Shannon News TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1922.

Shannon News, 19 September 1922, Page 2

Shannon News TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1922.

The usual fortnightly meeting of the Borough Council will be held in the Council Chambers this evening.

The Shannon Dairy Co.’s pay-out for the month of August is 1/9. In our advt. columns, Mr. Baird notifies racegoers that he intends running' his char-a-banc to Otaki races on Saturday next.

The chief topic of conversation in Shannon yesterday was the trouble in the East, and the likelihood of the Empire again being plunged into war. Last month the Feilding municipal electricity department made a nett profit of £124 7/1. In August of 1921 the nett profit was £99 15/8. There are now 1061 “connections.

On Friday evening next the proprietors of the Maoriland Theatre will present to the public of Shannon thp film “The Sheik, ’ r ~which has been such a big draw wherever shown. According to press reports it is a picture everyone should see.^

As a result of The mild winter experienced this year, there is an .earlier growth of grass, which is having a beneficial effect on the milk supply in this district, the Shannon Dairy Co. during the month of August having produced fifteen tons of butter more than for the corresponding month last year. Workmen were busy at the local railway station yesterday unloading the distributing pipes for the power station at Mangorei. The pipes are to be used to connect with the turbines. Each pipe weighs 2 tons 7 cwt. There are five sets, together. with with bends ancl valves, which have been supplied by Boving and Co., Ltd., England, who are also supplying the turbines.

A grand concert will be held on Thursday evening next in the Maorilaiul Theatre to raise funds towards the Shannon School picnic. The concert, which has been organised by Mrs Bovis, should provide a most enjoyable evening’s • entertainment, as the best, talent available has been procured. Mrs Anderson has very kindly offered to play the accompaniments.

An amusing analysis of the contents of the collection plate at St. Andrews, Christchurch, was made by the treasurer to illustrate what he described as the declining popularity of the modest threepenny bit. He stated that in a collection of over £2B on a recent Sunday only £2 was represented by threepenny bits, and £8 by sixpenny bits. Our representative was handed some violets yesterday which were grown in a Shannon garden, the blooms of which were exceptionally large' and of deep colouring, while the stalks were fully nine inches long, which proves that Shannon soil is adaptable for violet growing. There is no reason why Shannon should not become a strong competitor with Otaki, which is famous for its beautilul violet blooms.

Speaking on the value of advertising at the British Music Industries Convention at Blackpool, Mr M. E. Ricketts, a London delegate, said there was a popular misconception that the consumer had to pay l'or advertisements. The tact was that advertising not only paid for itself, but. alter doing that enabled goods to be sold more cheaply, because of the increased demand. Advertising was the easiest and cheapest way to sell goods. But the advertisers’ promises must be fulfilled.

The Court of Criminal Appeal reduced the sentence of five years’ penal servitude passed at Berkshire Quarter Sessions upon James Cook for housebreaking. / Mr {Justice Darling said the appellant had been convicted over a year ago, and the heavy sentence was passed, he expected, because of the man’s record. But Cook was crippled in both feet, and all he did was to break into a house and steal sevenpence. No good would he done by reducing one sentence of penal servitude to a. lessor one of the same kind, so the Court would alter the men’s sentence to one of 18 months’ hard labour, in the hope that this chance would afford him the opportunity of mending his ways. The prisoner bowed to the Court as he left the dock.

The municipal clothing department of the Bradford Corporation is having considerable difficulty in getting rid of its surplus stock of 4000 woolfen lounge suits. Yorkshiremen are showing no inclination to buy them, notwithstanding the low prices, and an effort is to’ be made to sell them, probably by auction, in Manchester. The department was opened in 1920, when clothing was very dear, and a stock of suits, originally intended for demobilised soldiers, was bought from the Government, At first, they were retailed at 52/6, and later at 35/. Recently it w c a$ decided to wind up the department, and an auction sale was held in Bradford, at which the highest bid was 19/6 per suit, at which a I'eW suits were sold singly. Afterwards offers were invited for larger lots, and the first 'biCT was 12/6 per suit, for 500. The corporation ottered to sell at 15/ m lots of 25, but no business was done.

A transaction has just been completed by which 63 acres of land at Matamata has changed hands at the price of £BO per ton.

“In the ten years from 1911 to 1920, taxation per head of the population in New Zealand rose from £4 12/4 to £l3 11/I.”—N.Z. Year Book. It is estimated that 36 per cent- oi the motor cars owned in Ontario, Canada, belong to farmers.

It may be interesting to know that the firm ol' Coopers, Ltd., of Wellington, sow up to 5000 acres of land exclusively for the production of seeds each season.

The factory returns of a farmer at Waitara, who farms 113 acres, and is the owner of 113 cows, including six heifers and four strippers, were 14,0001 b of butterfat, giving an average of approximately 3311 b per cow. A tennis court is being laid down at he Tokomaru School for the use of the pupils. With the summer coming on the court should be in great request, and prove a boon to the scholars.

The number of bankruptcies registered in the Dominion during the eight months ended August 31 was 490, against 200 for the same period last year. Of these farmers account for 28.6 per cent. The number in May was 80 and in August 83, which is a record.

