Shannon News FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1924.

Shannon News, 4 January 1924, Page 2

Shannon News FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1924.

r The postmaster (Mr Baxter) reports a large increase in 'business in all departments at the local post office during the Christinas holidays. At next Tuesday night's meeting of the Borough Council the JN'eilsen I Montgomerie report as to cost of installing their system -of sewerage in Shannon will he discussed. Those ratepayers who have not aiI ready paid their rates are reminded , that they should be paid from now on, as ail outstanding rates after a /certain date will have the usual 10 per cent, added. A meeting of the/Shannon Boxing Association will he held next week lor . the ipurpose of arranging tor ano.thier tournament which .will be held sometime in February.

The following are the vital statistics for Shannon for the year ending December 31: Births 65, deaths 7, marriages 8. For the last 'quarter they were: Births 6, deaths nil, marriages

A general meeitiug of members and intending members of the Shannon Amateur Athletic Club will be held to-morrow evening (Saturday) in the Council Chambers for line purpose of making final arrangements for holding a spouts meeting on February 9th. Members will please note that the meeting has-been changed from Friday lo Saturday. On Wednesday, the PresbyterianChurch held their annual Sunday School- picnic. It Was intended to hold the picnic in Mr G. Mitchell's property near Wickliffe's, but owing to the unsettled weather, a lorry lent by Mr Franks conveyed the children to the Parish Hall. However, the afternoon cleared wonderfully a;nd unite a' number of children's and adults' races and games were carried on in the recreation grounds. It was .about 6.30 p.m. when the gathering broke up, and the children' and all u-iho attended, appeared to have had quit* a piood day. The winners of races were given nice prizes and eacn. .scholar was also given a prize. Qmte an interest Was taken in guessing the names of a fairy doll presented by Mrs Riches. This was won by Grace Miller. Thanks are due to Mrs Burl-ing'nnd-the ladies who assisted with the lunch and tea arrangements. Mr Boston, lent an ice cream churn, and quite a brisk trade was done in tin at line. 'Mr Riches is the Sunday School and deserves great credit for his work in arranging the picnic. • He "Was able assisted by Mrs Riches and Mr Stewart.

Mr.jid; Mre Wattei'atoii and faimily, ceceiit arrivmls from Scotirid, left Shannon on Wednesday for Auckland where they intend to reside. M'r Watterston is a (brother of our well-known tawtasuoaam, Mr T. Waitterston.

After many resolutions hy the Borough Council to have the work of Keifbingi the. iplots in front of the. station carried out, a start has at last been madie. The Council are waking a good -start for the New Year aiwi we trust many of the other proposed improvements will follow. As" a result of the concert JCecently given by Miss Moua Neale's pupils the sum of £lO lbs* been handed over to the Mayor by Miss Neale to be; placed to the credit of the Soldiers' Memorial Fund, while she has also forwarded t'k 10s sto the chairman of the School Committee in aid of the school iupd. Both isums have been acknowledged with thahks. When the matter of delay in gettinai telephonic commiUßicafaon, between Shannon and Wellington was mentioned at the Chamber of Commerce meeting last night oh© business man stated ha had made .a note of the time taken to get'Wellington Which was exactly \\ hours. Another member said it had taken him If hours.

New Year's Eve in Shannon was vieiry dull. Owing to the. shops closing at 5.30 p.m., there were very few people in the streets, in the early part of the evening. Several remained up to welcome in 1924, quite a number doing so in the good old-fashioned w ay by getting their friends out of hed in the wee sma' hours to assist in the jolliflcatiote. Mr Tippler at the Chamber of Commerce meeting last night said he had been asked to bring before the Chamber the advisability of that body approaching another fenk with a .view to jgetting them to open in Shannon. The opinion of the meeting was expressed that if another bank thought there was sufficient "business they would certainly open in Shannon as they were always on "the look-out for openings.

The "Shannon News" has no objection to journals in neighbotirinj| towns ibrowsing on its columns when news items in their centres are short, but some of them could very well leaven their predatory instincts with a little common fairness. A recent issue of a Palmwston contemporary ooinftaiined fchree* unacknowledged "News" paragraphs and one of these subsequently appeared in the other Palmerston journal attributed to "an Auckland paper," giving the impression that Shannon was a suburb of the northern capital. When last, heard of a Wellington contemporary was crediting the first-mentioned Palmerston paper with the authorship of the item! Thus are our well-ineaint, efforts to "put Shannon on the map" brought to naught.

