Shannon News FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1924.

Shannon News, 18 January 1924, Page 2

Shannon News FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1924.

The Shannon Dairy Co. are paying out 1/8 per lb for ibutterfat supplied during the month of December. As next Wednesday will be the second day's racing at Foxton and the Wednesday following the Levin show, the Triangular Shield Bowling Competition has now been postponed indefinite;^ After many delays, tin© Avork oi forming and kieirbing the ' footpath around the plot in iroht of the railway station has now been completed and as a result this part of the wwn bears a, very smart appearance. We understand the footpath is to be asphalted! at an, early date.

The -erection of the Soldiers' Memorial is now uearing completion, the monument with the inscription being finished, and the contractors now being engaged in putting on the finishing touches to the steps. It is hoped to have the unveiling on February 13.

An .endeavour is being made 'by the local Tennis Club to meet the Bulls Club on the local courts aibout the middle of February when the annual game for the Newman Cup will ta,ke place. Now that Shannon has four courts it will help to get the large number of games in the Cup over at a reasonable hour, and also give local players plenty of opportunity for pmctice. The local club is possibly stronger than previous years as regards men players and a good team should be available.

T«e two dredges wnicn have for some weeks been .engaged in the hanking scheme which is being carried out by the Makerua Drainage Board have made great headway. The dredge that has been working from tihe Foxton bridge down the Otau.ru stream has now completed the left hand side coming from tha bridge and has returned to the bridge a«d has made a start on the other- side. No. 2 dredge working on tihe Tokoma.ru expects to. complete their stretch in between two and three weeks and will then .commence to work back again to the storting point.

At a concert given at Plimmerton in aid of the Wellington Radium Fund two local residents in Mr W. Quarrie and Mr H: Hook took part. Mr Quarrie sang in his usual "breezy style and received a splendid reception, while Mr H. Hook was a member of the orchestra.

The enterprising proprietors of the Maoriiand Theatie intend improving the entrance to the. theatre by doing away with the present doors and replacing them with iron sliding gateis, similar to those in oiise at theatres in the cities. The gates have -been, ordered from Dunedin. and will toe erected as soon as tlhey can be landed. Several minor improvements about the theatre are to be mtade, which will he appreciated by their patrons. Arrangements for the coming sports meeting to 'be held by the Shannon Athletic Club on February 9th, are "well to tire fore. Several enquiries lor particulars 'have been received from outside the district and there is every indication entries will be large. Good prizes are being! offered and the wood chopping events will be a feature of the meeting. Entries for all events close with the secretary, \Mr .G. Watkins, ori January 29th.

"Rarely do you find thu,b the inhabitants of a country appreciate their natural plants. . But don't makje. that corner of your Botnical Gardens civilised, don't put in border plants and introduce plants from other parts oi the world. I can assure you that it is infinitely more beautiful as it is." Extract from an American journal: "Cyru® K. Quigley passed through Cedar Falls, Minnesota, on the morning! ,of the 24th inst., on an extenciled motoring tour. In this town, he stopped to examine his petrol tank to find out if it wag empty. As it was dark he used a match. The tank was not empty. Age forty-seven."

That the "boys of fcna old brigade" can still hold their own with the younger men of the present day was instanced rather strikingly last week at Poro-o-toroa (says the King Country Chronicle), when two bushmen, whose joint ages totalled nearly a hundred years, chopped out a 2001 acre block of standing bush in the same time as three consderably young- , er men felled .100 acres of bush of I exactly the same description. An old coaster says the toheroas ! are extraordinarily plentiful this year, i although they are very small. This I has evidently been a good spawning season (says the Dargaville Times;, and judging from, appearances, the fear for the extinction of this succulent bivalve is entirely unnecessary. This gentleman, .who nas visited tne coast regularly for many years, has noticed this year something wnich he considers unique in the habits of the toheroa. The sandy beach may be quite smooth with ho sign of a shell'jftsb. in sight when all of a sudden the sandy' waste is swarming with tohe roas, which have popped up literally in millions. The transition from a bare beach to a bed teeming! witb fish may occupy less than a minute, and it would be interesting to discover the reason for this, especially as it seems to be quite unusual. General Bramwell Booth will reach New Zealand on April 29, alter touring Australia. • He is accompanied by his youngest son, and is making the tour with the object of dealing with Salvation Army problems on the spot and .inspiring its officers and soldiers. He is anxious to study the 'effec'its of ijjhie reorganisation madeafter his last .visit. He is also intensely interested in migration, especially openings for blind ally boys.. lie intends to confer with the various Australian and New Zealand Governments in connection with his. immigration scheme..—London cable. Dignity was sacrificed to comfort in the Hamilton Police Court on Friday, where the atmosphere was. sooppressive that Mr J. F. Strang, solicitor, when appearing; in a case, asked the Bench, consisting of Messrs \V. F." Mason and .R. B. D. Lightborne, justices, if they had any objjectiou to' those desirous- of doing so divesting themselves of their coats. Mr Mason replied: "Certainly not; make yourselves comfortable," whereupon Mr Strang, clerk, and members of the Press, promptly took off their coats, and, grateful for the .privilege, sat out the proceedings in their shift sleeves.

