Shannon News TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1926.

Shannon News, 19 January 1926, Page 2

Shannon News TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1926.

An invitation has been, received by His Worship the -Mayor and Borough Councillors from the Levin Bprougfa Council to attend the official opening of *he new municipal buildings at Levin on Wednesday next at 2 p.m.

. Among viisitoiTs to Shannon are Mr and Mrs L. Ward, of Invercargill, who are staying with 'Mrs Ward's parents, Mr and Mrs Knqwles, of Vance Street. It is their intention to motor through, to Auckland before returning hoine.

A wonderful offer is nia.de i'n our advertising columns on page 1 of this issue by Mr A. E. H|yde, land agent. By investing £l5O a purchaser can own a nice groomed house wiitli electric light and other conveniences, and interest, nates and insurances will be paid for the purchaser during bis lifetime.

The attendance at the meeting of the Shannon Amateur Athletic and Cycling Club called for Friday evening was very disappointing, only the president and secretary putting in am appearance. A further meeting is to be called for next week When the winding up of the Club will be discussed, also a proposal to .hand over" the funds to the school for picnic prizes. •

. Final arrangements have now been made for holding tflie Anndversary i>anee in the Pjarfch Hall on Friday evening. The- dance is being conducted fty .the committee of Ven. Bede's Guild. There will be dancing from. 8 p.m. till 1 a.m.', the music being supplied by the Maori String Band, while the supper arrangements will be'carried'out by the ladies of Ven. Bede's Guild.

I Residents of Shannon wno appreciate the comforts of a luxurious our, for long or sliort trips, the Aard service has just purchased a new Hupmobile car, whi'eh will be placed at the disposal"' of patrons. The local agent, Mr Freeman, advises us,that H'upmobile cars are used extensively on the Wellington-Mastertoni service run, and it speaks well for Shannon to to© aWe to follow close on the hedls of Wellington i,n choice of service care. The amount of gold mined in the Otago district up to December 31, 1924, totalled 7,749,078 oz., valued 'at £30,859,193. Four stingaree and tWO' grey nurse sharks'were caught in the surf at Tanginioana last week by amateur trawlers. The sharks were about four I'eet long, and the stingarees, from tip to tip, a little longer. "You'll break your blanky uec'ks to get into the tote to lose your money, and yet you won't put in your Mds for these good rams!" cried a popular Masterton auctioneer at the Solwiay ram fair on Wednesday, apparently exiaßp crated at the slowness ojf the bidding. The sally raised a roar of laughter.' In keeping w.ilh the season, the geysers at Whiaka have put in good and useful work (says the Hof-onia. Chronicle). 'Pohutiui never disappointed, giviiug four or live shots in a day. Owing to (lie clear atmospheric conditions isome of the displays were wonderfully beautiful and tourists were delighted. There were more visitors Uian ever during the holiday season. An authority at the Bible House, Queen Victoria Street, informs me that though the demand for the large family Bible, with its heavy clasps, has almost ceased, there 'is considerable and continuous application running into several thousands every year, for a family Bible of a more suitable shape, writes C.T.B. in the Daily News. These Biibles are .pre•facod with suaces for the family record. Many large Arms, he states, have adopter! the habit of giving such a Bible to their employees ton their marriage.

North Auckland has produced £20,000,000 in kauri' gum and £20,000,000 in Tcauri timber. It is reported that in consequence of the drought lambs in some portions of Hawkes Bay are being disposed of at 5s per head. Spain is raising a fund to buy from a descendant of vColunilbus the heirlooms of the great seaman and his original correspondence. The price asked for these treasures is £34,000. The house shortage has apparently been overcome in .Auckland, where one agent has lately had a list of 58 houses to let, 25 oi them furnished. Rents, however, are still high. Large number's of wild pigs are to be seen in and around Waikaremoana, and -are becoming not only a uUisaiwe, but a grave menace to tourists. • . A motorist whose car stalled on one of the railwiay crossings in the Palmerston North Square got out of the path of a train drawing but of the station yard by putfling the machine in gear and operating the selfstarter.

