Shannon News TUESDAY, DECEMBER, 18, 1923.

Shannon News, 18 December 1923, Page 2

Shannon News TUESDAY, DECEMBER, 18, 1923.

Mr C. F. Exall, at one ( time a prominenet resident of Shannon, is spending his Christmas holidays in ' Shannoai. His many friends are pleased to see him looking s© well and hieatrty. Forty-five applications have been receivied for the position of manager of works for the. Makerua Drainage Board. The,decision will toe made at a meeting of thje Board on Thursday next*

Some idea of the large/amount of material that is being used in connection with iMangahao, may be. gathered from the fact that at the present time 80 -tons of cement is arriving at the local railway .station daily, the motor lorries funning day and night removing it. • ./• 'At the Shannon Chamiber of. Commerce meeting on Friday evening, Mr Thwaites stated great' inconvenience' was being caused to pupils at the local ißOhool owing to the sunlight being deflected ■ toy the (blinds on the windows. TMs was alleged to be the cause of a good deal of the eye trouble among the children at the school. The matter was left to Messrs Tippler and Hudson to enquire into at once.

In a letter to the Chamiber of Commerce aft their minting on Friday evening Mr Howard Andrew complained of the. delay in obtaining telephonic communication with Wellington and asked that the Chamber move in securing a ".better service.. On he motion of Mr Tippler, it ,was decided to write, through the memlber for the. district, to the Post and Telegraph Depart-: ment, requesting a direct telephone service between .Wellington and Shannon, and pointing out that the deiay in obtaining communication is a serious loss of tim© and. an obstruction to business.

A good story is told of a local resident. The children started the thing by sending to a rather uppish relative in America some photos of "Dia'ddy's horses," By next mail there came in return flromj America a photo of "Daddy's Automobile.'' Thia local man was gabberflasted for a time, but on recovery he hied himself to Palmer&ton, hired a flash taxi, hacked intoi a gateway of an equally flash residence, placed his wife and . children on. board and, taking the wheel had his photo taken. The performance was repeated with an old landau audi four hoirsies.. The photos Were sent to the. American cousiiis, with a footnote "Sometimes by car and sometimes by coach." The Yank is »tiU in. hdjjpitall

•A'general meeting of memibei's of the &nannou Bowjing Cluo, together, with ail those who are. interested hi the formation of a croquet Club in Shannon, will be heAd in thq Council Chambers this, evening. The executive meeting will be held at 7.30. p.m. and.the genera! meeting at.B'p.m. On Monday, 24th- December, a delivery pet all classes, of correspondence will toe made, from-7 to 8 p.in. Cmristinas Day will be observed as a close holiday, in ail bijanches.. On Boxing bay and New Mar's Day, iall '.Hums will close at 7 a.an. ' A close noiiday will! toe, observed in all branches. No postman's delivery will be made on any of the holidays. Tm exchange is also closed*

Attention is drawn to the Christinas sale of pianos on behalf ol Nmiuio and .Sons, Wellington, now being held at Mr U H. Martin's showroom, Ballance Street, .Shannon. Only world's bast makes are offered. Special Christmas reductions and especially easy terms. "Come along and-hear the. wonderful player pianos during the musical festival which starts to-day" invite the management* ' -. j ■ ,

A pleasing little ceremony took place iat the, local school ..yesterday afternoon when the headmaster (Mr Voysiey) was the recipient of, presentations'from'/the boys and girls ol Standard V. In a neatt little speech Master Wilfrled Baxter, on behalf ol the boys, presented him with a. solid leather .collar -box,- while Edna Murray handed him a silk tie and. a, box of initialled handkerchiefs on : behalf Of the girls. Mr Voys.ey, in thanking then!,' isaid they had taken him by suTprisie and he appreciated -the spirit which actuated the gift. He. wished them all success in their future and the compliments of the ;festiv,e .season. At the Chamiber of Commerce meeting on Friday evening Mr Thwaites strongly protested against the quarterly meeting having been postponed from the previous Thursday week. He said tihait at the beginning of the. year the dates for quarterly meetings w.ere fixed for. the year toy the members, and the "'Executive had no right to alter them.. He went on to. say it would make a poor .precedent if the Chpmlber was going take second place jo -anything that'.might come along. After hearing the explanations given by the president and secretary to the effect that, from enquiries «,; by them -it -wias pretty certain they could not have formed a quorum, apart from the expense of issuing two lots of, notices, it was decided on the motion of Mr Murphy, seconded by Mr Thwaites, to 'confirm the action: of the secretary in conjunction With the president in postponing the meeting.

Coueisan can prevent:, seasickness. Here is the Rev. W. 3. Comrie's eulogy 'which hie gave, to the Presbyterian General Assembly the other day (says the Press), when describing his recent trip to ism on the way over. I said every day, in every wey, I am getting nearer .Sydney, and I managed to attend every meal, eMem if I did not make a very great demand, on it. ,

The Press Association reported

that, at the opening of the/Hickson Mission in Christchurch, "just before noon, huge marquees erected on the Cathedral ground were used for feeding country, patients." After this explanation of the ultimate fate of tents' (says "Mercutio" in the Auckland Herald), there should be some hope of solving the obstinate mystery as to where the flies go in winter.

Resentment was expressed at a meeting of the Wanganui Education 'Board last etvening, when < a letter was received from the; Auditor-general, asking members to show cause within •even days why they should no;t be surcharged £6 14s 6d interest on overdraft, and as the amount was dhe to delay of the Education Department in forwarding moneys due it was decided to. ask the department to liquidate same.