Mr G. Lee, Temple-ton, writes, to the Christchurch Press:—One of the Railway Department's small engines* struggling along past my property with a heavy load, set one out my paddocks on fire and burnt acres of grass and about 15 chains of fence on the Main South road. Only for •the fact that a lot of people came along in a motor car and lire would have crossed the Main road and the Avhole country south Qi here woulu hvla been ablaze. This same engine also threw sparks a distance of three chains into my ten-year-old orchard and burnt one tree, but we managed to get the fire under heioite lurther damage was done. When the Parkes (N.S.W.) People's Band attempted to give an open-air programme one evening recently, the light attracted myriads oi' nying ants. They got into* the instruments and into the ears and down the backs oi the players, and the band had to cut the programme short. Arrangements had been made for a collection to purchase Christmas dheer for the patients at the Parkes Hospital, but the collectors had just set on their errand Avhten the ants brought the playing of the 'band to an abrupt end.

The people of the Dominion are noted tea drinkers, and the returns of imparts for tea, which havie come to hand, for the 11 months ending November 30 last, give an indication of the amount which is. brought into tha country. During that period 8 595,031 lb. Of tea arrived in New Zealand,-the cost being £543,089. lhe consignments arrived at lohow"■intf iports :—Lytteltoni, 2i,283,6881b5; Dunedin, 2,146,139 lb; Auckland i,006 663 • lb.: Wellington, 1,722,672 lb., other-ports, 435,869 lb. Taking the consignments to thfc four main ports a*ffi be seen that the South Island.j rteceived 700,4921 b more than the North Island.

I It is reported that the Gafoinet-has I decided that' all officers who have j completed 40 years' service in the Railway Department must tender .their resignations, their semcr .to I terminate on March 31. About 40 are affected, and the decision is said to have caused a sensation in railway circles Promotions will necessarily follow, and the results will be farreaching, • affecting all ranks. The traffic and locomotive departments are chiefly affected. The Melbourne Age says that. Fitz-

roy -citizens are daily becoming more indignant at the audacious, proposal of tli|© local council to pay the expenses Q'l three of its members On a holiday trip to New Zealand under, the cloak of studying the Dominion roads. No section of the ratepayers agrees with, .the plan, and no sensible persons attempts to justify the looting of the municipal coffers. Not one of the tripping trio is an expert on road making, and absolutely no benefit can be derived by the citizens from the contemplated outlay. But, above all, the- fear is entertained that the proposed tour may sew as a dangerous and discreditable "precedent to other councils to organise similarly fatuous and unwarranted excursions.

"One thing which strikes me as unusual," was the way Professor W. B. Thomson, scientist, oi Toronto University, spoke to a New. Zealaiiu Times reporter of the areas, of natu-, ral bush near the city. To find whole areas of virgin bush kept in-their native condition was a surprise to our scientific visitor, and a trip to the Botyiaiclal Gardens revealed to him what he had never seen before, some primitive country within short distance of the heart of a city. "I think tfoatf, your citiiens should slee that this is preserved for the benefit of fuiture generations," he remarked.

When the C. and D. Line steamei Port Denison cleared Wellington ioi London a few days ago, her holds were crammed with New Zealajiu products, consisting mostly of wool, butter and cheese. Her cargo has-an. estimated Value of £1,000,000. Orders-in-r Council have been gazetted prescribing 6 per cent, as the rate of interest that may be paid by the Eketahuna County .Council in respect of a loan of £IOOO authorise*, to be raised for forming and metal ling the Hamua-Hukanui road deviation, and by the Stratford Borough Council in respect of a loan of £ISOO, authorised to 'be .raised for providing a town clock as an approved wai memorial. From the above it appears tht the Levin Borough Council was very fortunate in securing) the money it: required for streets/ works at k\ per cent.-

A protest voiced by Canon Bell against the bishop's apron has provoked a good deal of learned comment on the habiliment of episcopacy, writes a London \ correspondent. Canon Bell's way of putting it at a conference of.the Church of England Men's Society invited levity, "I don't think it is a good thing," lie said, "that one clergy should wear any kind of clothes," and in.Ws opinion the dress bishops wear is a disaster. He is hostile to the apron and a revolutionary in the matter of gaiters. Those who are qualified to speak have, after consulting the authorities,, found that a change could be-effected without violating any principle. The apron, it appears, is canonical, or a relic of the canonical, for it is a diminutive form of the cassock. But a .cassock is not ,a vestment, and there' was a time when clergy and laity alike affected it. As for the gaiters and the episcopal hat, thev survive from the time when, in tending his flock, the bishop travelled much on horseback. But times have changed, and are changing. It' is not so long-, since bishops wore wigs, and at the coronation ol Queen Victoria, the Archbishop of Canterbury officiated in one.