"I was surprised to find your country so far advanced," said Mr H. Husband, of Dunfermline, Scotland, when speaking at a concert tendered the visiting. bowlers. "Yom have borrowed large sums of -money to construct your roads and 1 effect other major works.. You are certainly not afraid to borrow money. -In Scotland we would hold many meetings before deciding to borrow some oj the sunns'.you in Mew Zealand do so readily."

Some tune back 'the "'Chronicle" referred to a great improvement thai 'had been effected oa one of the Boys' Training Farm sections, in Tararua road where the -dand had been cleared and- sown in oats. Tihis week this oat' crop is being harvested and showg great quality both in corn and straw. 'The land here is of a stony nature and the present crop- 'amply illustrates what can be produced on such land when, properly treated. \ •

There is a silver lining in the. sky, according to a: well known Kati awi farmer, who predicts that the summer will produce a favourable winter season. In support of his' contention, he quoted the results that followed a three months' drought experienced in the Wanganui -district some twenty-five years ago. In April, when everyone thought the bottom was 'falling out of everything, countryside was bathed in welcome rain. The pastures came away in a remarkable; manner, there was an abundance of feed on all'sides and the winter proved the'best that the district had experienced.

Using bad language in public places, or within the hearing of pass-ers-by, is a punishable offence, pro.viding such language is understood by, those who hear it. What action the police can take if such bad language is delivered in a foreign tongue has pet to be ascertained (remarks an exchange). A case-occur-red in Napier, when an aged Chinaman' was ambling up the hill, labouring under two heavily laden baskets, slung from hie shoulders at the-ends of a carrying staff in true Celestial style. A large-sized dog, in earnest pursuit of a cat, colliding with the son of the Bast, bore the latter to the ground, amjktst a shower of scattered fruit. There can be little doubt that if the resulting language could have been understood by pass-ers-by that overturned Chinese would have finished up in the police station. '

"A, good Test, but a poor holiday," was the manner in which a. tourist described his impressions of Now Zealand's hot springs resorts when he returned to Auckland after spending a fortnight at Hotorua, Helensville and Te Aroha. His chief criticism was that certain trips were arranged for visitors apparently very many years ago, and no effort was being made to show the attractions that were away from the beaten paths. Very often tourists were left entirely to their oiwn resources; and he had met with indifferent treatment where it would not be tolerated by- the business man who catered for travellers in other countries. New Zealand, he considered, was lagging behind, and many of the- places he had called at were quiet and -dull, and no effort was made to take visitors out by car. "We, quickly tire of the baths," he remarked, "and have nothing to occupy out time but sitting around on hotel or boardinghouse verandahs, idly contemplating the landscape."

''Homo is the sailor, home from the sea," : is how ttie line is engraved on the actual (oinfetono of Stevenson. The fact is proved by,, a reproduction of a photograph. Whether the people that put the verse/ o" the stone made a mistake, the reader of the Auckland yita'r who points out the above facts says he does not know; but it seems iinconceiivafth; that such a mistake should bceur. The other evening a correspondent wrote to the "Star" correcting a previous writer for quoting the line as it is given above. This corrector said Stevensoin wrote "Homo-is the sailor, home from sea," and 'he gave several reasons- why this w,as right, and w,hy it was wrong to insert ''the 1 ' before sea. But apparently in this case it is the corrector who stands in need of correction, and the first writer on the subject was perfectly correct.

Counterfeit half-crowns are, reported to toe in circulation in Hamilton. Our blankets .are named after, a Flemish weaver cafied Thomas Blanket, wjio lived in Bristol in 1340. ' Sydney was sweltering in a heat wave last week, the temperature on Wednesday reaching 103 degrees. Auckland milk vendors have raised the price of milk from 6d to 7d per quart, due, it is said, to the dry season and lihe scarcity of fodder. "The worst piece of road between New Plymouth and Wellington," is the description ghen to the Wanga-nui-Wiangaehu road by a motorist. The manufacture di paint from Parapara iron ore k a new industry which has been established in Nelson. '

