Shannon News TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1925.

Shannon News, 8 December 1925, Page 2

Shannon News TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1925.

The Levin 'Brass Band will visit Shannon on Sunday next and play a piioigramme of music at the Recreation.. Ground at 2.30 p.m. A! collection will be taken up to defray the cost of transport and any surplus will be devoted 'to the new instrument fund.

Mrs A. Freeman, who Ihas been staying with her mother (Mrs W. Garter) in Sydney for the pas* five nioniths, is due to arrive in Wellingtcjn to-day on her way home. -Mrs Freeman, whose health was not too satisfactory before taking the trip, is reported to have benefited by *he ;change.

Mr J. Bovis, president of the Shannon Bowling Club, was: congratulating Levin on Wednesday (upon again winning the Triangular Shield, and in a/humorous speech declared' Shannon's intention of whining, the Shield next year—and if no;t, inext year, well the year after that, or the year after that. A voice; "You are talking ot. Eternity, Jack 1" (Loud .laughter).

Constable Blaikic yesterday morning arrested Leslie Rlicketts, hairdresser, on a charge of the theft of a. £5 note, the property of Mr Stacey, who resides ait the Club Hotel. He was later in the day 'brought before Messrs Gunning and Taylor, J.'siP'., and charged with the offence, to which he pleaded guilty. He was convicted and fined £lO, in default three, months.' imiprJisonment. Speaking at the Levin Bowlinggreen on Wednesday Mr Bovis announced that Shannon Club desired .that both Levin and Foxton Clubs 'should pay Shannon a visit some evening in the near future, and participate in play by electric light. The arranging of the date will be left entirely in the hands of Levin and FOxtom Clubs for their mutual convenience. At the Shannon Methodist Church on Sunday night Mr Howard Andrew, who was 'conducting the service, asked the congregation <to stand in silence out of sympathy to the Rev. Mr Stewart and (family in ithe great loss •sustained by the death of their eldest son. Mr Andrew said the whole town had been, moved to a very deep feeling of sympathy and their prayers went oimt to them that the 'family may be sustained under this severe blow. Late on Spnday night Mr Freeman, of the S.M.S.D., received a call to Makerua where a motor car had left tii. e road. It appears tha>t a car proceeding to Palmerston Njorth, leaving the road, took a nose dive and landed in the swamp. Fortunately no one was hurt, but ifhe position of K \he car showed that it was only by a miracle it was saved from being ..overturned. Mr Freeman, <wLlh the assistance of motor lorries, succeeded in getting the car on to 'the road again and after a short delay the travellers were able to proceed on their way.

It was. easily, seen that the Christmas rush had .commenced at Howard Andrew's on Saturday last, -when they started their groat Christmas Carnival Sale. Customers are advised to do' their shopping early and thus secure the picW of .presents and goods offered ih.v this up-to-date firm.* The total area in commercial orchards in New Zealand is approximately 30,000 .acres, of which aibout 75 per oefcit. consists of apples. For smoking a cigarette in a nonsmoking railway carriage a man was fined 10s with costs £1 Us at the Police Court at Auckland. The Wanganui Fire Board is taken to task \by the (press (because last Sunday, at a time when many periple were going to church, men In the I uniform of the Wanganui Fire Brigade wen 1 'to be seen at work in the street. They were clearing away weeds from water plugs and painting posts on whiten fire alarms are es- | tablished.

The histori'c bells of Carlisle, England silent for 180 years, are being refitted and tuned, and will shortly be rung again. The Auckland competitions Society owes tiie 'Citv Council £220 15s 8d fw j use of the Town Hall in connection with the recent competitions festival, which resulted in a Ktes of £877. The Council on Thursday night last decided to give the .Society .time in ■ which to meet the account. Many of the failures in the turtnip crop may be attributed to the fact that the land is often ploughed too late in the season. The. result is that the turf, the principal source of humus, is insufficiently decayed to be of any material benefit ,to the crop. The soil, when ploughed late to the spring, will retain that porousness, which is detrimental to the conservation of moisture. Mr J. R. Leggo, of Nelson, managing director of Onakaka Iron and Steel states that the works were re-started on October 28, and since that date have produced 700 tons of first quality iron, 300 tons of which have already been sent to various New 1 Zealand consumers. The rest is also on order, and will probably be shipped iwithin the coming week. At present 65 men are employed at the works.-

Unpleasant flavours in some of. the cream sent into the Tolago Bay butter factory led to the discovery that grazing cows on land that had been recently top-dressed was the cause of the trouble. The land had been topdressed in the spring, and there had not been sufficient rain to allow it to soak into the ground. Consequently the cows had been consuming a certain portion of it in their food, states the Gisborne Times. It is quite a common sight to sec dogs joy-riding on the footboards of their owners' motor cars, but it was left to a Has'ttogs motorist to institute this mode of conveyance for cats, reports the Daily Telegraph. Such a sight was witnessed in Napier on a recent morning when a powerful looking motor cur, bearing a Hastings registration plate, and driven by a woman, drew up in Emerson street, and was left ito charge of an enormous black .cat that paraded up and down the footboard to. the. consternation and indignation of several of Napier's canine tribe that barked m no uncertain manner at what they obviously considered to be am infringement of their rights..