A Sydney message announces the death of J. A. 'Mayoft a well-known linie owner of 'Lord andaorcPKolaui Winers of t)he Melbourne Cup.

1 Realising that the! nurses of the i Dunedin Hospital ihave been overi worked in the past, the. OtagjD Hospitai Board has decided to. appoint 25 extra probationer nurses. ! A formidable task was recently undertaken by the. Mayor of Auckland, Mr 3. H. Guiison, when he (appendedhis signature to th,e debentures required in connection with a loan of £250,000 recently raised in London. The forms, £SOO in number, were duly executed, and will, toe forwarded to London by the first outgoing mail.

Dog Stories, like fish stories, »re sometimes true. This ohte i.t anil can be vouched for by .several Wanganui bowling einrtdmsias'ts, who were taking part in a game on a local yraen. A (bowl was. sent down, and it finished wide and' short. At this stage a small dog appeared on the scene, and in a ibusine.ss.4ike method it nosed the bowl gently until it rested against the "kitty." Being a friendly gaiwe only, the shot counted.

' Thefts are fairly common at Christmas time, but the most hnipudienit perpetrated on Christmas Eve happened in a Vincent street boardinghiouse (states the Auckland Star). In this instance three lodgers . shared one room, but one of tlhem was fortunate not. to be home that night, otherwise h e would have been treated in similar fashion io his room-mates. During the early hours of the morning a theft entered' the room, and not only took a watch and chain, but also removed from the finger of one of .the sleeping lodgers a diamond ring. The audacity of the act would suggest thait ittie victim of the robbery had been drugged. In the early hours of Thursday morning a motorist .started his car outside the Masterfcon post office and was not a hfttle surprised when it went in the opposite direction to that intended, mounted the footpath and crashed into the brick wall of the post office (says the Age). The motorist, not being used to the particular make of oar he was driving, had put the gear lever into reverse instead of first gear. A rear wheel was smashed to splinters and • the car was damaged otherwise, but the driver was unhurt. The post office showed signs of the impact, si down pipe being broken and some bricks damaged.

"I am giad to see you have good roads round this district," said Lord Leyerhulme to a Wanganui (reporter, a remark that Was no doubt prompted by the experience that he tmet with in trying to motor through from Auckland to Rotorua. "We got as far a s about Mercer," he added, "and that was tine end of it. Our chauffeur though we could get throuigh, but as a car on the previous occasion took two days to do fifteen miles, we decided not to be an island in a lake of mud—in fact it was like being on a raft in mid-ocean—and came on by train to Wellington. Thirty one years ago I drove to Rotorua, and the iroads were then excellent. A cynical New Zealander informed me that if there were good roads the Government would lose some of the receipts from railways, but it will pay you to have goods roads at the same."- »

Owing to inability of the tramway authorities to cope with the congested traffic (says a Sydney cable), motor buses eontinajje to multiply-in the. city end suburbs, ajhree huiidtieid. and seventy 'buses are operating, carrying an average 01-i-two million passengers monthly. The earu'llei'is who disturbed the slumoei'e'Oi Asiibuirioh and suburb's on Christmas morning made a considerable ihaiul in "hdsh money," writes tile correspondent ol the Lytteiton limes. The 'First Canterbury Mounted ilihes Band .collected £123 and tile Salvation Army £llO. The motor competition with the railways, still grows. The latest service is. a uadiy car from Wanganui to Ashhurst connecting 'there with the Napier express, land linking up at Wanganui with the morning ea,r from New Plymouth. It is thus possible to travel from New Plymouth to Napier in one day,, instead of two days a»s required by rail.

A London .jonessage announces, the death S. Bating Gould, x\l.A.., the noted author. Sabine Baring Gould was born in 1834. He'travelled extensively and in 1872 inherited the laniiiiy estates ■oii.j.the death ol his lather. ' He was an authority on English folk-lore, and author of sevierai works upon it besides many on travel) ehurch history, religion, and numerous novels..

The Rev. J. F. Wiseman, Amaliwwii vicar of Ashhurton, went to. bed with between £SO. and £6O, in Ihis pockets. He. intended starting a holiday in a few days, and the fact that the banks were closed inecessiitated drawing the mollify beforehand. During the night a thief, entered the. bedroom, abstracted a wallet lroiin liis coat and silver from his (trousers, and departed' without awakening the clergyman. Tttie intruder left no clue. ... Thatt there, is. always plenty of money available for the HotaJisator is evidenced by the returns shown at Ellerslie and Alexandra Park. In the two days' racing so far decided of the summer imecting at Elerslie" no less than which is an increase of £4803 on the first two days of the Cup meeting last year. At the Auckland Trotting Club's meeting the two first days saw £140,106 10s, representing an increase over the two corresponding days of last year of £6400 10s. In the four days.' racing and trotting} of the Chrisitinias carnival the amount handled at the totalisntor was £348,361).—5tar.

