NEAR AND FAR.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 26, 23 September 1931, Page 2

NEAR AND FAR.

Find of Ambergris Reported. ...... ...... ... While the fishing launch Waruna Was down the coast on her last trip the crew came across a dea,d whale (states the Southland Times) . If all reports are true the voyage will be a very profitable one, for they discovered a considerable amount of ambergris. Mr. Norman Beer brought a sample back with him, and those who are considered experts prpno.unced it the genuine article. On N.S.W. Farm. Old miners consider the surface in which gold was 'f ound on Mr. Francis Ramsey's farm, 16 miles south-west of Bega, N.S.W., to he the richest they have ever seen says the- "Sydney Sun." The gold is' showing f reely in the loam, froni the grass roots down, over a stretch of over a qtxarter of q mile. Washings gave fivepennyweight to the dish, some- piece? weighing o. pennyweight. The find is within 100 yards of Mr. Ramsey's home, and exjtends to the cowyard. Half* a cup of gold was secured by one man in a fortnight'.. The country is of sehist formation, and no reef is showing. IPs an III Wind. A piece of singular good fortune befell a resident of Napier,, now resident in Hastings, who lost his house in the earthquake, during last weekend, when opening an oysters one of a saek from the north which he was sharing with some friends. He. discovered two blackish ohjects in one of the oysters, but on polishing these turned out to be large, snd, lustrous pearls. T urkish Law, The following amazing legal advertisement appeared recently in the Turkish official Gazette: — "From the Tribunal of Devrek . . . To Indjirliogiou Ahmed Ben Osman, of thq village of Isabeyli. Following an action in default brought against you by your wife Azime it has been established that you died in 1916. Consequently the tribunal has on this date rendered a verdict concluding your decease. In case you have any objection to raise against this verdict, you may appeal at the latest within a fortnight of the present puolication, in default of which the said verdict will be considered as final." >

Seagull Interyenes. _ The other day a young and enthusiastic golfer was practising shots on the beach at Fitzroy. Finally he hit a hall well along the sand and he was proceeding to get it when down swooped a seagull and flew ofl; with it. To further examine his booty the seagull perched on a rock near the breakers, where, finding it not to his liking, he oropped it in shallow water among the stones. AU the owner's diligent searehing failed to locate it.

A Dress for a Dollar. Show windows were smashed and 25 people injured during a near-riot in Brooklyn, New York, which arose through a large store in that part of the city haying shown in its windows a large number of ladies' dresses to be sold at one dollar each. The street was paeked with people long before the store opened, and the pressure of the crowd was so great that the show windows and doors were forced in, with the result that goods iii the store were plundered, women's dresses and tempers were torn, and people injured in the fray. Twisted to Death. A horrible revenge was recently ' earried out on a young Indiah cultivator named Buddha. The man was gathering his crops when he was attacked by a group of villagers seeking revenge for a family slight. The villagers literally twisted the young man to death. Every joint in his body was wrenched from its socket when he was found hy a younger brother. The medical investigation proved conclusively that Buddha had been tortured "inch by inch" by at least four men before the death blow was dehVered with an axe.

i Madman Runs Amok. I There was a terrible half-hour on board the Canadian liner, Empress of Canada, when a Filipino passenger ran ainok with_a knife and killed two people and injured twenty-nine, aceording to a Reuter telegram from Tokio. Two of the injured were members of the crew and three of • them were not expected to recover. The madman, Graciano Bilas, a steerage passenger, _ joined the ship at Honolulu. Racing along a crowded alleyway he slashed right and left indiscrimnately and then ran along the saloon deck, which fortunately was deserted, as the passengers were at breakfast.

Ceiling Covered with Wetas. Recently some children in tbe Matau district discovered a cave which had a very* small entrance, but was roomy inside. For a long time they played in it, and then induced an elder brother to crawl in, too. He took with him a torch, and to his horror discovered that the ceiling and I top walls were covered with wetas, some being, from the end of the hind legs to the tips of the feelers, a foot long. Wetas are very fond of living in holes in trees; in fact, a favourable joke among bushmen is to tell children that the weta forms these holes himself by putting his fiat, hard-look-ing head against the trunk and then twirling himself round and round very fast and boring in just like a braee and bit. Really, most of the holes are made, especially in the softwooded Mahoe or white wood by the caterpillars of the big brown huhu beetle.

Proposed Rubber Factory. The possibility of Timaru being seleeted as the locality of a rubber factory, the promoters of which are now seeking for a suitable site, was referred to in a special report presented to the Timaru Borough Council by the eleetical engineer. The report was the outcome of conversations the engineer had had at Christchurch, during which it was stated that there was a probability of a rubber factory commencing operations in New Zealand a,nd that the promoters of the company were looking for ' a site for a factory, the chief requirements being low rates, cheap electric power, and a plentiful supply of artesian water.