Shannon News FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1922.

Shannon News, 23 June 1922, Page 2

Shannon News FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1922.

There is a good deal of illness, mostly influenza and colds, at the Arapeti camp just now, and a number of men are away for medical treatment.

The excavation work at Arapeti for the big dam across the Tokomaru stream, is being rapidly pushed ahead. The foundation will be considerably below the creek bed, and tunnelling will go on under the stream to reach the , foundation.

Mr Rewi Moynihan has been nominated by the Horowhenua Rugby Union to play for the North Island representative team, and' Messrs./R. arid T. Moynihan. and D. Sands for the Horowhenua represenatives.

Entertainment is being well looked after for the .benefit of the men at tTfe Arapeti, and a local coriipany of Pierrots has been formed *and will soon made its appearance in public. A start has ‘ beien made with the clearing away of stumps and other debris in the bed of what will be the big dam at Arapeti, in readiness lor future operations.

Lovers of euchre and dancing are reminded that the next step in the Venerable Bede’s Church winter tournament wil lbe held next Tuesday in the Parish Hall. It is not necessary to state that an enjoyable time will be spent, as the popularity of these evenings is . fully established.

The, water of the Tokomaru stream has been used for washing away the spoil from the excavation at the site of the big dam at Arapeti. Recently the spoil backed up the water in the Arapeti end of the Mangahao tunnel, and the tunnellers had to beat a retreat until the water forced its way down the creek bed and cle'ared the tunnel.

While motoring to Levin this week, Mr Judd, of Makerua, had an unusual experience. When nearing Levin, not far from the butter factory, a hare jumped from a bank by the roadside and crashed through his wind-screen, shattering the thick sglass, and falling stunned 'at the driver’s feet. Mrs Judd, who was also in the car, caught the) animal as it revived and attempted to leap from the car, and brought it home to -Shannon as evidence of what had occurred.

“We must break new ice,” declared Mr Nicholls, of Tiakitahuna, at the National Dairy Association’s conference in Palmerston North yesterday. He urged that this was the Lest method of emergence from the “old rut,” described the president as the “most unconvincing president” he had seen, and referred to a speaker, Mr T. Hoss, Eketahuna, as a “wind bag and balloon.”

An idea of the weather conditions prevailing in Central Otago at present arei contained in a letter received by a Levin resident from a friend in Alexandra. “We have had very cold, frosty weather,” the writer states, “having had 22 frosts without a break, the thermometer registering up to 20 degrees. Skating is the order of the day, there being a fine skating place about 1£ miles out. I have never seen so much ice since I left England. Last month we had 7 points of rain, not enough to damp the ground. I went to see a football match a couple of weeks ago, and it was funny to see the' game played in a cloud of dust instead of the usual mud.” »

An idea of th’e relative values of sheep and cattle at the present time was in evidence at the Levin sale yesterday, when fat wethers were selling up to 23/6 and store cows at 18/.

The potter bull is a neglected animal at the sales these days. He is of no further use to the dairyman, he naturally gets the cold shoulder from the butcher, and falls an easy victim to the boiling-down works’ proprietors. A huge animal of this type was- quitted for 34/ at the Levin sale on Tuesday.

Everybody . says theret is going to be a shortage of fresh-mouthed breeding ewes next season, and because everybody says so it must be true (says the Masterton Age’s correspondent). Anyhow, prices for this class of sheep are on the upward grade. At Carterton a line of Romney ewe hoggets fetched 19/10 per head, while a line of medium-sized ewes in lamb realised 26/9. The following story is neither parable or fable, it is fact. A'certain officer of the Crown who had made himself peculiarly unpopular with the public was, in the interests of the public and himself, transferred to another district. To him came, while in the execution of his duties, an elderly and somewhat untidy gentlemen to have certain official work done. The uncivil and unpopular official in good, round, set terms rated him in the most truculent and abusive manner. When he paused for breath the elderly gentleman asked him if he had finished, and said: “Now I will introduce myself,” and produced his card, the Hon. , Minister for Department of the unpopular official. The collapse. was spontaneous and complete.—Rotorua Chronicle.

The Foxton Herald is informed that a boycott has been started against a business man of that town, for the reason that he did not follow public opinion with regard to a proposal in his public capacity. The boycott is a contemptible weapon, especially wheri instituted against the business man of a small town.

Residents and settlers should note what the Eltham. “Argus” reports: “Sevarl local residents have purchased ‘bargains’ during the past few days from a travelling stranger, only to discover later that they had been ‘stung.’ Suit lengths of so-called Bannockburn and English worsteds, /declared to be . worth considerably more, have, been changing hands*at £2, but have subsequently proved to be of inferior manufacture. One man. was told that local tailors would make up the material for £2 10/, and received a further shock when &e learnt that the charge was £6. Folks would be well advised to confine their dealings "to reputable business 1 houses.”

The gold rush fever is growing in Taumarunui (states the Press), and rumours aije current to the effect that a number of our citizens besides visitors are prospecting in the back country in pursuit of the elusive metal. It is stated that prespecting is being carried on at the back "of, Ongaruhe up to the Taringamutu Valley and in the Punga Punga.

A commercial traveller entered a railway carriage at a town along this coast with his right arm in bandages. A fellow commercial greeted him and naturally inquired regarding the injury to his arm. “I strained it lifting some of those whisky glasses in the* hotels with those abnormally heavy false bottoms” was the prompt reply. How little interest some employees have in their employers’ properly was exemplified the other afternoon, when the conductor of the 4.33 p.m. Castlecliff car observed the overhead bridge to be smouldering, and on tha car reaching the borough yards requested an employee to ring the tramways. His reply was: “It has nothing to do with me. I have knocked off.”—Wanganui Herald.

Speaking of the various amusing experiences of his chequered career, Mr MacQuarrie, author and lecturer, tells a story of a big banquet in the city of New York, which he attended as a military man in the full uniform of the R.F.A. Sitting next to him was no less a personage than Samuel Vauclain, the president of the famous Baldwin Locomotive Works, perhaps the largest of their kind in the world. “Possibly,” says Mr MacQuarrie, “I had more or less of a Cambridge accent, and bore the appearance of a man who had never done a hard day’s work in his life.” Anyway, Mr Vauclain made this remark, “Ah, Mr MacQuarrie, you young Englishmen don’t know what life is. I started life heating rivets, and when I was ; 16 I was working in a boiler shop.” j Mr Vauclain was very much surpris- j ed indeed When the young English- j man turned to him and said: “Well, ( sir, you have nothing on me. I start- j ed heating rivets when I was only 14, in a foundry in Auckland, and I will guarantee to heat a rivet as well as. you can.” The old gentleman was ( so “tickled” that ha insisted upon j the younger man’s going home with . him for the week-end.