Wireless sets are under a temporary ban of the Venezuelan Government. It is claimed that listening-in interferes' with the worK of the na-' lion. A pessimist: The gardener who was seen watering his garden in Wanganui between the noui's of six and seven o'clock on Tuesday, alter tht heavy downpour el rain. It is estimated that the total rainfall in Hawkes Bay for 'the past three months did not exceed l|in., as compared with an average of 6iin., calculated over a period of 18 years. Sixty-six thousand people paid admission' to the Auckland Tepid Baths during' last ; year, while in the previous year the total attendance was about half that. An American officer's order for'.2B boxes' of pfaper-clips 'somehow became ' changed into one for 28,000,000 paper-clips, and the U.S.A. - Government does not know what to do with them. , So thrilled w.as the young daughter of a farmer of the Sand-on district with the rain which fell last Monday, (hat she donned a bathing costume and went out into the deluge. .. <*■ Messrs .Fletcher Bros., the big contracting firm, unable to Obtain plasterers in New Zealand, paM the expenses over of ten Melbourne tradesmen, and aue now paying them £lO a week and providing them with board and a good hqtel. Silver pine sleepers used, by the Sanson tram and laid some ten or twelve years .ago, were recently taken up for inspcotiion and were found to be quite sound. Posts of the same timber are stated to be very serviceable arid lasting.

It is reported Unit a movement is on foot to abolish the resident magistrate at Westport and work the whole district from Greymouth, says a.j southern paper. An agitation is in progress at Westport against the rumoured change. '

The .Napier Harbour Bqiard has decided to write the Watersiders' Union pointing out that , a statement iiad been made tha.t gambling was taking place in the Watersiders' waiting room, and to request tliat the Union officials put a stop to the practice. ,<

According to the Year Book four centenarians (all males) died duriaig 1924 in New Zealand. One reached 106, one 10-i, and two 101. Thirtytwo persoais (17 males to 15 females) died between 95 and 100, and 139 (80 males and 59 females) between 90 and 95.

One car owner installed a carburrettor that Was to save 20 per cent, on fuel. Then he put in special spark plugs that were guaranteed to save 20 per cent. He next •added a special rear axle that was guaranteed to save 2(3 per cent. He put on high-pressure "cowl" that promised a2O per cent, gaving! And now, with a fuel economy of 100 per cent,, he has to stop every hundred miles and bail fuel out of'the petrol tank* to keep it from running over!

Two girls while indulgiing in the sport of aqua-planing on Lake llotoiti (near Rotorua) had a narrow, escape from drowning recently. Sapported by a lifebuoy, they were being towed along by a launch. As the craft- gathered speed, their heads because submerged 'and they began to swallow Water. Their peril was observed, and with the aid of a picnicker from the shore, who. swain out, the girls were rescued, but not before they were seriously affected by the water they had swallowed.

Tbe Mauawatu County Council had before it at its last meeting a request from the (Manawatu RaMiit Hoard to declare lupin a noxious weed, on the ground -that it encouraged the rabbit pest. The demand was strongly opposed by afforestaiJiOn interests, headed by Mr i. Lin Water, M.P., who urged the great assistance lupin was- in reclaiming the saind dunes. Cr. McKelvie produced a schedule showing that on some Crown property, the Lands Department w/O'Uld pay a bonus of £1 10s per acre on land successfully planted in lupin. Som-e councillors favoured oirtlawimg the lupin. After lengthy consideration it was deciided that notices be Served q-ii ratepayers demanding the clearing of lupin 'from the roads fronting their properties, and, if not acted upon, that a test case be taken to determine the nosition.

Longer dresses are announced for evening w.ear.. But what most husbands: want is longer wear for even-' ing dresses. An Eke'tahona resident who has returned from a motor trip to Auckland remarks on the number of camping parties on the route, these being dotted at intervals for practically the whole way. The top of Mt, Messenger is a small plateau and the campers there were numerous. "A lot of house properties are changing hands, but otherwise there has not been much doing since, before the holidays," said a Wanganui land agejnt. t In larger real estate deals, he' remarked,, there had been little movement for some time.