A defendant, on being fined at the Magistrate’s Court at Stratford on Wednesday last, said to the S.M., “Thanks, old sport,” which called from the Bench the remark: “I would like you to remember that this is a Court of law, and there are no :old sports’ here.”

At Palmerston North, in an address on Bishop Selwyn, Captain Preece mentioned that the Maoris did not know what a bald head was until they saw the bishop’s. They mistook a bald-headed soldier who fought at Orakau for Bishop Selwyn’s, and were dismayed to think a preacher of the Gospel was a fighter, until the captain explained.

The eclipse of the sun on September 21, total in part of Australia, will be visible in New Zealand as a partial eclipse shortly before sunset. It will begin at Wellington, which may be taken as the central- point in the eountry, at 4.52 p.m., 53 minutes before sunset, and the greatest phase will be reached almost at the moment of the sun setting (5.45 p.m.), when rather more than two-thirds of the sun will be obscured.

A Patea resident, while in Auckland the other day, purchased a gramophone record and was carrying it under his arm when he went on board the train. He was greatly surprised (relates an exchange) when accosted by a railway official, who wanted to know what was in the parcel, amd who, on being informed, told the man from Patea that he would have to pay excess on it. Remonstrances were of no avail, .so the traveller said he would leave the parcel behind. He then went off ttfie station and quietly concealed the record, and it is now doing good service in lids home, and the money-losing department is still short of its little item of excess.

A curious little experiment by means of which, ice can be formed even in a hot room is carried out on the following lines. Make a tube of blotting paper, about a foot long, of such a size that it can be placed over the end of a pair of bellows. Cut the end farthest away from the bellows into a fringe. Soak tho fringe in benzine, petrol, or any volatile. spirit. Then blow down the bellows, and in a short while ice crystals will appear all over the fringe. In time the. strips which form the fringe become stiff with frost. This is due to.the intense cold brought about by the rapid evaporation of the spirit under the blast of air freezing the moisture always present- in tho atmosphere.

The oldest map in the world, “Uncle Johnny’ , Shell, of Greasy Creek, Kentucky, died on July 10th at the age of 133 years. He was followed to the grave by many of his descendants, including two of his sons, William (aged ninety) and Albert (aged seven). Old Mr Shell is said to have lived on the same farm in Leslie County evor since he was 33, that is, for the past hundred years. He desired to serve for the United States in the war against Mexico in 1845, but was rejected a<s over military age. According to the Kew York Sun and other journals, Mr Shell possessed records showing his birth in Tennessee in .1788, and the local doctor said they believed he was correct in the estimate of his age. The lad Albert Shell, born when his father was 126 years old, is the son of “Uncle Johnny’s” second wife, who was 45 when she married her veteran, but still vigorous, spouse. By his first wife, who died twelve years ago, Mr Shell' had four sons and a daughter, who all I survived him. Up to the last he re- I tained full possession of his faculties j

Bell’s flasmiU at Tokomaru is resuming operations this week, and will give employment to a number of hands. It is the mill will run for six months.

The friends of Mr and Mrs J. R. Whyte, of Tokomaru, will be pleased to learn that Mrs Whyte, who has been in ill-health for some time, is now much improved, and it is (hoped that in a* short time she will be completely restored.

The Tokomaru recreation ground is being improved, and will be in order for next season’s football matches. Up to the present the fixtures have been played on the property of Mr Rowlands, one of the local enthusiasts, and a keen supporter of the game and the local club.

“The Horowhenua Rugby Union started last season with a deficit, but will wind up with a credit of £SO, which, considering all the Union's troubles, is very satisfactory,” said Mr W. Thomson, chairman of the Management Committee at the presentation of trophies to the Tokomaru junior team on Friday evening.

The amount of money known to have been collected on August 31 f° r the Pearson Memorial Fund was £20,207, £2710 having been received during the month. Preparations are being made for the complete, registration of all the blind people in the Dominion, with the full circumstances of their cases.

One of the difficulties the Horowlienua Rugby Union had to put up with this season was that some of the teams would not travel, said Mr W. Thomson, chairman of the Management Committee at the football social at Tokomaru on Friday. These teams would play on their home ground, but not away, which was very unsajisfactorj and upset arrangements.

Mr O. Jerusalem, of Aokautere, Palmerston North, gives public notice that he has “formally and absolutely renounced, relinquished and abandoned his said surname of Jerusalem and assumed and adopted and determined henceforth on all occasions whatsoever to use, and subscribe the name of Williams instead of the said name of Jerusalem,”

By the retirement .of Mr William Sydney V. Evans from the post of drawing master at Eton ,an extraordinary connection is snapped. From father to son four generations, beginning with Samuel Evans in 1796, have unbrokenly held this position (says the Daily Mail). The first of the family was drawing master for 27 years, the second for 31 years, the third for 49 years, and the fourth for 19 years. We doubt whether such a record of continuous service could be equalled elsewhere. It does honour both to the Evans family and to Eton College. The continuity of things in England, a continuity that changes but does not break, is one of the great sources of England’s strength.