NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 19, 15 September 1931, Page 2

NEAR AND FAR

New Postal Rates. Amended postal charges for books, newspapers, and certain speeial pub--lications have been gazetted. The inland newspaper rate is |d for each copy not exceeding 3oz, or ld for each 16oz or fraction thereof. The rate for inland postage of printed papers other than regis|:ered magazines and newspapers is ld for each 4oz up to 11b, and 4d for each addition 11b up to 51b. Books for light-house lceepers may be sent at a bulk rate of 2d a lb, and the same rate applies to' Hansard, and books up to 51b exchanged between libraries and their subscribers. Man Without a Country. • The steamship Winona County steamed out of Boston Harbour, United States, lately with an unhappy and unwilling member of its crew. Down in the engine room was Peter Russell, a man without a country. Englarftf says Mr. Russell is an American. America says he is a Scotsman. As a result he has spent the last few weeks in trips back and forth between England and America, without being permitted to land in either country. The tangle developed when Mr. Russell shipped on the steamer Bannock from Baltimore. He missed his ship after its stop at Cork and was sentback to the United States on the steamer Bellflower as an alien. When he got back there the immigration authorities said he was an alien on these shores, too, so he went back to England on the Bellflower. The British authorities then sent him back to Boston on the Winona County, and back he went to England. Car's Alarming Leap. A remarkable escape from a serious motor car mishap is reported from New York. A speeding motor car broke through the chain stretched across the entrance of a drawbridge which was being raised. The car leapt the ten feet gap in the bridge and ianded wtihout injury to its five passengers. If the car had failed in its leap it would have f alien 60 feet* into the river below. Postcard Racing. The latest craze is sending postcards round the world in record time. The present record is held by a South African, Mr. W. Young, whose postcard took 120 days to return, via Sydney, Singapore, Manchester and Saskatoon. A London resident, Mr. Charles Peacock, hopes to halve this record by means of the air mail via Rangoon, Sydney, Hollywood and Montreal. An Intruder. While the ferry steamer was bound from Wellington to Lyttelton on Tuesday of last week, three ladies had an unpleasant experience. One of tiiem woke up early in the morning to see a man leave the cabin and make off down the passageway. One of her companions informed her that she was awakened earlier by thesound of snoring and discovered the man asleep on the top bunk. Visibility of Motorists. The motorist of the future will soon be as queer-looking an object as a soldier was in a gas mask. It is stated that in America driving glasses for the motorist offer rear vision as well as an improved front view. The glasses are fitted with small mirrors at each side of the frame, enabling the driver to see what is behind by a glance into one or the other of the mirrors without turning his head. Paengaroa Store Robbed. The store of the Farmers' Union Trading Company at Paengaroa, seven miles from Te Puke, was again broken into last week and about £10 worth of groceries and other goods were stolen. A few coppers were taken from the till. This is the third time the store has been broken into in the last few months. The Most British Dominion. "New Zealand, always the most British of the Dominions, is now to provide herself with a copy of British banking institutions," remarked the London Observer — a little prematurely, perhaps — apropos of the Niemeyer report on our banking legislation. "The Reserve Bank, which the Niemeyer report proposes to set . up, will be the bank's bank, will have a monopoly of note issue, and will pay gold abroad but not at home. Is it altogether fantastic to suggest that this antipodean replica of the Bank of England might bear its model's name, and be, in fact, a branch of it endowed with Dominion status?" Bacon and Beans. Los Angeles Times: A diplomat is a person who brings home the bacon without spilling the beans, says a Canadian politician. And, it might be added, a politician is a man who finally gets both the beans and bacon himself. Poor Opossum Season. Such poor results have been received by opossum trappers in the Wellington district that some of them have applied to the Department of Internal Affairs for an extension of the season in order to allow them to clear expenses. "We have put all our money into it, and are clean broke," wrote two trappers from Featherston, "and if we cannot get an extension we may as well pull Out now and go on relief work." A Carterton party gave as their reason for requesting an extension that their camp had been under snow for ten days. On representations made by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society the UnderSecretary for Internal Affairs has decided not to extend the season. Trout Research. The hon. secretary of the New Zealand Freshwater Research Committee at Christchurch has circulated acclimatisation societies asking each society to concentrate on obtaining two or three samples of scales from two or three rivers, rather than smaller numbers of samples from a larger number of rivers. Scale samples from lakes are particularly desired. An appeal is made to anglers to assist in scale collection. A large number of trout has been tagged in the Hawke's Bay and Manawatu districts, and anglers are asked to note the tag number, length, weight, sex, date, and position of the capture, which should be notified to their society. Some trout tagged years ago in the Upepr Selwyn have been caught at river mouths up and down the CanterTbury coast.