NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 113, 5 January 1932, Page 4

NEAR AND FAR

Bird Resented It. Three young men. who were looking at the nest of a kingfisher at Whangamomona received a shock the other day when the bird suddenly swooped down viciously from a nearby tree, narrowly missing with its sharp beak ths face of one of them Souvenirs Again. ■%. When the Strathnaven tied up up at Brisbane recently all the cutlery was removed from. the tables in the saloons before the ship was opened for public inspection. The chief steward was not distrustful of Brisbane's honcsty, says a Brisbane newspaper, but he remembered what happened in / delaide. Adelaide's sobriquet of "the Holy City" did not prevent 169 tear poons, a score or two pairs of sugar • ongs and dozens of other pieces of cutlery from being "souvenired" when the vessel was opened for inspection. Strict Pedestrlan Regulations. In some of the American cities the reguiations concerning pedestrians crossing the street are much stricter than they are in New Zealand cities. In San Franciseo a new regulation just put into force makes it unlawful for any vehicle to drive over a crossing while any pedestrian. is crossing the street. The regulation also provides that at regulated crossings pedestrians must cross only according to the stop and go signals Money in Poultry ."Each penny a dozen rlse or fall in the price of eggs means a gain or loss of £200,000," said Mr. A. H. Cockayne, Assistant-Director-General of Agriculture, when addresing a ga.thering at the Government's poultry experimental station at Wallaceville. Mr. Cockayne said that the poultry industry occupied a far more important place in the life of the country than was generally realised. That was indicated hy the fact that over 150,00 families kept fowls, and, taking the average production at ten dozen, it meant that 40,000,000 eggs were laid annually. These, together with poultry sold or used as food, with eggs at ls per dozen, meant some £2,250,000, or, at ls 6d a dozen, £3,250,000.

Examples of Thrift Thrift must begin with little savings. An exemplification of the proyerb was given at a meeting of the Board of Governors of the Stratford Technical High School hy the ehairman (Mr. H. Trimhle). The-. discussion was on wages, and Mr. Trimble related a conyersation he had heard once in a hay field in Taranaki. One lad remarked that he hoped to buy a | farm some day, and his mate laughed at the idea. 'When I came here," was the reply, "I had 3s 6d, but now I've got £20 in the Savings Bank. I saved it out of my wages." Mr. W. J. Polson, M.P.: 'That's the right type 1 of boy for New Zealand." Mr. E. S. ] Rutherford went one better. "I know | a man who worked for wages on a | farm until he was 28 years of age," ' he said. "He was single and lived in I a whare. It cost him only 8s a week j to live, and he had saved £1800." A j ease was quoted of a farmer in a ! South Taranaki district who got the J surprise of his life when he learned j that a loan of £2000 for him secured j hy his solicitor had come from his j sharemilker. i Road-making Machines. | The rapidity with which roads can | be surfaced by tar-sealing or penetration methods is dependent on the | spreading of the surfaee-grit. There are machines which spread or spray hot tar or bitUmen over the roads, but as a rule the scattering of the grit has been done by manual labour. A , Bavarian contractor, however, .has ; devised a method of speeding up the grit-spreading so as to keep pace .with the rapid tar-spraying. The grit is heaped by the side of the road, and the machine gathers it up as it proceeds and tosses it sideways eight or ten feet into the air, so that a j thorough and efficient job is done. ; Under normal working conditions a ! 16ft roadway was eovered with grit : at the rate of about 40 yards a minute. O.S, Kawahai. j The catching of a kahawai of -uni usual size is reported by Mr. Ernest | C. Preston, of Tauranga. A member ! of a launch party which recently fishj ed off Mayor Island caught a caught i a kahawai 2ft 6Un long and weigh- ' ing 111b. 'This seems to he a fish of j extraordinary size," Mr. Preston writes. "Out of the hundreds I have caught around Mayor Island and Tauranga my largest kahawai was 71b." Reason Why. • ; A farmer in the Hokianga district was much concerned recently about the suddeu and continued falling away of his milk supply. Some of his hest cows were giving less milk at a time when the opposite was expected. Despite the fullest investigation there appeard no solution to the strange | drop in the supply. However, a daughter engagedNin the work rose particularly early one morning and discovered two pigs in the pink of condition greedily milking a cow. Goose Rodeo. Two geese were responsible for a miniature rodeo in Timaru last week. The birds were destined to make a desperate hid for liberty. Bursting from the netting which held them, they scurried across the road and took refuge in the police station. Threatened with the majesty of the law, the birds scrambled through a ifence at the hack of the station and began to run in circles round a garden Yhich is the pride of a prominent member of the force. Five policemen hore down on the geese, which sought refuge in the only sanctuary available — the wash-house. The door was triumphantly slammed on them and there they remained until claimed by the anxious jptiblican.