The Opunake Times says: "The Taranaki Rugby Union will show a deficit of £323 on the season's play. The Ndw South Wales match showed a luss of £BO. The weather and public iof New Plymouth were blamed 'for'the lack of support in the big representative matches. The fault lies in : t e' poor standard- o;f representaa\Q play by Taranaki. The public will not attend Sfofegotoe conclusions.' A shiver of enthusiasm is required -to make the public interested. They like a good keen contest and if this.is not served up the public interest does not get beyond a mere sort of providing there is nothing else to go to. The position will be reversed if the Tarainaki representatives are top-notchers. Good beer, good wine, good spuds will at tract purchasers, Good' football will attract the crowd. The best asset—a first-class representative team—the province did not have last season. Hence ithe attraction was poor and the gate receipts thin."

The deicat of Mr E. G. Theodore, ex-l'reinier of Queensland, tor Uio Herbert -.seat, toy a young Mackay doctor, hitherto politically unknown, is .a. stunning blow to the Australian Labour movement. It was. thought that Mr Theodore was invincible, tie himself stated on the eve of the polling that he .would .be disappointed if lie did not win by at least 50U0 votes. Everywhere it was predicted 4hat he would succeed Mi Cnarlton as leader bf the Federal Labour Party, it was known, of .course, thai the weak, vacillating policy of the Queensland Government following on his resignation of the Premiership, and culminating Hi the ignominious surrender of the Government to the railway strikers had produced a great revulsion of'feeling in -the northern-State, but it was hardly expected that such a blow as this would fall. It is. the irony of fate thai Labour's strongest man" in Queensland should be beaten b v a practically unknown man. Dr. Nott goes into Iho Federal Parliament, and Mr Theodore, like Cincinnatus, goes back to his farm.

No one, says an exchange, will suspect Sir Joseph Ward of being a pessimist; indeed, he is popularly counted among-the -most cheery of up"■tiuiists; but he sees trouble before all the large borrowing countries" in the not far distant future. Money, lie be(lieves, is not going, to be s.imply dear, ! it is going to ibe unavailable, and J New Zealand has built up all its plana .for the .future on the assump- ' tion that money is. going to toe ahund- ! ant and cheap. With a serious crisis I looming ahead, the Dominion is com- ' jiiitting itself to a. development policy Jot enormous dimensions, and coulnting upon its products remaining indefinitely at the present high prices. Nothing, .Sir Joseph thinks, is more certain than an all-round drop in prices in the near future, which will place the Dominion's 'balance of trade on the wrong side. The country has been living on high prices ever since the inflation occasioned by the war, and has made no adequate provision against the rainy day m the shape of increased production, ,

A swarm of bees entered one of the chimneys of the Fairlie 'Public Hospital, states the Tirnaru Herald. Choked by the smoke fronui the fire, they fell into the graite in such numbers as to extinguish the lire and fill the room with smoke. The bees were present in countless numbers inside .as well as outside the hospital, and the efforts to dislodge them took various forms, eventually successful. British motor cycles seem to be more popular in New Zealand recently than the Americjan models, though the famous (American Indian holds second jplace in the number of registrations during October. Out of 49.1 registered in that month were the following:.—-Douglas, 105, Indian 93, (Triumph 55, Hurley 47, A.J.S. 43, B.S.A. 42, Enfield 12, Excelsior, 11, ,Norton 10, Rudge 7, Hudson 7, various others 59. What wag practically the first passenger train, to be run oyer the new line from" Opunake to Te Rati, carried 140 passengers to the Stratford showlast Thursday (states the local Post). This number is regarded by the autli'or dies as highly satisfactory, and seems to indicate that when a regu-, lar passenger (service is inaugurated, it will meet with good support from settlers in the district through which the line runs.

