GENERAL NEWS.

Shannon News, 28 April 1922, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Writing from Scotland, a correspondent says that the winter had been so very mild that there were no hard frosts, and consequently no frozen pipes, and that' in February, the date of the letter, snowdrops and crocuses were already showing above ground. The Patea County Council received a letter on Tuesday from one settler who was unable to pay his rates, stating that hi s 25 years’ savings had all gone in his farm, and he was waiting for it to fall back into the hands of the mortgagees.

Two Detroit lovers quarrelled fifty years ago, and decided never to meet again. The man, now aged seventyeight and the woman, aged seventyfour, met by chance recently, fell in love with each other again, and have married.

British aeroplanes are being delivered to a Swiss company which is conducting aerial joy rides above the Alps, and an aerodrome has been erected at St. Mortiz. The two pilots who are taking the machines from London to Switzerland are experienced in flying among mountains, having taken British aeroplanes from London across the Pyrenees for the Spanish Government.

A case has come under a Marlborough Express representative’s notice, which, as an illustration of sheer willpower and fine stamina, is hard to surpass. On Friday, the last day in March, an old gold-miner named Longhurst (known to many as the (< Silver King”),, who lived in a lonely shack far back in the ranges in the direction of Waikakaho, had the index finger and thumb of his left hand blown clean off by the explosion of a detonator cap which he was cleaning. The injury was severe to one of his advanced age (over 75 years), but he made shift with bandages and string and set off to trudge back ,to civilisation. He had a solid three-hours’ walk along a rough, unfrequented bush-track, and it must- have taken much courage to go through with the trip. He finally reached the Picton Road, was picked up by a passing motor-car, and whisked away to the Picton hospital, where he is now progressing quite favorably. As showing the rugged constitution of the man, it is stated that two years ago he rowed in an open boat alone down the Opawa River, out to sea, and round into Queen Charlotte Sound, where he was prospecting for coal.