An amazing story of what can happen on the New Zealand railways is boastfully related in one of the daily newspapers by Mr Roy McDonald, a member of the New Soulth Wales Legr islative Council. "Last year I was in New Zealand," Mr McDonald says: "I discovered when I got-on the boat for the return voyage that I had left my M.L.C. railway pass in Sydney. I had travelled over the Dominion railways system with a gilt pass on my watch chain. It was my Australian Jockey Club membership token!"

I A strange case of what is .thought to have been mental telepathy is reported from Habart. Mr Cummings was motoring on the- Hobart-Laun-ceston road, when he became obsessed with a feeling that there was something wrong behind him on the road, though he had seen nothing. He returned, and about a mile back found that there had been a serious motor mishap, the victims being in urgeut need of his help. The accident occurred to a motor car, containing seven passengers on the southern side of Oa-tlands, while descending a steep nil. All the occupants were injured, a mother and her child seriously. When Mr Cummings reached the scene of the accident he found two of the sufferers pinnied beneath the car. He was instrumental in securing prompt assistance f or the injured. Here is a striking comment upon British, business methods compared with Continental: An Eltham business man advertised in a British trade journal that he wished to receive trade catalogues, mentioning the line of business in which he ws interested. . Now the extraordinary result has been that, although tihe advertisement appeared in a British journal for every reply from England be has received seven from Germany, and a considerable number from-Fra'nce. Is it any wonder that there is unemployment in Britain when manufacturers show sucn apathy concerning encouraging trade with the Overseas Dominions ! we institute preferential duties to encourage trade with the Old Country, and British manufacturers should respond to our efforts—Eltham Argus.

A clipping from an Irish paper which has just reached New Zealand states that in (his. native town (Limavady, County Londonderry), Mr Massey declared that "New Zealand had room for 250,000 of Ulster's men and women."

Of interest to growers of pinus insignis on sandy ground is the fact that a 47-year-old tree on the Kaiapoi Park which has been uprooted by the gale in the last days of the Old Year, was 117 feet oyer all. At the bole, close to the, ground, the circumference was 13ft 6in., and, at 54ft it was 7ft. From the ground,, the first fourfeet long cut was 4ft in diameter, the next 3ft 7in. -and tile third 3ft 6in. The -timber was sound throughout, and -worth milling, but it was 'being crosscut into lengths and .split for firewood to season for winter use. The pines were planted by Mr James Howse, following the example of the -Kaiapoi Domain Board—the first board-in. North Canterbury to undertake afforestation upon the disappearance of the last of the large native bush to the westward.

"If we don't have rain within two or three weeks," said a Timaru farmer on Wednesday,- "store lambs won't be 'worth carting away!" As giving some idea of the difficulties under which the man on the land was struggling to-day (says the -Timaru Post), he stated that he had sown turnips six weeks ago on all the sunny faces of his land, and there was not a sign of it. A neighbour of his had sown linseed and seven acres of turnips, and now there was not a sign of the plants. He was of the opinion that-more farmers would go out of business after this, season than ever before. "The town man has no idea what the 'cocky' is up against," •he said "and the farmer who'makes money 'these days deserves the Victoria Cross."

The bursting of a refrigerator tank at a tea rooms in Melbourne, followed by the release of powerful ammonia fumes, might foam, resulted in very serious consequences, had it not been for the prompt arrival of the fire brigade! and the efficiency of a new gas mask which enabled an officer to enter the refrigerating room and turn off the valves in the refrigerator from which the fumes were emanating. In one of his election addresses Lord Derby said foe knew of a, case in v which an English business man lent £50,000 'to a German before the war with which to start factories. It was not stipulated that the money should be repaid in gold marks. The money had now been repaid in.paper marks ' and the lender had received exactly twopence for tiis £50,000. The greatest phenomenon of Kawhia is unquestionably the. hot springs (says a wrter in the Waipa Post). Indeed, it is doubtful if any other part of the such a wonder as these springs. Located on the ocean beach, a couple of miles from the township, the . springs are found below the high-water mark. When the tide recedes a the bather has only to dig a hole in the sand; it soon fills with hot mineral water, while a few.yards away huge breakers roll in toward the shore. There is a quaint novelty about the springs and a peculiar delight in a plunge into the breakers after a steaming hot bath. The mineral waters possess the curative properties for which New Zealand's thermal regions havi© become famous. •