NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 74, 18 November 1931, Page 4

NEAR AND FAR

Legend Come True. The legend of th'evHjalf Hour Pond at Chalfont, in Buckinghamshire, has come true after thany years, and the mystic hand has ai)peared again. Many years ago a girl drowned herself in the pond after waiting half an hour in vain.for her lover. Since then the legfend has growit up that if anyone runs round the pond for half an hour the.-giiTs hand will appfear above water. The other day, to the consternation of the villagers, a girl's hand was seen sticking out of the pond. A search was made, and the body of Florence Bailey, a 23-year-old servant, was recovered. ylt the inquest when the verdict was suicide while of unsound mind, her sweetheart, George Roberts, said he had told his fiancee of the legend of the pond., She merely laughed and said, "What a silly girl." The First Thought. When an application for a bach at the Heads was under discussion at a meeting of the Wairoa Harbour Board, a Member remarked: "We'll soon have a ' township down there:" The chairman: "Yes, we will soon have to have streets surveyed." Another member: "Well, let us gfet them all down there and then we might be able to tax them for something or other." (Laughter).Short Shots from America. Guests and waiters may dr ess alike, but you can tell them aphft. The waiters always behave like gentlemen. Lives of great men oft remind us that biographers wbuld be shnk with out a good imagination. Why do they print new dictionasies every few years when they could paste in the new definition of morality? Well, if a • bushel ' of wheat costing 25 cents makes 56 10-cent loaves of bread, somebody is making a little money. Wisdom. When wise men of the ancient past grew very old they recognised only one unforgivable sin. That was the infliction of pain on others who were unable to defend or help themselves. If nations in general could be brought to live in accordance with this single conviction we should need neither navies, armies, peace conferences, gaols nor policemen. Bronze Beetles at Work. The bronze beetle has already made its appearance in Walton (writes. a correspondent of the Morrinsville Star), and nectarine and other trees are suffering in consequence. (This year the beetle is stated to be larger than usual, and several residents have hastily had to improvise the light and water method of destroying the pest. The procedure is to fill a tub or a bath with water and place a candle in a bottle or in a storm lamp in the centre. The beetles, attracted by the light, f all in the water and are drowned. It is said that the noise of the beetles coming out of the grass at dusk is something which must be heard to be appreciated. Green Arum Lily. A green arum lily has bloomed in a garden at Ashburton, and k good deal of interest is beihg taken in the plant (states the Guardian).. The owner, who is ari enthusiastie airiateur horticulturist, has had the plant for some years, but this is the first season it has bloomed. The cblour is a delicate green, the suhstance being almost transparent. Mammoth Rhubarb. We have been shown (says the Nelson Mail) some mammoth rhubarb grown by" Mr. W. H. Prebble, of Tory Street. Three stalks turnea the scale at 6Slb. The length from the bottom of the stalk tb the tip of the leaf, is 3ft. 9in., the actual stick, which is 6£in. in circumference, measuring 1ft 6in. The leaf itself is a huge affair, being" 2ft llin across and 2ft 3in in length. The rhubarb is of j the green variety, and is very tender, : the leaf being similai' tb a tobacco j leaf. ! Whole Family Loses Sight. i A mysterious epidemic of blindness | has stricken a family wlr'ch had been ; on holiday at Soiithamptbri. Withih 1 six months all its memhers, four ' in number, suddenly lost their sight [ one after the other. The fariiily is ! that of Mr. James Marbhand, a reI tired business man, who had been jvisiting Southampton. Mr. Matchand | himself was the first to be stricken last February. Since then his ydfd, his son aged 20, and his daughtei1, aged 24, have all gone blind. Jokes on the Welsh. Welshmen are getting tired of the "yes-no, inteet to goodness" and the famous "look-you!" .jokes. They think it is time that English visitors to Wales realised that these jokes have been out of date fo'i thb last fifty years. "To-day practically all Welshmen can speak hoth English and Welsh properly," said an arden t Welsh nationalist. "Many Welshmen, irideed, speak better English from a grammatieal point of view than the English trippers who are convinced that Welshmeh still erid every sentence with 'look-you'. Welshmen do not say. . 'look-you!' except in a joke, and the Welshmari struggling to learn English does not-make nearly such funny mistakes as. the Englishman trying to iearn Weish." Petrol Fires. 'The best method of putting orit a petrol fire is to hlahket " it'," said the manager of a petrol-store in Riccarton to a Christchurch Sun reporter, "and it is for this reason that we keep large supplies of dry sdhd aftd formite about the place. It is commorily believed that water is of ncr use iti prittirig outri petrol blaze, htit if the water can be made sufficiently deep in the building where the fire has occurred, the drums below the surface wil he saved, riftd the pbtrol will mereiy burn out on the top of the water."