An alphabetical avenue of tree's, which it is said will be the only one of its kind in the world, is -being planted by Sir William Neyili Geary at his house at Tbnbridge, Kent. The alphabet is made up ol initial letters of the names of the trees. For a fame the letter "V" stopped Sir William and the professional horticulturists who assisted him. Viburnum, the one "V" tree, was too stumpy lor inclusion in the avenue, so "V" to be supplied by vines wreathed around walnuts and willows. Most betters of-the alphabet haua-*eJ£&ral trees, al: lotted to theni. Quince is the only ■representative of "Q." The avenue, when 'completed, will consist of 276 trees.

A telegram i'rom Asbburton states that the Presbytery supported the qOiiigirej-Mfcion's trequest to the ltev. Millet*, Moderator-elect of tihe Assemblv, to remain iu the district. Mr Miller stated that he..had decided to .accept a call I'rom -North East Valley, Dun'edin, whereupon, the Presbytery handed it to him. "It is. understood that Mr Miller is accepting a smaller sakuy, £IOO below Ashburton's, and also "losing other payments, making ■the total loss £2OO yearly. Tttie congregation was recently bitterly divided over the isi'te of the new Sunday school, culminating hi the resignation of a large body of the officials opposing the minister. At a special meeting . last week a motion to reinstate them was unanimously rejected.

"American hotels are very efficient and givie the. fullest service, though they 'sting' you wihen it comes 10 said Mr S. Shaw at a function tended by the council of the TaraJiuki Chamber of .Commerce. He mentioned that in a <pla.ee he stopped at .In New York there were '2500 rooms, and 2500 telephones, and. the same number ol baths attached. On tfhe toilet tablets were such little things as .frouiser buttons with needle and black and white cotton. Mr W. C. Weston, who followed, said that the cost of his room in ,a New York hot<ei was twelve dollars per day, nearly Lo < in sterling at the present rate ox exchange;, on top of wihich there was a ten per cent. tip. Meals -were charged lor separately, and they also carried a tip. How the Americans find the money for all the 'building going on and maintain such a high cost of Jiving was one. of the things that surprised the visitor, remarked Mr .sdmw. A ol the New Zealand Dairyman, writing on rgjontine coinpetition in dairy production, says: "The people of the Argentine are not suited losr dairy-farming. This is a question that has not received any attention from any writers" that ' 1 have seen. Everybody knows of" the wonderful dairy herds that have been evolved during" the last two generations or so, but no one appears lo have given a thought to the fact tb-at the people who milk cows srequire in their way, year in and year out, leaving very little or no time for recreation, and receive, (by way of remuneration, something less than a labourer's wage, require., to be evolved, just a.s nmdi as the dairy cow, and the people of the Argentine are very fan 1 removed from this ideal. Jo, sir, the man who makes a success of dairyman is the man 'avlio milks his own cows Kind attends to all their wants personally. That is just what will prevent the Argentine llepublic, magnificent as the country is, ever competing to a .great extent in dairy produce;. The people are a pleasure , loving crowd, mostly of La.tin descent and the diruidgery * of cow-farming . would 'be quite unthinkable to even the -labouring class, and, as for the , man with sufficient capital to obtain and stock a farm, and then do the wotk himself, why >1 guess he would turn cold even to think pf it."

The cost of education per head of population in New Zealand lias in- ~ creased fran. £1 9s 5d in 1904 to £2 8s 6d in 1983. ■s: A Press-Association cablegram from London announces the death of the Rev. Grainger Hargreaves, a Methodist minister. He attended the New Zealand conference in 19 21 ' Work on the Opunake railway is progressing! satisfactorily,. 160 men being on the job, and a steam shovel is doing excellent work, dealing witu about 6000 cubic yards oi materialper month. Archbishop Mannix, and Bishop McCarthy, of Sandhurst*, will arrive in Auckland from Sydney on- January 15. They will spend a month sightseeing in New Zealand belore attending the jubilee celebrations ol Archbishop Redwood. in one business establishment in Oamaru three generations—lather, son, and grandson—were a lew days ago to be seen, busily engaged in turning out, Christmas orders. Isayfe tne Aonh Utago 'limes). It may t>e mentioned, also, that the grauuson is a lather.