A two-storeyed 10-roomed house that has stood on Rangitlkei Line, just outside tire Borough boundary at Palmerston for* 40 years at least, was completely destroyed 'by Are on Saturday evening. 'J he house was empty at the time, having 'bpen yacafted by the tenant on Thursday. The o\vn ; , er, Mr F. W. Jewell, resides at Paraparaump. A swagger was seen about the premises during the afternoon and is being sought lor. For many years the house, was 'ithe homestead-of the late Mr Oavid ißuick, M.P, Speaking to a Palmerston Standard reporter, Mr T. Bruce, .President ol the N.Z. poultry-keepers' Association, said the backers were, approaching the Government on the matter of importing Qgg- pulp, and a protest against such action would be voiced .at the conference by the poultrymen. in justification of this .attitude of tlhe poultry farmers,. uvlir. Bruce pointed out that whereas ihere was insufficient wheat produced Within the Dominion, that was not the cassA in respect of egg pulp, of which there were very considerable quantities in store.

America's chief executioner, John Hulbert, is resigning. His 'record oi ■executions to date at 'the, famous prison of Sing Sing is 140. . In the many years.that New York has electrocuted condemned prisoners, the State has had only as executioners Hulbert and -Edward Davis, who held the position from 189.1 to 1914. Davis resigned, it was said, because the State reduced his fee faioim 250 dollars to 50 dollars an execution./ It was later raised to 150 dollars. The task of filling the place of executioner is expected to be difficult, because of the job's unpopularity and, besides, its holder .must be a skilled electrician.

Something in the nature of a trade war seems to' .be imminent in the Wairarapa. ' Every shop in Mastertori has neat placards posted in conspicuous positions whh the letters in a deep red "8.1. M." (Buy in Mastcrton) states the Carterton paper. Carterton should replv wiith a. series of similar cards "C.1.C." (Cheaper in Carterton). A campaign to maintain business and progress is as essential to Carterton as sand is'.to the Sahara. The Greytown correspondent oif the Carterton News says; "It is no good to Greylawn the way Masterton is catering for our patronage. We miust take a pull and see if ou<r traders are pre r pared to contest the matter, and so not only stop the flow to Masterton, hut induce Mastertonians to trade here." ' . '

Interesting figures regarding the growth of the telephone system in New Zealand were quoted by the Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister for Lands, at the banquet tendered him at Whangarei by the Whangarei Chamber of Commerce. The number of exchanges in 1915 was 250, and in 1925 it was 340. The number of subscribers in 1915 vitas 31,475, and in 1925 120,000. The miles of wire in 1915 totalled 50,000, and in 1925 they were 331,000. Annual subscriptions in 1915 totalled £303,000; in 1925. this amounted to £867,000. The percentage of telephones to population in 1915 was 4.9, and in 1925 8.7. Other countries' percentages were:—United States, 13.1; Canada, 10.4; Australia, 4.6; Great Britain, 2,3; South Africa, .8.

. The maintenance of first class health and good eyesight at the age of 81 is one of the remarkable qualities of Sir Robert Stout. He was asked toy a representative of the Christchurch Star if he could indicate the secret of his constant vigour. Sir Robert did not mention it, tout much must toe attributed to his robust Shetland ancestry. As for his personal habits, he is a"devotee of the light lunch, though generously giving those who practice in- his Court time to enjoy a lunch adjournment long enough for the satisfaction of an average man's appetite. Sir Robert remarked that he always brought with him mi the morning a few sandwiches, and these, with an apple and a glass of water, made a sufficient lunch. "I never touch intoxicants, but in 1876* when run down my doctor .'ordered me to take wine.' I tried it for a fortnight and gave it ;up and never have tasted alcohol since. And I never smoke. That is bad for the eyesight," Sir Robert does not use spectacles. .

In returning thanks at a complimentary social, in Cambridge, at which he w.as presented with, 'a. substantial cheque, .Mr F. Lye, the defeated Nationalist candidate, said.he found it difficult to voice his feeliings at the sincerity of the reception and the appreciative references made. Had it been a political meeting where he had to put up'-a-tight it would be different. He felt'that if only someone would come-forward-and have a row with him he would get along 'much better. (Laughter). A Masterton profession man was heard, the other day, relating some incidents regarding: the "Buy in Masterton" campaign. He said that one local patriot lhad. recently .gone to Wellington to buy his furniture, while another Mastertoh man had purchased a large quantity of clothing for his familv m the Souitlh Island. It was pointed out that these are the men who are often heard complaining that Masterton is not growing as rapidly ,as it should, which is largely due to people not buying in their own town. "'";..'! The Woodville District Jockey Club may have three" division races on Wednesday next, and will almost certainly have two. In order to meet owners in the hardship entailed by ■the: division of stakes, the Clutb has decided in such event to make the stake for each division of the Trial Plate £75, and for the Flying Handicap and Welter Hack races £9O. The stake for each division will thus be increased to about.7s per cent, of the I original moneys. Owners will appreciate the Chub's nation in exceeding its obligation in ithis manner.