A Christchurch doctor was fined 20s and costs on "each of two charges of crossing a railway crossing in his motor car when it was closed for road traffic in order to allow a train to pass through. He pleaded he had a, number of urgent cases on hand, and he considered himself justified in his action, as life often depended on his early arrival.

There are 'something approaching seven hundred thousand white clover seeds to the pound, or practically equal to the, number of grains of wheat to the bushel. Red clover seeds are much bigger, and run to albodt a quarter of a million to the pounds The few (pounds of clover, seeds included in a grass mixture, are accordingly capable of producing an enormous number of plants. In the case of turnips, a seeding of 41to per acre would produce over six hundred thouand- plants to ,ohose from if the germination were perfect.

The story of a gamekeeper's war against harrier hawks, dogs, cats, rats and weasels is told in. the New Zealand Forest and Life Magazine by Mr A. H. Messenger. He stated that Mr James Dobson, who has charge of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society's game farm at Aratapu, North Auckland, in-thq first month of this year shot 100 hawks, a fox terrier and a pointer dog on the game farm. During the second month the bag consisted of 100 hawks, while the third month's total' included the same number of hawks, two. pointer dqgs, and .a.'Carti. Mr Dobson told 1 Mr Messenger that one of the pointers killed .60 pheasants, and another dog, which he describes as some lady's pet mongrel, destroyed: 151 birds before, it was shot. In addition to the game birds, 50 white Wyandottes and Black Orpington pullets were killed by these same stray dogs.. A common grey rat in less than an hour killed! 16 young pheasants and dragged them all into a runaway among the rushes, where the marauder also came to an end at the kahds of the keeper. Weasels also have to be kept down. The killing of 300 hawks in three months suggests, that North Auckland is well endowed with Uae.se. birds.

Strawberries are toeing • -given ■ away in Nelson. One man is reported as ( having ploughed in three acres of | plants in lull bearing. This is the re- J suit of monopolies. Greennieadows does not claim to be \ our niosft important fruit-growing ' centre, but nevertheless some good crops'of fruit are grown there, says*! the Napier Dfiily Telegraph. One j owner, who has fourteen plum trees, has had a splendid crop this year but he bids fair to lose a certain proportion through the machinations of an enterprising parrot which he posseses. This bird takes up a position on one of the trees, calls the attention of some fowls by a clucking noise, and proceeds to nip o,ff. ripe plums and drop them to. the, jubilant fowls waiting beneath. Needless to say, Polly's admirers) take MT advantage of this rather destructive but somewhat clever procedure. i ''The Grid," writing in the Wanganui Chronicle, says he recently saw a letter from an amateur living near Murchison, in the South Island. This gentleman knew nothing of wireless j •twelve months ago, tout is now the possessor of a three-valve set, using three W.D. 11' tubes. He hears practically ail the New Zealand broadcasting and amateur stations and also some! Australian amateurs. He has also heard music from Honolulu and Morse from all over 1 the world. Before he installed his set he found life in the back blocks extremely irksome, but now he has the world at his doori He was first interested in wireless by a friend of "The Grid." and Jhe wrote to express his great thanks for the introduction, to the science. This is an example of what wireless can do for our settlers who are so often driven al- - most crazy by the sheer monotony of life in the back country. Pour years ago a Canterbury sheepfarmer, Mr W. G. Rutherford/came to the conclusion that the climate in the north of New Zealand should be suitable; for the production of fine wool similar to that exported from Australia. Mr Rutherford came 'to Auckland and .bought the "Ardrossaii" run at Waiheke Island.' The place was carrying Romney sheep. One of Mr Rutherford* b nrJst steps was to pur-

chase twelve merino rams .to cross with, the Romney ewes. The result is that to-day the; hulk of the sheep on the run are halfbred. Evidence, of the high quality of the wool produced l , is shown by the* fact that at the sale last season Mr Rutherford's clip realised top figure of ' 2lh& per lb. At the sale last Saturday Mr Rutherford's wool again topped the market, the figure this time /being UI d per lb. One of the favourite dessert apples

at Home is the .Cox's Orange Pippin, and a Central Otago grower last season consigned a particularly fine shipment of, this fTuit, lor which, he. obr tained the highly satisfactory price of V23s or a case. He also went home himself for a trip, and was in the "Big Smoke" aib'out the time his apples were sold. One day he and a party of friends were 'dining.at one

ol; London's fashionable restaurants, and a call was made for dessert. The waiter brought along< some l Cox's Orange. "Tsfere. are Very fine fruit, just arrived from New Zealand," exclaimed he. And the price was 2s 6d per apple A little rapid mental arithmetic by the grower of "those .very fine fruit .from New Zealand" informed him that the apples for which he had received 23s per case were being sold to the patrons of .that restaurant at the moderate rate of £22 peer case.

It is said that a flock of geese can march ten. miles a day. A traveller in the Arctic regions says that he has seen the wild geese marching in those regions. They choose leaders, who direct them as weE as lead them. They walk about ten in a line, but in a column., and carry their heads/high. At a signal they spread out and feed, but at another signal from their leaders they fall into line, again. Once 9000 geese marched from Suffolk to London, a distance of 100 miles; that for this long march tout one cart was provided to carry geese that might fall lame; the owner knew how well the geese would' Walk. It is said that once a drove, of geese and a drove of turkeys left Suffolk for London together, and the gees© reached London 48 hours in adsvance. of the turkeys. A flock of 3000 geese, in charge of three .gooseherds, were one day driven down'the quay at Antwerp and up the gang-plank aboard an English vessel. They walked sedately aboard, going down an inclined way into an. enclosure.