NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 135, 30 January 1932, Page 4

NEAR AND FAR

Long Wa]k for Work. A reinarkable story of a woman's courage in undertaking a walk from Christchurch to Dunedin was made known to a Christchurch Times reporter. The woman was working in Dunedin for 7s 6d a week "and foundl She saw an advertisement in a Qhristchurch paper for a housekeeper at £2 per week. She determined to secure the position and left hfer Dunedin employment and came to ChrisG church. She arrived there with £2 in her purse, bnt was unable'to get the position she sought. She stayed in Christchurch seeking work until her money was almost exhausted, when she determined to go back to Punedin and resume her former employment. She had little money and set out on foot. She received two lifts for a few miles, but got no substantial help along -the road until she got to Timaru, when a carr ier gave her a ride to Waimate ahd a bed at his mother's house for the evening. Next day she was given a lift to'h'er destination at Dunedin. Whether this plucky woman was ahle to get back her former position is'not known. Germany's Fattest Man. Following a heart attack, Robert Rogendorf has died, aged only 47, at Duisburg. He was Germany's heaviest inhabitant. Robert, who weighed 5391b, earned his livjng by exhibiting his enormous siz6. He travelled -about for this pose m a "motor vaii specially designed to accomniodate him. His colossal proportions neces- j sitated various precautions. His bed j and chairs were of extraordinary size and strength. The front door of his house was about twice as wide as the doors of his neighbours. No railway company would allow Robert to board a train, nor was he permitted to ride in a"tram." There were no' cars of compartments in existence with doors through which he could pass. Ordinary motor cars or taxicabs, of course, Were out of the question.

Unusual Sight. The spectacle of a Minister of the Crbwn extracting teeth was witnessed at the Port Waikato children's camp recently, when a call was made upon the professional aid of the Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, who was visiting the camp in his official capacity. One of the girls at the camp was suffering from severe toothache, and while such troubles come

, now only m a general way within . Mr. Young's sphere as Minister, they . were once within his partieular pro- - j vince as a practising dentist. The girl . i was quickly relieved of her suffering, | deft extraction by Mr. Young, accom- ! plished with his fingers removing the | offending tooth. 1 ■ : Better Late Than Never. j "|ted Tape" was in evidence at the j last meeting of the Awatere County Council. Two items of the day's business were the signing of a permit authorising the construction7 of a I Small hydro-electrie plant and certij fymg of a plan for a side-road. On the face of it such items seem the j ordinary ones of local body business, ' but the joke lay in the fact the hydroelectric plant was constructed ten years ago, and the road has been in nse for no less than 36 years. Racing in England. "They do not know much about racing for the public in England," said Mr. C. S. Thomas at Christchurch, recounting some of his ex'perienees on a recent English trip. | "One sees very little of the racing j and pays a lot to see that little." It . costs about £5 for a man and his wife j to get on the course, and those on i the outside had to pay from 6s to 10s before they could get to the totai lisator. "Is it any wonder that the Jtotalisator does not pay?" he remark- ' ed. Some of the totalisators were over-staffed and inefficient in the j working, he said. Good Security. | A good story is told by a local j financier (says an Inglewood eorresjpondent) illustrating the queer ideas ; of some people regarding the borrow- : ing of money. A man approached him at his office for a ' loan, and was asked to produce some security. Forthwith he laid on the table a blue paper. "But," said the financier, "this is a summons for debt." "That's right," was the reply; "that's what what I want the money for; you can liold that as security. I owe a good bif besides that, too," he added.

A Very Compleat Angler. A fisherman at Lyttelton is ingenious. He has rigged np a device of wire and springs to which is attached the line and a litte bell. "It works all right," he explained, as he reclined in the shade cast by the Rangatira, ''and if you get a real good bite you can hear the bell a mile away. It takes two herrings to make the bell ring so you see yon don't need to waste your time getting up to take 1 one small fish off the end of the line." Fishermen at Lytta^ton are eagerly anti'cipating the day when the doek Will be emptied, as by spreading a net over the outlet pipe, it is possible to catch liundreds of fish in a very short time. Jlaori Schools Repaired. The work of reconditioning at Te Aute College and at Hukatere is progressing favourably and both schools will be in readiriess for the reopening on March 1. The restoration of Te Aute College has involved a cost of £10,000, but the building will now be muc'h stronger' than before the earthquake. One of the main alterations which has been effected is the reconstruction of the hoys' sleeping dormitories in native wood's. Exeellent progress has also been made at Hukatere, ,whei*e the top storey of concrete was removed and replaced in timher. In the ineantime 55 of the girls who were attending the school at the time of the earthquake have been receiving tuition at the temporary Hukatere School established' at Auckland' under the guidance of Archbishop AverilJ. ♦, , ,r% s.r: .. ■