Shannon News FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1924.

Shannon News, 16 May 1924, Page 2

Shannon News FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1924.

A children's fancy dress ball will be held in the hall at Moutoa this evening. The annual installation of the Worshipful Master and investiture of officers of Lodge MaHigahao will take place at Shannon on Monday next. , The Public Works Department have dgrauted (iho Borough .Council the sum of £IOO towards 'the,, cost of repairing Grey street, owing to the heavy damage .caused by heavy traffic in connection with the hydro works. Mr Perry, manager for Messrs W. H. Gunning and Co., at Tokomaru, has j ust v returned from a two months' visit to Australia, Mr Perry has cumo back convinced Hhat the Manawatu district is hard to beat. A contract has been let for the removal of the South African''war memorial stone at '-the foot of Stout street, bringing it out in line with the Great War memorial stone. It is to be mounted two tiers higher at the base.

The Mayor and crs. Gardner and Gunning, who were appointed ..to inspect ifye Nicilscn^Mlojtit-gojneriij' sow r erage system installed in ,Pic ton, will leave for that town this week. On their return a special meeting of the Council will ibe held.and the various sewerage systems discussed, after which a meeting of ratepayers will bo called and the Council's decision placed before them. Mr llewi Moynihan, ilorowheiiua.'s in the trial f'ooUball match of combined teams, to-day at Wanganuii for All Black honours left for that town yesterday. In fairness to (Other Horowhenua players and Mr Wehipeihaiia, as selector, it should be stated that lOiose who Avere nominated, namely Jacob, Re van and Broughton, were left out of the team on the recamimondatiion of the selectors as they had .-already been scon in action at Auckland.

A start was made yesterday to plough the strips of land in PJiimifcr Terrace opposite the railway station and Club Hotel. Mr F. Mundin, by the kind permission of Messrs Moynihan Bros., is doing the work gratis. It is the intention of the Council to have the ground, after it is ploughed, put in order and planted in shrubs! To enable the Council to cany out this, work offers of asstetande to' raise funds by entertainments, etc., have been received from several people. When completed it will be a. decided improvement to the appearance of the town,

- : At' the Gcaincaa meeting' eii Tuesday .ovciuhg the .Engineer (Mr Edvgardß) reported tliut work in connection witih the waterwiQrks' was .progressing satisiacfuriiy.. He Q.anjiplain*xl that in respect to the carting of the-pipes, they nad ; bev'ii unloaded in sujch a manner.that the coating wto knocked off. The jCouncil resolved that tfie contractor be notified tliat >any delects in tiio pipes due .to carting would be renieuied by the Council at Hiis\ expense. ;; With tho arrival of the new illuminaii't rt>f"ttie Borough, a man is now employed in th 3 removal of old landmarks in the shape of tlie lampposts, of wihich there "are' sixteen. These have done service for tee past 20 vears, having been erected in the days *vhen Shannon was controlled by the Horowhenua Comity Council. Ait the railway station yards the Public Works D(ip&r,timent .arc '(flow using far. handling heavy goods, one of the cranes' that has been in use in the erection of poles on the- transmission lines.

Samuel Curtis, a negro, who had been captured with a stolen slot machine containing' 250 pieces chewing gum, was, says the .Philadelphia correspondent of the Central News, sentenced to Chew every piece of gum in the mechanism, dropping pennies in 'the slot for every piece taken out. When he had completed his task the judge allowed him to ,go and gave the machine, with the-"pennies in it, back to its owner.

The President of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce estimates that between' 10.000 and 20,000 people will be leaving New Zealand ,for the purpose of visiting the British Empire 'Exhibition,' and Oie estimates their expenditure at £SOO each, which he regards as a moderate estimate. Taking the number at 15,000, this tourist traffic will <ooot £7,500,000, and, to some extent, the banks will welcome this, for dt will mean making tire ex-change-problem a little easier. Those going to London AVill naturally take letters of credit. They will deposit the money with the ibankers here, and get credits in London and thus the banks will be able to secure £7,500,000 here and ,get rid of a similar amount in London, quite a simple way of transferring' credit. The president, however, used this as a peg for taking steps to attract tourists to New Zealand. In the United States there is an' 'unlimited supply of tourists, but they need a lot of information and a lot of convicting reasons to induce, them to visit this country.A Dunedin business man makes the following suggestion about the working ,of the railways:—"Now that the. strike is over, the talk must • commence ■ about all sorts of questions, I and one of them, I think, should relate to the staffing of stations between Dunedin and invercargill at which r<i.here is very little for men to do except to attend to half a dozen trains a dav. It strikes me,that it would be wise" .unless some technical difficulty presents itself, to leave each of those little stations to one man, and for each train to carry a staff of say., six men. to do 'all the work that is necessary. The one gang could work all those stations. If such could be brought about,, &W country could afford. higher wages to those employed." A happy .family gathering look place on Saturday (says the I'almeistoii Tiiiies) when Mr and Mis A. J. Kingsbeer celebrated their golden wedding and held a family re-union at their residence, 29 Seandia Street, P!alim(erston North. 'Mr'Kingsbeer, who does not show ■many more than half of his 71 years, was horn in Ohio, U.S.A., on April 15, 1553, while Mrs Kingsbeer wins born on June 19 of tiie same year. It was on May 10, 1.87-4, 'that this'couple agreed to share their joys and sorrows, and were married at St. Andrew's Church, Plymo ut)h. They left England six weeks later for New Zealand, and on arrival at Lytteltou alter a sea journey of exactly three months in the ship Moron e, settled in Christchurch. In 1891 they came to the North Island to Palmerston, settling in the liokoAvhitu suburb, where Mr Kingsbeer entered into business as a builder and contractor, lie has many monuments in way of up-to-date residences and sections sub-divided by roads, which testily to his enterprising spirit when he first arrived in. Palmerstoii. Mr and Mrs Kingsbeer have a family of live sons, and three daughters, while, there are twenty-two grandchildren. The sons are Messrs J. A. (Fei'lding), W. G. (Levin), F. D. and W. V. (Palmerstoii 'Nojith), and H. J. (Stratford), and the daughters: Mesdames- 3. M. McCulL (ROngotea), T. J. Kershaw (Dunedin) and F. O. Ajuos (Potoers- | ton North). Workmen engaged in laying the' Municipal Electricity Department's new underground cable in South Hugiey"Park, Christchurch, received a severe fright shortly/after nine one moa'iiing last week, when an iron* stanchion winch was being driven into the ground spiked one of the existing 11,000 volt caibles. No one was injured, but the supply of power for the centre of the city was completely shut off for a time. The moment the cable was spiked it was isolated at the Addington sub-station. A few minutes later a workman, whitefaced and out of breatli, arrived at the station and explained to the anxious officials what had happened. Fortunately no one was holding the stanchion at the time it caime in contact with the cable. If the workman who had hold of the stanchion a few moments earlier had retained his hold lie would have been instantly killed. The man who .wielded the hammer that drove the stanchion into the cable received a slight, shock. The dry wooden handle of his hammer, which is a bad conductor of electricity, saved him from the full shock he would otherwise have received. The break in the cable caused a distinct tremor and a slightlv rumbling sound was heard. The point of the stanchion was burnt. The cables are laid in concrete half-pipes, which are filled with bitumen. The top is covered with boards about an inch thick and o.aoh join of the iboards is covered with a brick. The top of the boards is about eighteen indies below the surface and Me cables are about J eighteen inches apart.