GENERAL NEWS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9177, 22 June 1908, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

A-reward for hard work and meri- - torions conduct was awarded at Montmorr-ncy recently to Mdlle. Louise, who was crowned with a wreath as “restore 7 ’ of the.town, 'an honour which falls only to the most iudußtfrious and'respected. The mayor! who conducts the ceremony, remarked that the town’ should be proud of so blameless a life as the “rosiere. The same evening, the Daily Mail says, the paragon eloped With one of the local policemen, a married man. During a discussion in the House of Lords on the Bntter and Margarine Bill some time ago. Lord Onslow told an amusing story rabout a certain waiter who was called as a witness before a committee- which sat to discuss the subject. It was in the early days of that particular product, and the committee was not quite certain how to pronounce its name. A stolid-looking waiter was sent for to settle the question, and when be appeared the Chairman showed him a sample. “Do you call this ‘margarine 7 or ‘marjorine? 77^7 he asked. “Neither, sir, 7 ’- replied the waiter blandly; “we call it butter. * 7 A characteristic story of Mr John Burns is told by a correspondent in the British Oongregationalist, the correspondent having had it from the master of a London secondary school. A colleague on the staff ■of the school was accustomed to take his boys to Battersea Park for games of football and cricket. A small tiptothe policeman, it is said, was found to secure the best pitches, and the small children of the district were turned off to allow the boys to play. One day the policeman saw the master and his class approaching, and began to clear the ground, A stentorian voice from a neighbouring fetee cried, “Leave those kiddies >»lone. The park is for them, and /they shall not be turned off 7 7 And \down clambered the President of the Local Government Board. Whilst the important operation of • giving the baby his morning ‘ ‘ tub 7 7 pas in progress, a Haiti household Iras’' startled considerably by the ; !.Spise o£;.a powerful explosion, folby a disturbance of the fire * e Shacklock range, out of which id*?'‘apiece of metal the size of a gLM'-'e marble, passing perilously near Rfttfinfant's head. Striking the dres--Bft or 9tt off, the missile reafcnnded across the room A smaller iSeoe of the samel substance fell Jjßrmlessly intojjthe hath. Inves.tigaJfinswon dispelled any ordinary explosive had got o the stove with the shovelful of il that bad hat a few minutes prebeen placed out 1 ’ fire, and the » aJ i Ce bears a stron resemblance piece of meteor' metal. %_rt!epool, Englam has, says the . Dailj- Ma” six-year-old . '‘T ~ 'hard' ' serg, the son Wdlkenberg, , r Holy Trinity, _ ■ s -v. himself by Pc * *v iJ si*o' -Marjorie from ,S,i 1 V i.'7 Marjorie, >. k ■• - ;*!, lit,a been put , moon. Mr and jjf ~ ,ijg were out, and s* , servant were down- , pg the, baby cry, the c?-- Tups tail’s", to find the n fire and the bedroom returned downput round her 0 . Hpki jthe room, but tR; ran co the -S’ sister from - .f her safely o£.<_jthe baby 7 s fe o_> ' 7 d, Tisut her only / . ’ i at the back '’'bedclothes ' t-is hero jap- ■ j 1 eruefl ‘'over "the >’ ust /going for M \ was not . ’, ' ’ ’ By some = ’ i ~ , some ohiSrS-*ii t playing with mn, ill KBrRJr oa the subject of jjthe loxeat Basxierfreef in.the New South .Wales Hoase, Mr Charles Medley, devoted some time to dethe pearling industry. He ?ohid‘/that from a scientific point of view it was to be regretted that the Government did not organise the industry better. It should be possible to cultivate the pearl oysters,. to plant them, just like potatoes, and tend them so that there would he a constant supply, instead of the beds getting exhausted, as at present. He went on to say that up in the north everybody had his own opinion as to the way to make pearls. “But, 7 * he added, “no one has yet made a pearl. 7 7 In the Middle Ages it was believed that as the dewdrop fell in*the darkness of the night the oyster gathered it, and took it down tot he depths below, and solidified it. “I regret to say, 77 said Mr Hedley, “that is not true. Scientific people have a much less beautiful I explanation. Ic is a tapeworm, and ( not a dewdrop, that makes the pearl. 77 1 By the presence of mind of i Engine-driver T. Wilson, the Wai-pnknrau-Dannevirke train on Monday evening was saved from meeting i with a trerible disaster. As it was, it arrived some time after six o’clock—more than an hour late. While the train was steaming down the incline to Piripiri, the driver noticed, far ahead, a horse galloping along the line towards Mangate^a, As the train overhauled it, the animal, as though by magic, disappeared from view. For a moment or two the engine-driver was nonplussed, till the possibility dawned uponlum that the horse had run on to the Mangatera Viaduct, and fallen between the sleepers. Realising that the horse would have inevitably stuck fast, Wilson applied the Westinghonse brake, and pulled np the train just a f ew yards from the bridge. His surmise proved correct, as the horse was discovered firmly held between the sleepers, and in such a manner that, had the locomotive struck it, the train must have been thrown to the bottom of the under-lying ravine. Efforts to release the animal in a live condition, proving unsuccessful, were abandoned; and the poor creature had to be siot. A good deal of time was subsequently taken up in removing ' the carcase. ,