The red poppies • from Flanders, whicn .were pLiiiiited ni tin; basie-iu cemetery, Anderson's Bay, Duneuin, are now growing well, and everywhere among the. graves oi the. sotuieivtn.ey.are making an appearance--utago Times. Australian imports during the four niootns Juiy-October were valued at £45,893,639, while the value oi ;lixe exports lor the same period was oniy £u./,606,682. There was thus a bajaiicb of oyer eighteen millions against the commonwealth. ,

The Bev. Dr.-C. H. Laws, Mrs and Miss Laws have booked their passages by the Majestic due to leave Southampton to-day, and they will join the Niagara at Vancouver early m Eenruary, taking en route New Vork, Boston, Toronto iand Chicago. "Iff is purely a North Island invention. 1 don't care who knows it. it is simply tor the purpose ol getting new roads for the North Island."— This comment .upon .the Main Highwavs Act was made by a member of the" Ashhurton Connty Council. When the Director of arrived at one school in Timaru during his visit ot inspection recently (says the Hemlttj the. head master was engaged examining a class. A child was gent to inform tjfe head master that a gentleman wiapd tQ see him. "Tell him to come /back later; I'm busy," wa« the reply

The Cambridge Daily Company will pay its suppliers Is 8d per In on but-ter-tat for cheese, and Is 6d for butter, November supply. This is a record advance payment lor New Zealand this year. The company was also on Christmas Eve tQ feahd suppliers about a half-penny & lb. final bonus for la&t y&ar* A half-penny to some suppliers r.uns into £166. There were merry scenes in Wellington streets, while the Old Year was At-Perrett's cornier a i diverting interlude was afforded by a couple of girls who insisted on kissing a knot of half a dozen men in blue, the majority of whom looked on fthis N(ew Year'* rite as something quite ' unavoidable, while the protests of the one conscientious objector were overcome by an attack in force, with the result that he got a double ration.

Ten strokes of the. birch was the pu/iishment ordered to be administered to a 14-year-old boy, who, in the Juvenile Court at Auckland, admitted the theft of a letter containing a Cheque for £120;. The lad had been employed 'by a firm in the city as a message boy and part of his duties had been .to collect the mail at the post office. For some time past considerable trouble had been caused by the disappearance of letters. It was •subsequently ascertained ~tliat tJns boy had been taking and opening letters. If there was any money in tfliem he took it and -threw the envelopes and other contents away, and if the letters did not contain money he. destroyed, them. Much trouble and inconvenience had ; been caused in this way.

"The cost of living is 'high wliereever you po," said Mr S. W. Shaw, of New Plymouth, Who has just returned from a trip to England and America, "but it is perhaps less in England than elsewhere." For good quality men's suits English prices were less than in New Zealand, but not a great deal less, you having to pav from eight, to ten guineas for one. At" fashionable tailors, (however, the cost would be much more. Ladies' apparel was considerably cheaper in London' than in New Zealand. For boots you would have to jay fiom two to three guineas for a good pair. Taken on the. whole, the New Zc-iiand-er would noil save a great deal by fretting fitted out at Home. The puces in New Zealand, taking everything into consideration, were quite reasonable by comparison with those ait Home and in America.

When Mr Lloyd George was initiated at Minneapolis into the. Sioux tribe, tlie dhieJtahi, as described in a local paper, "towering head and shoulaers • over his. British brother, withdrew an arrow, 'touched it to earth and heaven,' and pladed it firmly in the ihand of the awed Lloyd George." The lotig curved pipe was next withdrawn from beneath tbe chieftain's multi-coloured blanket and. facing the east, Brave i:a,gle proffered it.to the candidate for initiation. The forM-eir Premier is described as puffing the pipe reluctantly at first, but then with his. typical sniile. TJi-i-s. seems to indicate more than one puff, but the same account states that by special dispensation he was permitted to take his vow with only one puff of the great pipe of peace, 'whereas the ritual calls for not less than 'four puffs, each one having a special significance. Some of the American papers comment sarcastically on the choice of a word meaning Two Eagles a,s ithe Indian name for Mr Lloyd George. "One for war and one for peace" is the explanation given by the chieftain. "Also, two eagles can look both ways at onoe," remarks, the New York World.