NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 40, 9 October 1931, Page 2

NEAR AND FAR

Bonfires and Waf Debts. "What the whole world should do is to constitute a holiday for. all the people and simultaneopsly in every centre have a bonfir.e, .and. burn the war debts, each country acknowledge that it is bankrupt, get its clearancc and start afresh. That is the only hope for the farmers." So declarct a well known Canterbury stock and station agent, who ,is , in ;close touch with the position of the farmers. He said the praetice of raising loans to pay. the interest and principal of pre-, vi,ons debts was only gtetting the country further into ihe financial mire. He gave instances where niore than twice ,the amonnt of equity |)f eviously held by farmers in their Iands had been swallowed up by the .fall in primary produce, and stated that the creditor nations of the wprld mnst wipe off a considerable proportion of their principal in the same way as farrn mprtgagees had to write down their capitah What is an Esqulre. If "esquires" have ever had a pdst at any rate they do iiot give away the facts, states . an v exchange. This. tiple for apprentices to.;knights. was originally one of function, jiot of bitth. To-day many of , us. are in two .mihds whether to address a weil-td-do tradesman as "esquire" at his shop as well as at his private house., As a matter of fact there are still hhrd-and-fast rules concerning the matter that have been so regularly broken few of us know of their existence,. Only the eldest sons of haronets and knights, foreign noblemen, Barristers-at-law, , J's.P., and holders, of sup.erior office nnder the Crown are some of those who are really entitled to feall themselves "esquire." . Perhaps tney are too ashamed of the way the wbrd has been abused to use it. His Share. . A Nuhaka dairy f armer had the old saying that "misfortunes. iiever come singly," well impressed upon him one morning recently. Upon rising and proceeding to yard his.. cows, he f ound that his most prized heif er had been drowned in a ditch. After having milked his herd, he proceeded with his can nearly full of cream,. to the main road to he picked up by the lorry. On his way to the road he noticed what he thonght .was something suspicious about his Jersey bull which recently cost him 40 guineas. His horse stopped so suddenly that it tipped the can of cream right but over the front of the car. The . lid came off and all the cream . spilt. This frightened the horse so that he sthrted off again as suddenly as he had stopped, with the result that. he fan the wheel over the can and ruined, it. Upon recovering from his shock, the dairyman got the horse stopped again and upon approaehing the bull, found the animal cold and stiff. Altar of Solid Gold. One of the favourite resorts : of tourists proceeding to England by the Panama Canal route is the town of Balboa, one of the most ancient of the Central American cities, and one boasting many exceptionally interesting relics of the past. One of these is an altar of solid gold, in a rich ecclesiastical setting, at which many generations of Balboa citizens have worshipped.

Situation Much Brighter. The Salvation Army has closed its soup kitchen at Dunedin, after distributing 9000 gallons of soup sihce the beginning of June. "The geheral situation is much brighter," said Adjutan't Thomson. "The men sebm to he getting away to work, and presumably ( many of them are goihg into the country. In the men's shelter there are now only about forifcy, on the average, whereas; some little time ago, there were usually sixty ®r more." Novel Alarm Clock. A simple attachment for any alabm clock converts it into an instrument that will turn on a stove or a wireless set by electricity at the same time as it wakens the sleeper. The inventpr, Mr. Alfred C. Alves, of San Antonio, Texas (United States), uses the 4evice to tnrn. on a light and to cook his morning toast. The necessary apparatus consists of an electric switch in the form of a hollow cylinder fitted to the side of the clock. The tmcoiling alarm spring closes two electric contacts, turning on the current. By using a multiple socket, not only can a light be turned on, but several different appliances may be started at the same time. In. cold , weather the device might be adapted to close the windows and turn on the heat. Encounter with Wild Boar. An Eltham party of sportsmen had an exciting encounter with a hn'ge wild boar recently. They were hunting at the baek of Lake Rotokare, and the dogs eornered a, massive "Captain Coolcer." Fonr soft-nosed Shneider bullets had no effect, and a charge from a .32 finally gave, the monster its quietns, after .the -dogs had had a tough struggle. The shield of the animal is fully two inches in thickness, and in this hide the Shneiders were found embedded. The animal must have weighed all pf 5pwt., and was over nine feet from. tail tp snont. The head was 21 inehes long, and from it protruded a pair of enormous tusks. Doubtless this old veteran of the bush had during his career aecounted for many a lamb. In the Menagerie. A story which "Ian. Hay" told at a recent dinner deserves a wider circulation, says the London Observer. It concerns a yonng stockbroker, who, as a result of troubles.in the city, had lost all his capital: — He went to the proprietor of a travellipg menagerie and asked for a job, and in reply was told, "Our perf orming chimpanzee re- , cently passed away. If you care to be sewn up in,his skin and do a few gymnastie stunts on the horizontal bar you can have £3 a week and all found." The stockbroker accepted the offer, and met with considerable snccess, until one afternoon In attempting a more than usually speetacular feat, .he let go his grasp, crashed through a partition, and found himself in the lions' den before a ferocious-looking lion. He yelled for help until the lion leant over to ; him and saidj "Doii't • be silly, old ; man; you're not the only stockbroker in this menagerie."