactions in city hotel property. Posters in large green and red type with the arresting heading "Be Careful!" are being issued by the Department of Labour to loca.l factories where machinery is worked. There

are about half a dozen of these notices stressing the fact that immunity from lire and accident can be ensured by a little care; that cleanliness and tidiness are necessary -everywhere—fires seldom start in clean and tidy places—and the reporting of unsafe places to the manager or foreman. There are also two notices, one telling of first aid appliances approved by the Health Department required in factories, and other conveying information to be put into practice should minor injuries occur.

From lime immemorial the period from December 25th to January oth was marked by feasting. Some author-

ities have maintained that in this respect Germany and Scandinavia excelled the remainder of the world, but this is doubtful, for Britain has always known how to "do itself well" on such occasions. At all events, to Eng-

land belongs the honour of having produced in comparatively modern times the greatest Christmas pie on record. It was made for Sir Henry Grey in 1770. It contained two bushels of. flour, 201bs of butter, four geese, two turke}-s,

two rabbits, four wild ducks, two woodcocks, six snipes, four partridges, two neats' (ox) tongues, two curlews, seven blackbirds and six pigeons.

Mr A. Boyes, ol Benhar, liad au exciting experience, one day last week wit'n a pack of weasels (reports the Free Press). It appears that Mr Boyes disturbed the fierce little animal while they were engaged in removing eggs from the fowlyard. Ten of them attacked him in a. body, and, wisely thinking discretion the. bettor part of valour, he retreated w the house, and entering at the back door to enlist the services of a neighbour "who possessed a shot gun. The neighbour returned with the gun .and opened fire on the weasels, which were still congregated in the vicinity of the .back door of the house. Eight- were shot dead before the others decamped. Mr Boyes' experience is .probably unique in this country, where the. weasel will not usually attack man, but then the animals in New Zealand are generally encountered in ones and twos oOlly. In European countries droves of them have been known to pursue a man and boldly attack hirn.

Curious rumours (says a London paper of October 12th) are in circulation

about the Prince of Wales and Canada. His Royal Highness is known to lie very much attached to that country, and he showed in his leave taking how much he regretted that his visit had come to an end. He remarked, however, that he would soon return and prolong his visit as much as possible. This has t'iven rise to much speculation as to whether a change in the Constitution is in contemplation. 'there are those who seem to foresee great developments within the Empire at no great distance of time, and one of them is the raising of Canada from the status of a dominion to that of a kingdom. "It is well for parents to know,"

stated the headmaster of a large school in Auckland at a prize-giving ceremony, "that what business men desire most in boys leaving school is nor so much a knowledge of book-keeping and office routine as reliability of character, willingness to work, habits of punctual ity, neatness and accuracy, trained intelligence, and. last but not least, courtesy." A Ma.-terton man who ha.- resided in South Africa for the past 20 years, stated to a Waircrapa "Age" representative that the progress made in New Zealand towns in the matter of street construction is amazing. There were: no footpaths worthy of the name in i

aonaniic-iiuig, u._- ,-tiiu, except rnuse made by private enterprise, cinder paths being the most common. He was also greatly impressed hy. The good condition of the road between Masterton and Kourarau, and thongiu it surprising that a metal road would stand up to motor traffic in the way it had done.

J A fine example of the ready adapt- | ability of the modern boy to ineet the I JLrmne.diafce need of the occasion was I given'to a motorist on the way to 3Tew Plymouth from -Strajicri recently. On ! crossing the railway lint ax iOuhurst and rounding the bead in the road, the j motorist was confronted by a. small boy standing in the middle o'f the voadI way, with outstretched arms in the I approved style of constituted author- ! ity and on stopping the youngster quiet--1 ly picked tip a bos on'the roadside. placed it on. one side of the car. and, helped himself to a seat on the oia&r.l His destination, he said, was a road abcnt a mile and a-naix farther on, and in conversation with tis driver, it t^ss discoverer! that this T-as tie cnsto~ajrr nte-thod of this lad. or. hJs.raothef's injsjiractioar, of trsr"4]iisjr berweert lisj hoa? a iridium Then "on tie fajjlil-r l Ss^lds." f Fred Barrett, after w:'r--.::nT rJI tlis j -way, 'ne?r, aeads "tins list for bo** a "d | aJw» repairs. Ee .has noW chalieag&a, fey tip-to-date boots, and a visit to rus. sis* -will ahAw -»Aai bisk-gps-do good? *

Included in the list of passes lor the final University medical examination lor the degree of M. 8., Ch.B., are the names oi' Elizabeth. K. Jary, of Hamilton, and Keay Mackay, of Newstead. It is interesting to note that the two successful candidates were the duxes of 191 S at the Hamilton High School.

At a pLiuiic meeting. held at Tauranga recently, it (was resolved to take steps to eneat a memorial to the Late Sir William Hemes. It was stated that tlie Government had promised to contribute towards 'the. cost. A resolution was passed recommending that the memorial be erected in the Te Aroha domain.

The Minister lor Railways was wailed upon by the Mayor (Mr F. J. Nathan) at Palmerston North last week wjfiai ;resereaioe to the Palmerston North deviation, His Worship pointing- out the inconvenience that doubtful delay is causing. Mr Coates replied that lie was going to review the situation in the North Island as a. whole, .and would submit his plans to Cabinet, probably in March. Until then nothing could be said.

A record for the Morrinsville district has been put up by a Shorthorn cow on Mr W. Hume's farm On Kereone road. Under herd-testing conditions she has given 124.21 b of butterfat for tlie .month. The milk yield was only 691 b per day, but -the test was 6. This .record is more remarkable when it is known the cow, only a grade Shorthorn was one ol a herd oi 120 cows, and fed under ordinary conditions, the figures quoted indicating what this animal might do with careful feeding and additional attention.—Waikato Independent. With one exception, ail the Premiers who took part in the imperial Conference are natives of the Dominions which they represented. Mr Baldwin's parents were English, Mr Cosgrove's Irish, while General Smuts is a native of the Caps Colony. Mr William Warren wa s born in Newfoundland, Mr Mackenzie King hails from Kitchener,, Ontario—a town which was formerly called Berlin—and Mr Stanley Bruce comes from Melbourne. The one exception is Mr Massey, Premier of New Zealand, who WU.S born at Limavady, in Countv Deny.